Horrible Mechanical Failures: could get another 100 miles out of it with some zipties

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Horrible Mechanical Failures: could get another 100 miles out of it with some zipties

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

el topo posted:

I hope BP is tallying up the ever-increasing costs of containing their gently caress-up. Maybe after that they can multiply that by the number of rigs they have in the Gulf and reevaluate whether using better prevention technology could really "cripple" them more than having to pay to fix issues those could have prevented.

It's not times the number of rigs they have, it's the number of rigs multiplied by the % they expect to risk failing. That % might be marked up now, but it's most certainly not "what if every single rig we had failed this spectacularly at once"

That said, with this much publicity and cost, it's pretty much a sure thing they'll do it anyways now.

# ¿ May 6, 2010 02:28

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# ¿ Jan 25, 2021 23:54

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

CommieGIR posted:

Some people fail to understand that your car cannot breathe water

Actually it can. For about half of one cycle.

Was going through my automotive desktop images folder, and saw some pictures that were probably best suited for this thread. For all of them, click for big.

# ¿ May 30, 2010 04:04

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

metaxus posted:

All that went through my head when I saw this was "MAAAAXIMUMMMMM DORRRRRIFTUUUUU!"

One word: Albuquerque

# ¿ May 31, 2010 00:42

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

So how many little bits of metal are now circulating around the engine?

# ¿ Jul 31, 2010 01:23

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Yeah, but with chunks of metal, all of that might meet each other in one friendly seal-busting soup. Party in the engine block!

# ¿ Jul 31, 2010 02:49

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

rscott posted:

I don't see apex seals exiting through the exhaust port in that GIF

Can we stop doing this already? Catchphrase is getting old.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2010 03:00

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Yeah, my first reaction was bearing shoe as well, and I was expecting this to result in a "So we looked deeper, and saw holes 1/2" wide in places, leading us to find..." chain of progressively bigger jaw-droppers ending in the total internal destruction of the crankshaft.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2011 04:13

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

ApathyGifted posted:

"Check that the models are mounted properly. Last time someone forgot it ended up inside a car... on the other side of the parking lot. Across the train tracks."

You had train tracks running through your parking lot?

# ¿ Jan 27, 2011 03:02

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Ola posted:

Ho boy. This seems like a matter of fact, assured statement that gas leaks through aluminium at high enough pressure differential.

Men! To search engine!

Something as crazy as a ruptured can, perhaps?

# ¿ Jan 27, 2011 18:26

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

thelightguy posted:

Unfortunately, I don't have any spectacular photos of it, other than a puddle of mineral oil and refrigerant under the passenger seat, but the blower motor on my old Blazer burnt up today, and melted a refrigerant line and/or the condenser, among other things - which conveniently put the fire out, as all the r12 evaporated and displaced the oxygen that was feeding the fire.

I even drove the thing back to my house, so I can get it towed to my father's garage at my leisure.

...was it already on a dolly when this happened? I'm continually impressed by the kind of tanks that came out of GM lines from time to time, despite their manufacturer. Friend of mine who basically works on cars as a hobby has a list of stories like that as long as his arm from his and family's experiences.

edit: Oh, hah, I mis-read that as the blower on the motor (a supercharger that had been stuck on) had failed so catastrophically as to both cause a small fire, and sever the A/C compressor hose, promptly venting the oxygen from under the hood as it happened.

Now that would have required a picture.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2011 05:05

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Whitey Ford posted:

I like to think this is a gigantic ship engine and that hole is large enough to step through.

Oh, jesus, it wasn't until you quoted it that I saw that giant gaping whole ripped through the side. I don't know how I missed that.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2011 02:32

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

FatCow posted:

Melted all 4 pistons and I think burnt some valves a bit. How in gods name did I drive an hour home on this.

Rest and hires:
http://imgur.com/a/zGw8p

I would imagine that all the little indicators that the world has just ended, underneath your hood, would make that a very uncomfortable, wince-filled drive

KaiserBen posted:

Wait, whaddya mean oil's not supposed to be green-blue? And why is there 15 quarts of it?

