Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2006
- Posts
- 13,300
- Location
- Near Winchester
Soldering on the roadside FTW.
82% of breakdowns fixed at the road side ?
- Thread starter GeX
- Start date
You have been lucky to be honest, none of those problems should stop you getting home if they weren't bad and you're really stuck - although I wouldn't want to go far in the Sierra.
I have pretty much always had RAC cover through my dad and now I can't get it for free anymore I still carry on with it. The peace of mind, especially for the missus, is more than worth the meagre price.
I've used them many times over the years, some that I can remember:
- Mates mk2 Escort Harrier seized it's engine on the way home from Santa Pod and as a passenger I got him towed home.
- Accidently put diesel in my XR2 (didn't really need an RAC callout for this but for reasons of convenience and location I did)
- Span a bearing in my 3.0S Capri and didn't want to damage the crank by driving it home
- Seized diff on my mk1 Escort
- Waterpump failure in my 318iS, towed to a dealer and fixed under warranty
- Lunched gearbox on my missus' 30,000 mile VW Golf (owned from new)
- Ran out of petrol in my old 328ci due to incorrect 'miles left' reading
I also used BMW assist for my 325ci when the battery malfunctioned - they went to the local dealer and got me a new one and fitted it free of charge due to the warranty.
Me and gf had booked a cottage in falmouth began the 250 mile drive and about 65 miles down the m5 my engine destroyed itself 
Picture of said event:
My breakdown cover paid for itself then! Guy that towed me said it would have cost ~300 to get it back to my house! £270 up xD
Picture of said event:
My breakdown cover paid for itself then! Guy that towed me said it would have cost ~300 to get it back to my house! £270 up xD
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Never trust BMW fuel computers! - Mine was spluttering earlier when I went up a long ish hill, the computer thought I had 54miles range left.
When I filled it up, it took just over 64 litres, the tank holds 65!
Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Jul 2007
- Posts
- 5,511
- Location
- London
I always thought this. I've had to call the AA out about three times, once they got my car started, dead battery, and car didnt want to start. Once was a blown up gearbox which was on the truck. Another time, gearbox issues on the truck.
I think they are easy to confuse! I had run it down to --- once before but yes that time I ran out it was reading about 20 miles iirc. Interestingly(?) on that fatal tank I'd pretty much only driven to work and back (3 miles round trip) for the whole tank and then done a longish journey to a friends when I ran out so I think that had screwed some of it's maths.
- Joined
- 3 May 2004
- Posts
- 17,718
- Location
- Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
I've had mine fixed twice but we're talking maybe 10 years ago and the types of cars that you can fix on the roadside with a bit of spit, a raw egg, a pair of tights and a 1/2" spanner.
These days they tend to just sling it on the trailer, but I carry the spit, raw egg, pair of tights and 1/2" spanner myself.
These days they tend to just sling it on the trailer, but I carry the spit, raw egg, pair of tights and 1/2" spanner myself.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jan 2009
- Posts
- 4,325
What did they do on that top gear episode from Basle to Blackpool then?
What about when jezzer was drinking the v8 diesel audi (can't remember which one) london to scotland on one tank. He mentioned it was illegal to enter the motorway knowing you were going to run out of fuel.
Aye, it was only about 2 miles, what a mess that was. Had to hold it in gear as the vibrations were so bad it kep popping into neutral
Main ones for me have been gearbox, radiator and clutch slave cylinder all buggered miles away from home.
Must admit the RAC chaps have been good as gold whenever I've had to call them out, guessing they get a high percentage of boring people so when a fellow petrolhead comes along it makes the journey quicker!
Must admit the RAC chaps have been good as gold whenever I've had to call them out, guessing they get a high percentage of boring people so when a fellow petrolhead comes along it makes the journey quicker!
I've had some good roadside fixes by the RAC
Exhaust snapped on the M6 in my old Escort on the way to a weekend away with, fixed (temp fix) done on the hard shoulder by a nutter with a huge trolley jack, a couple of bolts and some come gun gum. He had the car jacked up so it was resting on only the front/right wheel and was bouncing between front/left and rear right with the wind and passing traffic, then joined the two halves of my exhaust together with this bolt and some scrap metal and gun gum to seal the holes. Probably illegal these days due to health and safety. That guy got a £20 tip which was all I had on me at the time.
