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-   -   Our oops moments! When our car knowledge wasn't quite good enough... (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/201917-our-oops-moments-when-our-car-knowledge-wasnt-quite-good-enough-3.html)

This reminds me of an incident with a rental car in an airport. I was driving for 3 years by that point and the cars I had owned and rented until then all had power seats for adjustments and never knew there were manual levers in some cars for moving the seat front and back and for adjusting the height of the seats. I just assumed the power adjustment buttons must be in all cars.

Coming to the incident, I get a car at the rental car place, get in the car and the first thing I try to do is adjusting the seat. I fiddle around the side for buttons and I feel a weird contraption instead and I was puzzled. I figure out how the contraption works somehow and adjust the height but for the life of me couldn't figure out how to do to and fro adjustment. Never even occured to me to look under the seat for a handle. stupid:

So I call a friend and he asked me to lookup the manual. Thankfully, the manual was in the glovebox, located the page and found the lever below the seat. It took me 30 mins at the rental car lot to figure this out. :Shockked:

I was a new driver around 2010. I had recently purchased a pre owned Alto Std. 2004 model. I had already undertaken my Driving lessons. One night I got the urge to drive the car out for a drive. Drove it decently and came back with lot's of confidence. Next morning I got up very early and thought let's try it once again. Rushed to the car with an excited mind ( I don't know where) and cranked the engine and car just wouldn't get going in first gear. Kept trying for 15 mins (yes 15 mins) and the car just would not buzz. Even tried the reverse gear. Got disheartened and left the car and came back to room. Later on I realised that I forgot to disengage the hand brakes. Stupid :-)

Not trying to win the 'stupidest one' here but this is pretty 'oops'. I was driving from my home to Gurgaon for work in the peak of Delhi summers in my petrol Getz and for some reason that day the AC did not seem to work. I was working fine the previous day and all the while I had the car with me and I tried everything I could, while I kept driving, but it still kind of felt hot inside the car. Only when I reached office I found that I had one of the back windows open the whole while. So when your AC doesn't feel like working while driving, first check if none of your windows are open :)

A garage charged me 500 bucks for "Spark Plug Cleaning" on the Octavia 1.9 TDi and I paid it.

While I could not recollect an oops moment with cars, I definitely had an embarrassing one with my bike. It was just a week since I had taken delivery of my new TVS Apache RTR 160, back in 2008. One fine morning, I wanted to take my bike to go somewhere, sat on my bike and started kicking the lever (morning start, so did not use the electric start button, am wise that way :)). Umpteen number of tries but the engine did not budge. I would have kicked at least 50 times and even the neighbouring kids started to assemble near my bike to "enquire" about the problem. All sorts of fears were going through my mind regarding the "issue" with my new bike when I noticed the "Engine kill" switch was on. Sheepishly I turned it off, kick started, and the engine breathed into life. How embarassing stupid:! Lucky there were no girls nearby !

During the year 2010, I went for a trip with my cousins to Kuttikkanam, Gavi etc from Kalady in two Swifts, one diesel Swift and mine, a Petrol Swift 1.3L, 2007 model. About the destination for those who are not aware, these are some hill stations, forest areas in Idukki District, Kerala. Some area on the way road was too steep and my car was climbing only in first gear and where as the Diesel swift was comfortable in 2nd gear. This incident that I am going to narrate happened during our return trip when were coming down. Even I was aware of using engine braking at these conditions, that time I might have ignored that and I was applying brakes too much and hairpins were too closely spaced. At one point during a hair pin, when I tried to apply brake, the brake pedal went fully down similar to how the clutch pedal behaves when applied fully and without actually having any effect on stopping the car. And there was a deep canal in front of us with water flowing from the Dam. Due to god’s grace or somehow I released brake and reapplied again and it worked and luckily managed to stop the car just before the canal. My Brake fluid got over heated and created this situation. After that I tried to simulate same condition at straight road with less traffic and it never happened again. For peace of mind, I went to the showroom and replaced the brake drums and did a fluid change very next day. I heard from one of my friend that chances of getting into similar issue is less in some other brands like Volkswagen and some other due to difference in brake fluid used. Not sure that is correct.