Well, that's a headgasket go-

quote:

Oh. Oops.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2011 03:04

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

honda whisperer posted:

Near where I work there is a small auto repair shop. I hear an explosion so loud I run outside expecting the place to be engulfed in flames. Nope, just a couple guys standing around a mid 90s firebird scratching their heads.

My old 300ZX (not the sexy generation) did that to me when the pin backed itself off the rotor, allowing it to cease rotating. The result? Unburnt gas pumped straight into the hot exhaust, by route of the turbo housing.

I seriously thought my engine was going to be in more than one piece, judging by how it sounded when it went. Just a cartoon-level of peeled muffler.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2011 07:41

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Oh man, I thought mine was a pain to work on.

Thank you for making me feel so much better now!

# ¿ Mar 24, 2011 17:10

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Paul Boz_ posted:

About nine months ago my brother was helping me bleed my clutch and he mashed the pedal hard, shooting me in the face with hot brake fluid. I scrambled to get out from under the car but slipped in wet leaves and face planted on concrete. I tried to brace my fall and tore all of the ligaments and tendons that provide lateral support for my left thumb. I was between jobs with no insurance so I put it off. To repair it the doctor drilled a hole in the rear thumb bone then routed a tendon from my wrist through it. Lastly he drilled a pin through it and set it in a hard cast to immobilize it until next Friday. Sorry for no details yesterday, my pain is at a persistent 5-6/10 even with hydrocodone.

I sat here for a little bit, trying to figure out what previous post had mentioned an unfortunate situation that had prompted you to parody one.

That's pretty spectacular.

not to continue a derail, this is car related

quote:

The ziconium coating on the fuel rods is used to prevent corrosion. When heated sufficiently, it's failure mode is to start to oxidize, and will pull the oxygen straight out of water. That releases hydrogen. As the core temp goes up, it can even reach temperatures that will disassociate oxygen and hydrogen, without the zirconium sucking up the oxygen. (this was actually a proposed method for generating hydrogen...)

H2O --> H2 + O2 = rocket fuel. They made sure to drill it into our heads for fire training, and show us videos over and over of other departments loving it up or getting surprised with magnesium fires (usually industrial installations, though concerns about magnesium some in engine blocks and tire rims was also mentioned). I'm curious how much actual magnesium is exposed and is it actually enough to be dangerous, in the event of a cracked rim? I've no doubt a cracked block could be a problem (remember, a lot of these fires are part of a car hitting an object hard).

edit: Other potentially very dangerous but innocuous item in a car fire? Shocks. In bumpers or suspension, when exposed to fire for any real time, can whip that metal rod out the end faster than you'd think.

Revolvyerom fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Apr 5, 2011

# ¿ Apr 5, 2011 18:23

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Sponge! posted:

Well, its like a large chemical spill... You can't do jack poo poo but watch it and stay out of the immediate danger area.

That's called a *mimes binoculars* "Looks pretty impressive from here!" accident

# ¿ Apr 30, 2011 01:38

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Epic Fail Guy posted:

Rule of thumb for haz-mat incidents: If you cannot extend your thumb and cover the entire scene, you are too close.

The highlight of hazmat training was being told that in the case of invisible deadly gases that can be blown around by winds (chlorine tank rupture), try to stay away from the areas that birds are falling out of the sky.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2011 20:01

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Epic Fail Guy posted:

We were told to stop at the first dead cop.

It's pretty ridiculous the poo poo you hear/see from them sometimes. The guys training us had piles of stories of cops wandering across spills because they had boots on and figured they were fine, not realizing the rubber sole was starting to melt, or into a foam-covered oil fire because (obviously!) the fire was out. Turns out re-introducing oxygen into a still-extremely-hot combustible results in more fire. And so on, and so on. Once watched a cop pull up to a fire scene that we were already staging on, and park his car next to the carport of the very-much-engaged housefire.

Maybe he thought he'd give moral support while his car burned.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2011 21:21

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

"A little <insert bad thing here> is nothing to worry about"

# ¿ May 1, 2011 04:08

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Splizwarf posted:

On the other hand, it's not illegal to inform the police about a vehicle in seriously citable condition. Just kind of a dick move, depending on circumstances.

