Okay, I'm tired of the Run-Flat Threads. I believe most auto strandings are not due to flat tires (of course, this may be due to spares). I've never been stranded by a flat but I have been standed many many times. Here is one story (What's yours?)

My favorite standing was with a Suzuki T-500. A first date with a nearly neighbor woman. A nice mountain ride from San Diego to Borego . . . Alpine, Descanso, Cuyamaca Lake, Julian . . . but once in the desert I was only getting power from one cylinder. I couldn't figure it out but stopped at a highway department yard and got permission to leave the cycle there. I saw to my nearly neighbor hottie's safety by escorting her home via hitch-hiking. After a pretty short time we were picked up by a lonely man in a Cadillac who was able to take us all the way back to La Jolla. Although I certainly enjoyed the sweet young woman company on the back of my motorcycle, in fact, we got to know each other a lot better during a 3 hour, 3 way conversation in a Cadillac.

A couple of days later a buddy helped me go out and pick up the motorcycle. Turned out to be a loose banjo connector on an oil injection line. It took about 10 seconds to fix and I was on the road again. Over the 40000 miles I drove that bike it happened a few more times, costing me an additional 30 seconds.

 

Those Suzuki's did vibrate a bit, I had an early X6 Hustler...........

I owned a Dino Ferrari. When I bought it, it had a blown engine, but the owner had all the parts and let me rebuild it in his garage which I did over a couple of winter months - froze my *** off doing it too! Anyway, after I got it running, I had driven it for a couple of months when one day on the way home it just died.............I couldn't do anything standing on the side of the road so I hitchiked (THOSE were the days! No one would pick you up today for fear of bing murdered) back to my shop and called the tow truck. When they delivered it to me it took about 10 min to find one of the bolts that held the distributor in had come loose, allowing it to turn and get out of time. A new bolt, set the timing and I was off again! No problema!

Touch wood, but none of my other cars has ever left me stranded.............

My wife works nights, and one night her Audi 100CS would not start. I got up at 2 am and went to rescue her, a jump start and it was on the road again. The next night it did the same thing, only the jump didn't get it started. Towed to the Audi dealer, and it never ran again - commited suicide by drowning we said! Turned out, the fresh air plenum was clogged with leaves, and rainwater had run into the car - all the computers were under the floor boards and under the back seat - and all were under water! The insurance co paid us for it and that was that.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=64565

 

This one goes back to my first car and is the first of two times I've been stranded(touch wood).

I bought an 80 Renault LeCar for $800.00 in 1989 (yes I can hear you laughing from here). I drove it for about 1-1/2 years and had problems but nothing I couldn't fix nor that stopped it cold. My dad decided that he was getting too old for his 81 Datsun 280ZX and bought Buick Park Ave and gave me the Z. I was on my way to sell the Renault to a salvage/used car lot when 10 miles away, in front of the Eden Baptist Church it threw a rod. Loud bang and small fire later it came to rest against a large Live Oak tree in front of the church-very peacefull setting I must say. I swear to this day the car knew and did itself in rather than face the indigantion of a salvage yard. the French can be so dramatic,no?

 

LeCar

You drove a LeCar!

Helllllpppp Meeeeee......

 

Oopps!

 

I had a similar experience driving my 1965 VW van to the wrecking yard in 1986. It was about 50 miles to the wrecking yard, half way there or so, half way between two cities on the flat Eastern Shore of Maryland, the fuel line slipped off the fuel pump. This stopped me and allowed gasoline to flood into the engine compartment (gravity feed). The car wasn't trying to avoid indignity, it was trying to send me up in flames! (Not the first nor last such attempt by my hoard of VWs.) I wasn't stranded for long but it was a tough effort push staring the VW on the flatlands by myself as there was considerable air in the fuelines.

 

Oh it gets worse, I actually thought I would mod the LeCar into a rally look a like with offroad lights, etc. There was nothing to be found for performance mods, wheels ,anything so I gave up. The only thing I was able to do was move the spare from the engine bay to the rear hatch to help the balance. I was able to get into a four wheel slide on sand roads around here-one time that included a ditch but it was so light getting it out of that ditch was very easy. I guess that thing was the French attempt at the original Mini but the build quality was TERRIBLE and why would someone think 13" 3 bolt wheels was a good idea!? There was two good things about the R5 or LeCar as we called it- the wheels were at the corners like our beloved MINI's so handling was actually very good and the pedals were very nice drilled aluminium and perfectly placed for heel-toe shifting. Other than that-it sucked.

 

My only stranded story is in my old Jetta. I had a tire blow out on my way home from work one night, so I put on the spare. Then the spare went flat about 2miles from my house. This is the day I left my phone at home :( so I jumped on my skateboard and skated on home.

 

My second stranding was with my 89 Honda Accord LXi coupe. It was my freshman year in college and over break my girlfriend (now wife) and I went to see her Grandparents and other family. It also gave us some good time together and I'm always up for road trip. On the way home to eastern NC from Memphis TN-after driving for like 12 hours my transmission fell apart on I-40 right near Cary NC (Harrison Rd exit).It sounded like a rock grinder and locked itself in first at 75 mph! That was the first year of a 4 sp auto for Honda and apparently there was some bugs to be worked out. The car only had 42k on it and after my Mother raised holy heck with Honda they put a new one in free.

 

My girlfriend (wife now) and I went on a canoe trip with friends one weekend a couple of years ago. We went in the 97 Jeep Cherokee I had with a 4 inch lift. On the way home about 20 miles from the next city something didn't feel right. I turned off the radio and listened... then lowed down a little to lessen the tire noise... metalic grinding sounds. I pulled off on the upcoming exit and into a small store / gas station. Wow did it sound bad at slow speed. Got out and could smell heated metal. I looked under the Jeep and the rear diff was smoking and heat just radiated off of it. It was about three hours before a tow truck showed up to tow it to that city 20 miles away. By that time the rear wheels wouldn't even turn and it was pretty much dragged onto and off of the flat bed. We had to be rescued by some friends to get home. I ordered a custom rear end from Currie and had it shipped to the garage to replace the destroyed one. Took a bus to go pick it up a month later.

The only other car to strand me was my old 67 mustang many years earlier. I found out that the gas gage only goes down to the half mark no matter how little fuel is in the tank.