Anyway, it was near death experience and big lesson learned that not to ignore anything related while driving. From then, I was very careful to avoid excessive usage of brakes and use engine braking as much as possible during these situations. In my Automatic car also I try to use engine braking in similar situation since it has a manual sport mode available.

My first time driving an automatic - My brother in law purchased a brand new Baleno and since he was out of station at the time of delivery, it was left to me to collect the vehicle from showroom. I was quite apprehensive as I had never before been in a automatic let alone driven one. So, I pick up the car on D-day and barely 100 meters out of the showroom, there is this large pothole on the road. Instinctively, my right foot goes searching for the break while my left goes searching for the clutch. I end up stamping on the break pedal and the car which was moving at a bare 20-25 km/hr does a nose dive and comes to a standstill. Eversince that moment I have been driving automatics with my left foot stretched to its limit and so far my brain has not messed up..

For those who are familiar with Kochi, this incident happened near the busy Palarivattom bypass signal. I was very very fortunate that there was nobody trailing me that day. Imagine what face I would show if I had to take the car back to showroom barely minutes after taking delivery!

Somehow, I don't have an issue with the gear lever in LHD cars.

But my OCD sees to it that I hit the ignition soon after sitting inside the car. The belt is next, which gives the car sufficient time to do those checks and switch off most lights on the cluster.

And then, I always try to pull the seat belt from thin air - over my shoulder from the right. stupid: And it was not just the first time, has happened many times over over the years.

Waste 10-15 mins by trying to kick start a Karizma when in gear. I didn't know the fact that it starts only in neutral. Finally started it and drove away as if nothing had happened :cool:

Happened to me during my college days and Chennai guys should know how crowded kathipara junction used to be before the flyover was constructed.

This happened on member SandeepMohan's uncle's old Yezdi D250 Classic which he was using.

We were leaving from a friend's place when the bike was stubborn to start. I was kicking for a while when it finally came to life. As many know, the kicker lever and the gear shift lever are the same on Jawa/Yezdi's. Once I put back the lever in position and shifted to first and with both of us on the bike, released the clutch and the bike went in reverse! Both of us were :Shockked: and then had a good laugh. Once I shifted to neutral and engaged first, it worked as expected.

I did read some place that Yezdi's do have this 'feature' which happens from time to time.

This was in 1989 when I had just learnt driving and that was my first long drive to Tirupati on a Mahindra Jeep. It was my friend's Jeep and it was his first long drive too.

We were returning from Tirupati. He drove from Tirumala till Palamner and I took over from him the jeep starting from Palamner

Somewhere near Kolar bypass, the Jeep started stammering 2-3 times. I looked at the fuel gauge and it was showing almost nil.

I said I will stop at a bunk to fill diesel. My friend saw the gauge and confidently said, the jeep would easily reach bangalore. He also said, It is not a two wheeler where fuel gauge reaches zero so quickly when fuel is 100 ml or 200 ml But, the needle reaches zero when fuel tank has more than 5 litres

I believed and passed the bunk even the jeep was stammering and asking for something.

Finally after 3 kms from the bunk, the jeep gave up.

My dear friend started investigating the bonnet himself (We had least knowledge !! ) Nothing was found to be guilty. Then, he started looking for mechanic to get the problem rectified. We crossed the bunk by walking and got the mechanic (Around 4-5 kms away from the spot)

Mechanic (Small boy of around 12-13 years age) came and inspected for 10-15 mins and he could not find the problem.

Finally, he gave up and said, he will bring his senior.

While the mechanic was about to leave the spot , I just said my friend, let us try filling some diesel for which he agreed FINALLY with reluctance. Mechanic dropped me at the petrol bunk and went ahead to his shop to bring his mechanic.

I purchased a can for 5 Rs and 100 Rs Fuel(Yes, it was 9 Rs per litre then) and got into some lorry to get dropped to the spot.