Piston rings gone on my Subaru Legacy. They send out a van who looks at it for 5 seconds and says "piston rings gone, and you'll need a flatbed since it's 4WD" hour later a small van with a towing dolly turns up and says "****s sake why didn't you say it was a ****ing Subaru, you'll need a flatbed for that", buggers off leaving me to wait another hour, towed, new engine.
Ran out of petrol after rolling off the Rosslare->Fishguard ferry. I figured there would be at least one petrol station on my way home, even at 1AM, but alas that wasn't the case. At least not until the other side of the hill that I ran out on. "fixed" at the roadside.
Stacked that Subaru into a hedge after a catastrophic engine failure caused uncorrectable lift off oversteer in mid-wales, towed, written off by insurance, didn't have to replace the engine again, hooray!
Alternator failure on the Volvo 940, "fixed by putting his jump start pack under my bonnet so I can do the last 10 minutes of my journey to my hotel, then replaced in the morning.
HGF on the Volvo, towed, fixed with cheap engine and a lot of late nights swapping it on my driveway.
Crank pulley falls off the Volvo's new engine due to incompetence on my part. Would've put it back on myself if I'd had a big enough spanner, fixed at the roadside.
Clutch slave cylinder pops out and jams on the Volvo at 1AM in the middle of nowhere. Google maps lists it as "unnamed road" and the control centre aren't able to use GPS co-ordinates until we talk them through doing so using Google maps. Towed home and fixed it with the help of a mate.
Coolant hose ruptured on Volvo 940 #2 because the previous owners mechanic didn't clean up after changing the brake compensator valve (they didn't bleed the brakes either) so the hose was left covered in brake fluid. Towed, fixed using parts from Volvo #1
Legends. The only reason I'm not with them now is I ran out of lives and was under the threat of £55 per call out for the remaining 6 months, so I took out a separate policy with GEM instead as they have no "fair use" limits. You only get 6 lives on a joint policy and the last 5 breakdowns all happened in 6 months. My GF had one call out too after her oil filler cap went missing, towed, fixed by nicking the oil filler off the spare CA18DET engine in the shed.
Exhaust snapped on the M6 in my old Escort on the way to a weekend away with, fixed (temp fix) done on the hard shoulder by a nutter with a huge trolley jack, a couple of bolts and some come gun gum. He had the car jacked up so it was resting on only the front/right wheel and was bouncing between front/left and rear right with the wind and passing traffic, then joined the two halves of my exhaust together with this bolt and some scrap metal and gun gum to seal the holes. Probably illegal these days due to health and safety. That guy got a £20 tip which was all I had on me at the time.
Piston rings gone on my Subaru Legacy. They send out a van who looks at it for 5 seconds and says "piston rings gone, and you'll need a flatbed since it's 4WD" hour later a small van with a towing dolly turns up and says "****s sake why didn't you say it was a ****ing Subaru, you'll need a flatbed for that", buggers off leaving me to wait another hour, towed, new engine.
Ran out of petrol after rolling off the Rosslare->Fishguard ferry. I figured there would be at least one petrol station on my way home, even at 1AM, but alas that wasn't the case. At least not until the other side of the hill that I ran out on. "fixed" at the roadside.
Stacked that Subaru into a hedge after a catastrophic engine failure caused uncorrectable lift off oversteer in mid-wales, towed, written off by insurance, didn't have to replace the engine again, hooray!
Alternator failure on the Volvo 940, "fixed by putting his jump start pack under my bonnet so I can do the last 10 minutes of my journey to my hotel, then replaced in the morning.
HGF on the Volvo, towed, fixed with cheap engine and a lot of late nights swapping it on my driveway.
Crank pulley falls off the Volvo's new engine due to incompetence on my part. Would've put it back on myself if I'd had a big enough spanner, fixed at the roadside.
