Worst feelings in the car world

From a couple weeks ago: When, not matter what you do, the transmission won't marry up to the engine.  Wiggle, lift, push, pull, pry, twist.  Nothing.

Best feeling:  When suddenly, inexplicably, 2 hours later it goes "clunk" and drops into place.    

Stolen car tops the list...

Runner up:  wife calls... "the engine is making a funny noise, and there was oil all over the ground when I left to drive back to work after lunch."

Worst feeling in a car is being stationary at a light and suddenly hearing the sound of barking tires rapidly closing in on you from behind followed by BANG!

Although there are a number of things that make your milk dry up like sudden loss of brakes or steering I'm gonna date myself with this one.  Having grown up in the 60s and 70s when cars, especially domestic iron, were heavy tanks and doors were huge and weighed about 500 lbs. You had to get a lot of momemtum and slam the berkley when closing door.  On occasion a passenger will slam the e36 m3 out of my passenger door when it only requires a gentle pull.

Chaps my arse.

This was a pretty low point.

Road trip with the recently-nearly-ex-wife to try to revitalize the marriage, make it just about 2500 miles from the house in heavy waterfront-San Fran traffic and unannounced major overheat with nowhere to go but keep driving a horrifyingly hot favorite car. And then trying to figure out how to source the parts and tools for a head gasket replacement in downtown SF, all while fighting back the fear that she'll put her thumb out and disappear from your life for good.

She's still here. Car is too. That's a good feeling.

Slamming the car door with your thumb in it.

Any sort of unexpected sound or movement when working under a car on jack stands. Even the slightest creak is terrifying.

Or my worst, "this is how I die" moment of my entire life.

Just as my front tires rolled onto a train track, a train horn blew right next to me. There was a train, but it was on the elevated track directly over the track that I was crossing.

Tom1200 said:

Worst feeling in a car is being stationary at a light and suddenly hearing the sound of barking tires rapidly closing in on you from behind followed by BANG!

On a related note: Sitting an backup on the Ohio Turnpick and hearing the unmistakable sound of a semi-trailer "hopping" with the brakes locked up.  As you may have guessed, since I'm writing this, he dove for the ditch and missed squishing the Kazoofam by inches.  

This is what I saw in the rearview: 

Tom1200 said:

Worst feeling in a car is being stationary at a light and suddenly hearing the sound of barking tires rapidly closing in on you from behind followed by BANG!

I had that happen last weekend, except without the barking tire sound, just the BANG...the guy behind me never touched the brakes before he ran into me.  I don't know if he was on his phone or looking out the window or was simply brain dead.

Fortunately, he was going very slow, and his bumper lined up perfectly with the diving board bumper on the back of my 325ix, so there was zero damage to my car. Still, it really cheesed me off.

Ovid_and_Flem said:

Although there are a number of things that make your milk dry up like sudden loss of brakes or steering I'm gonna date myself with this one.  Having grown up in the 60s and 70s when cars, especially domestic iron, were heavy tanks and doors were huge and weighed about 500 lbs. You had to get a lot of momemtum and slam the berkley when closing door.  On occasion a passenger will slam the e36 m3 out of my passenger door when it only requires a gentle pull.

Chaps my arse.

I get the opposite in the BMW.  Half of my passengers end up taking multiple tries to get one of the doors closed because they're heavy, close pretty solidly and take some force to latch.  They don't need to be slammed, but if you don't either throw the door closed or give it a decent push and follow through all the way until it latches, it won't latch fully.  For perspective, Crown Vic doors feel incredibly light and flimsy by comparison. 

In reply to rslifkin :

Seems to occur mostly in my 911.  Fairly light doors that close and latch easily with the unique "proing" sound.  Peckerwoods who drive old ford trucks get in it and rear back and slam it so hard it sounds like window glass is gonna break or atleast snatch the pull handle off.  GRRRRRR.

Suddenly lying on the ground in a cornfield while the car you were just riding in flips away from you

GCrites80s said:

Suddenly lying on the ground in a cornfield while the car you were just riding in flips away from you

Need more details on this one!

Woody said:

Stone chip in the windshield, directly in front of the driver's seat.

I get a good feeling from that, I'm happy I didn't get hit and become click bait.

Breaking someone else's car.

In reply to kazoospec :

You made me remember one, light changing to red for me nearly stopped and then realize a dump truck with pup is speeding towards my rear. Guy in pick  up getting green got his cel phone ready to call 911.

When my mint F250 was stolen

Ovid_and_Flem said:

In reply to rslifkin :

Seems to occur mostly in my 911.  Fairly light doors that close and latch easily with the unique "proing" sound.  Peckerwoods who drive old ford trucks get in it and rear back and slam it so hard it sounds like window glass is gonna break or atleast snatch the pull handle off.  GRRRRRR.

I have carefully aligned my RX-7s' doors (every one since 1998) and kept the latches lubed so that they will close just from the spring pressure from the door check. This process might take up to eight hours to get both doors precisely hung and the catches in the right spot and everything working freely and well lubricated.  You can let go of the door and it will shut with a gentle "click".

Invariably, when I give people a ride along, they SLAM!!!!! the door after they get out.  They do not get to ride again.

Racingsnake said:

GCrites80s said:

Suddenly lying on the ground in a cornfield while the car you were just riding in flips away from you

Need more details on this one!

Well, it's not a racing story. Mom was driving me to school when I was 13, ran off the road then the car started rolling. We were both ejected. That's when the family started wearing our seat belts! Early '90s

edit: I said car, but it was actually a Dustbuster Van

When you're driving on the freeway and your car suddenly and randomly stops making that familiar noise/vibration

Tightening down a transmission casing and hearing a POP! 

Wondering if the DCT in the 135 just made me poor.

Silence . . . . . . . . 

Tom1200 said:

Worst feeling in a car is being stationary at a light and suddenly hearing the sound of barking tires rapidly closing in on you from behind followed by BANG!

I think it's worse when you can see it coming.

In reply to GCrites80s :

I've been in that exact position, except it was a bean field. Fun. And a few years later I had even regained all the movement in my arm back!

Furious_E said:

Tom1200 said:

Worst feeling in a car is being stationary at a light and suddenly hearing the sound of barking tires rapidly closing in on you from behind followed by BANG!

I think it's worse when you can see it coming.

Yep, its happened twice to me and it sucks. Luckily just my bumper skin had minimal damage, but it was annoying that someone couldn't be bothered to look ahead