If you live in a city where the cops have so much time to kill that they will come down to your garage and sit by the parking lot until the owner comes in to take his car away, then I'm kind of astonished. With the possible exception of "Podunk, Arkansas, population 150", I don't think you'll get a swift police response for calling in a guy driving a ticketable car.

Either way, the "You know, legally I can't let you drive that car out of here like this, which means you can pay to have it towed somewhere else to have the work done, or you could just pay us and get your car back" scam is older than time.

Revolvyerom fucked around with this message at 23:13 on May 3, 2011

# ¿ May 3, 2011 23:11

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Splizwarf posted:

Sounds like your police have all the money they need. A ticketable car is money for the budget.

It's a matter of time, not the money from the ticket. They're very likely either a) busy, or b) literally have more important things to do than a moving violation across town they'd have to haul rear end to make it to, and probably are a hair less petty than a shady mechanic.

# ¿ May 4, 2011 12:37

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Splizwarf posted:

Which is why they fill time with speeding tickets. It's hard to find anyplace in VA where people don't speed, so one place is as good as any other to set up shop. And by shady mechanic we mean in this particular case Pep Boys. So vv

Isn't that one of the states that runs radar-detector-detectors to ticket you on the off chance you might be inclined to speed with a radar detector in your car?

# ¿ May 4, 2011 18:26

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

KelvereseAysen posted:

Mowing the yard, puttin' along, making pretty lines.

POW!

The gently caress?

There appears to be something there.

Huh. Looks like a piece of metal. I wonder where it came fr

..Oh.

edit: also ignore those dates I am bad with cameras.

Posts like this make this thread great. I imagine that resulted in a rather dramatic "your engine has been replaced with a shaking paint can full of rocks" sound. Saw a supercharged Fiero pull that stunt in an autocross meet, sounds like chewing on loose teeth.

# ¿ May 20, 2011 18:30

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Splizwarf posted:

Supercharged? Autocross? So complicated. Friend of mine drives one around all the time that sounds like that. I thought it was what Fieros sounded like. :iamafag:

It seemed like an interesting choice to me too. Nobody was really surprised when it lurched and then lost power with a *crunch* halfway through his second run.

# ¿ May 21, 2011 22:04

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Beast Pussy posted:

so your car won't start? Oh, sounds like it jumped timing.

*work work work*

*crank crank crank*

*crank crank* BOOM

Scared the poo poo out of and deafened me from two bays over and brought everybody into the shop, even the store guys.

I had a very similar thing happen to me driving along the waterfront in Seattle on my Z31. Out of sheer bad luck I suppose, the ignition rotor had managed to back out the bolt securing it to the post, and it literally went from one cylinder firing just fine, to the biggest explosion I had yet heard going off right under my rear end under the car. Peeled the muffler open just like that.

It was just about the start of when I was beginning to learn how to at least work on the basics of a car, so it wasn't until a couple of days later when I'm finally going point-to-point (

) to narrow down why the car does so poorly with any fuel/spark added to turning over, that I took the cap off, and the rotor came with it.

Put the bolt back in, with the tiniest hair of lock-tite, and minutes later I'm back to a perfectly working car.

Well, and a comedically loud exhaust.

# ¿ May 27, 2011 23:09

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

It expands, ruptures (generally with some force), and is unpleasant to be around at that moment. That's assuming you keep it away from ignition sources like fire, sparks, or (as they told us in the dept training, but neither I nor nobody I've spoken to had seen the air mix be perfect enough and a car's cables arcing badly enough) a running car.

Then it's extremely unpleasant to be around at that moment.

# ¿ May 28, 2011 00:19

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

iastudent posted:

Alright, gotta get home before dinner in the oven burns... what, officer? What do you mean I CAN'T get into my drivew-

Oh.

...did that melt the radiator out of the car?

# ¿ Jun 23, 2011 11:13

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Gorilla Salad posted:

The start of the positive camber movement?

I think you mean the return.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2011 03:53

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

If the rotor was never changed, neither were the spark plugs, it's safe to say. Surprised you couldn't see worn wiring arcing straight to the engine block though. Friend picked up an old Skylark that ran very rough for cheap, got it towed home and popped the hood...