Clutch slave cylinder pops out and jams on the Volvo at 1AM in the middle of nowhere. Google maps lists it as "unnamed road" and the control centre aren't able to use GPS co-ordinates until we talk them through doing so using Google maps. Towed home and fixed it with the help of a mate.
Coolant hose ruptured on Volvo 940 #2 because the previous owners mechanic didn't clean up after changing the brake compensator valve (they didn't bleed the brakes either) so the hose was left covered in brake fluid. Towed, fixed using parts from Volvo #1
Legends. The only reason I'm not with them now is I ran out of lives and was under the threat of £55 per call out for the remaining 6 months, so I took out a separate policy with GEM instead as they have no "fair use" limits. You only get 6 lives on a joint policy and the last 5 breakdowns all happened in 6 months. My GF had one call out too after her oil filler cap went missing, towed, fixed by nicking the oil filler off the spare CA18DET engine in the shed.
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I've only ever called out the RAC once, and that was in all the snow earlier in the year. The rear exhaust mounting bracket failed, dragging the backbox on the ground. The RAC bloke turned up in his van, vanished under the car with a bit of wire and bodged it so I'd be able to limp home.
Needed to have a new box put on the day after, but considering I was 60 odd miles from home with 6 passengers (including my 3 week old son) in freezing cold weather it was a potential life saver.
Needed to have a new box put on the day after, but considering I was 60 odd miles from home with 6 passengers (including my 3 week old son) in freezing cold weather it was a potential life saver.
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2007
- Posts
- 3,017
- Location
- Midlands
I've only ever called the RAC twice, and on both occasions they refused to help me.
First time i called them, they said they could only drop me off at the nearest service station of the motorway. I even upgraded my account weeks before to avoid all this but it didn't 'go through' for some reason. No fault of mine whatsoever. My nephew managed to get us back because he was a member of AA and was a passenger in my car. Car was carried 170miles back home. Was given a hire car, and my car arrived next day.
Second time was just yesterday actually. I purchased a car located 40miles away. Car is a non runner due to serious engine problems which i already knew about before buying it. Car is round the back of the sellers mechanics garage. Called RAC up to collect my car and take me home. They flat out refused to collect it because it was deemed 'at a place of repair' I ended up getting my mate to call the AA who loaded it onto the back of a truck no questions asked.
I hate RAC! They suck.
First time i called them, they said they could only drop me off at the nearest service station of the motorway. I even upgraded my account weeks before to avoid all this but it didn't 'go through' for some reason. No fault of mine whatsoever. My nephew managed to get us back because he was a member of AA and was a passenger in my car. Car was carried 170miles back home. Was given a hire car, and my car arrived next day.
Second time was just yesterday actually. I purchased a car located 40miles away. Car is a non runner due to serious engine problems which i already knew about before buying it. Car is round the back of the sellers mechanics garage. Called RAC up to collect my car and take me home. They flat out refused to collect it because it was deemed 'at a place of repair' I ended up getting my mate to call the AA who loaded it onto the back of a truck no questions asked.
I hate RAC! They suck.
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Ive got the full hit except european cover.
Breakdown repair and hire car.
Ive only had to use it once but was well worth the extra cost for ZERO hassel
But i need my car for work, no car no work no money.
All my subbies have it too cant have blood samples sat on a motorway while their mate comes to tow them.
One time I had the ECU fail, I think, they arranged a hire car very quickly (like an hour)
I tend to buy top cover as if something does go wrong the ability to get where I wanted to go or a hire car quickly is very helpful.
If you never renew with the same provider, and take good advantage of cashback sites like TopCashBack, the cost is very good value.
I tend to buy top cover as if something does go wrong the ability to get where I wanted to go or a hire car quickly is very helpful.
If you never renew with the same provider, and take good advantage of cashback sites like TopCashBack, the cost is very good value.
This was last year back in July , had a car service I told them that I had issues with battery they said it all checked out okay , 3 days later i was stranded in the middle of the town centre with a dead battery , took AA 2 odd hours to come and get me