We filled the fuel and manually pumped for 5 mins (Luckily, my friend knew that the fuel has to be pumped for a diesel vehicle with empty tank)

Started the Jeep and Viola ! ! It just started in 2 key twists.

Finally, started home without informing the mechanic(We wanted to inform but due to lack of communication systems like no phone number etc) we just drove back home without any issues

Even today, when I take this topic, my friend argues, some unknown spooky experience has happened on that day and he does not believe that Diesel tank was actually empty. :)

I consider myself well-informed,:) So you can imagine my embarrassment!

• When someone asked a bunch of us whether the M800 was a four-stroke or a two-stroke: My response (after remembering a garage named "Two-Stroke Motors" filled with M800 being serviced/repaired), "Maruti started out as a two-stroke and later changed over to a four-stroke engine". Finally, had to relent and I believed I was wrong only after getting an answer from Hormazd Sorabjee stating that the M800 was never a two-stroke, ever!

• My M800 wouldn't start because the battery was weak (yes, the ASC had warned me!), and some people tried helping me by pushing it, and yet I couldn't get it started; finally an autorickshaw driver told me "2nd gear mein dallo saab", and lo and behold, instant start the moment I released the clutch!

This happened to me in 2016 when I booked a self driven skoda rapid automatic car from 4 wheels travel. This was my first time driving an automatic. After driving at 30-40Kmph, I finally reached home and tried removing the key for around 20 mints. I was super frustrated and called 4 wheels customer care and they informed me that to remove the key I have to park the vehicle in P Mode. I was trying to remove the key in D mode with engine off stupid:

The next day I took the vehicle out for a long trip and was cruising at 60-70 kmph and all of a sudden the vehicle stopped (70Kmph to stand still). Luckily no one was tailgating me. After driving for few Kms, again the vehicle stopped and I was confused as to why it was happening. Later I realized I was hard braking and forgot that this vehicle has no clutch.

In march 2018 My family was traveling to Nashik from Pune. My 2007 Indica xeta suddenly got overheated and stopped moving near the town called sangamner. My father showed the car the local mechanic there and he said there is no coolent in the car and engine has been blocked. He will need 2 days to fix it. I was in Pune in my wedding preparations,My father called me and i said okay go ahead with that mechanic as of now because i dont have time to come there and check the car. My father left the car there and came back to pune. That mechanic took 1 week to repair the car and billed me wooping 45,000 rupees. And i sent driver to take the car to pune as i was busy in my wedding preparations. When i drove the car then it felt like i am driving Tata Ace, too much engine noise, power steering was not working and scratches on the car. On this, the mechanics answer was like the car was working fine when he repaired it. He is not responsible after giving it to my driver. Then i took my car to my regular mechanic in pune and he said you should have towed the car to the pune instead of giving it to the unknown mechanic outside pune. He has screwed the car.at my regular mechanic It costed me another 25000 to make it back to normal. Overall i spent 70,000 bucks on my 10 year old gem Indica xeta glx. And screwd it. Lessen i learnt other day was if its a engine work then never give your car to unknown machanic and always go and check the car yourself before taking delivery.

Happened to me last year on the day I bought my GT TSI. Thought I had done all possible research as it would be my first automatic. Had not even taken a test drive since I would be owning, arguably , " the hottest hatch" available. Also, since I had been driving a Polo for the last 4 years, didn't bother too much about controls as they are basically the same.
After the necessary paperwork and payments,the sales advisor drove the car just outside the dealership premises, parked the car with the engine running and bid goodbye. I settled in the driver seat, buckled up, adjusted all mirrors and seat to drive back home. To my horror the DSG lever just wouldn't budge. Tried a couple of times but no go. i knew that I was missing a trick but just could not figure it out. So went back inside, got hold of the sales rep who who came outside and easily shifted the DSG lever. While he did so even he could not discern that I could be so dumb to not know that the brake pedal needs to be depressed to operate the DSG from P. Got the hang of it after observing him. Never felt more sheepish.