You could see the wires arcing inside the insulation in broad daylight. A tuneup brought that car back from "tired arthritic polio victim" to merely old.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2011 16:02

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

heat posted:

Did they tell you why they are totaling it?

Looks like his radiator got pushed in a tiny bit, and I imagine straightening the frame at all in that front is prohibitively expensive, make it cost that magic amount to total a car out (for insurance companies it's a % of the car's overall value). Often they will let you "buy" it back (presumably for parts or to do the work on your own dime) for a very cheap amount.

So did you basically get 90% of the car's bluebook and your car back with a dented hood latch?

Revolvyerom fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Aug 8, 2011

# ¿ Aug 8, 2011 16:17

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

If the prevailing speed of traffic was 33 in a 35 zone, I think there'd be more road rage incidents.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2011 03:38

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Motronic posted:

In what state will a speeding ticket for anything less then 5 over stand up? Because it's certainly not anywhere near me. Whether it's VASCAR or radar, it's considered too close to call. It's within the acceptable variation of your speedo.

Tickets aren't always issued from the state. Many municipalities care very very much about "THE CHILDREN", and many others just like the income. Some towns are famous for cops hiding at city limits, hitting tourists and people passing through for 3 over just because the hassle of fighting the ticket for someone who lives miles away means the ticket will just get paid most of the time.

You Am I posted:

That dude was doing some pretty poo poo donuts there. Must have been a V6.

Is it easy to disable traction/stability control in those cars? i.e. would someone whose intelligence level is at the point where they think driving like that is a kickin rad idea (and having seen the driver talking), do you think he could find anything not mounted front and center on the dash? It was either gutless, or the car was fighting any attempts to get slightly sideways.

edit: failures:

As the owner put it, it "went very quiet" after making some "nasty noises"
I'd imagine it did.

Revolvyerom fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Aug 17, 2011

# ¿ Aug 17, 2011 00:55

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

The Scientist posted:

Being a logger must be hard

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d7c_1314313879

One tracked vehicle rights another that's tipped over, but once its back square on its tracks the tether slips off and the previously tipped one, in neutral, goes jaunting down the slope... for hundreds of feet.

I love the keywords for that video

quote:

crane, fail, neutral gear, rolling down hill, run for your lives, what are we goin' do, how we gon' eat, lost crane,

# ¿ Aug 30, 2011 03:31

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Does he even have springs on the front of the car?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 09:23

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Rujo King posted:

A few months before it died, the engine decided to have apocalyptic diarrhea all over the engine compartment, and coated every single square inch of the inside of the hood with tar that I assume used to be 10W40. We didn't even bother cleaning it up, because I'm pretty sure our drive would have become a Superfund site.

And you kept driving it with an engine coated in oil? How was that not a fire haz-

quote:

Then my father had to do something that involved flames coming out of what was probably the carburetor.

Oh.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2011 21:01

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

kastein posted:

It probably didn't have to be broken loose, but jamming it in there that far would take some serious ~~force~~ momentum too.

That's what's at play here.

Moral of the story: don't gently caress with a slow moving object if it's bigger than you are by over a factor of 100.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2012 02:08

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

kastein posted:

I have friends who have gotten over 20 feet of air (vertical, not horizontal) in a Cherokee with a 44 swapped into the front... no truss, no bent housing.

To hell with the housing, how was your friend after falling two stories in a Jeep? Even landing upright, your spine is at real risk.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2012 21:00

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

KozmoNaut posted:

The upshot is that we have some of the best social services, free healthcare, public services and well-maintained roads in the world,

I can't imagine road maintenance is that demanding there, what with saving on all that wear and tear.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2012 16:26

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# ¿ Jan 25, 2021 23:54

Revolvyerom: Nov 12, 2005; Hell yes, tell him we're plenty front right now.

Collateral Damage posted:

I have no idea what's going on here, but I doubt it's working as intended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_zC7QK64Ks

"Hm, that looks kind of bad, but if they shut it down maybe they can..."

That was comedic timing.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2012 03:05

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Horrible Mechanical Failures: could get another 100 miles out of it with some zipties