[Nitin]

The only break down I have faced, was way back in 2003 when my 1993 Mazda Protege had battery problems and suddenly shut down while I was driving on the I-75 highway in Ohio.
Had to have the car towed back to my house, and then got a new battery and fixed it. Was a simple fix, but it turned out to be a pain in the neck thanks to sub zero degree temperatures in the month of November.
I do hope never to have another situation where I'm stranded, alone or with company.

[fast lane]

WOW, had a road side garage fellow in KHARGHAR NAVI MUMBAI check teh problem and in 15 minutes flat he gave me two options why the ECU is getting wrong info. - 1. my idling sensor is failing. 2. my speedo sensor is failing

Changed the idling sensor and for the past year an abt 8000 kms the problem has not come back ever.

Thanks to the Kharghar garage guy

Originally Posted by fast lane

I have a siena 1999.

Two times in Bombay, the car just refuses to start, and gets immediately switched off if the throttle is released and the clutch is engaged. Both times the problem sorted out if the car is switched off and left alone for 30 minutes. Last time it happed was in October 08 - no problems after that at all.

Do not have any idea what is the matter. 3 garages have not been able to understand it. 4th garage is on work right now.

Soumo Chatterjee
Pune
cell - 9970411311

[mb_jg]

Over the last 10yrs, I have owned the following:
1) Maruti 800 - used for 3yrs - never broke down.
2) Palio 1.2 - 5yrs - broke down once due to a failed alternator (part replacement).
3) Maruti 800 - 5yrs & counting - broke down only once when the fan belt snapped at 30k kms. (I had called the road side assistance fellows, they put in a replacement battery & asked me to drive back without using headlamps or any other electricals. It was 7pm, the car broke down at Pune University & I had to reach NIBM (approx 20kms). Yikessss!!!! The replacement battery died RIGHT infront of Madhu Auto at Wanowrie! I've never apologized to so many people on the road in a single drive!
4) Fabia 1.6 - 1 month & counting - none yet :o), hopefully never!!!

[DieselFan]

Just had a breakdown on our 11 month old i10 Automatic. The car was parked at home and in the morning it just wouldn't start. It is cranking, music system/ headlights turn on, so I feel it is not due to battery. Have called up the local H.A.S.S. They have promised to come ASAP. They are just a couple of kms away.

Will Hyundai cover the towing charges for this breakdown as the breakdown has happened during the warantty period? What are the experience of TBHP owners during similar situations.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by mb_jg

3) Maruti 800 - 5yrs & counting - broke down only once when the fan belt snapped at 30k kms. (I had called the road side assistance fellows, they put in a replacement battery & asked me to drive back without using headlamps or any other electricals. It was 7pm, the car broke down at Pune University & I had to reach NIBM (approx 20kms). Yikessss!!!! The replacement battery died RIGHT infront of Madhu Auto at Wanowrie! I've never apologized to so many people on the road in a single drive!

Not clear but they did replace fan belt and asked you to use replacement battery?

[mb_jg]

Originally Posted by sudev

Not clear but they did replace fan belt and asked you to use replacement battery?

No, they were not carrying a replacement belt, but they did have a replacement battery. The original belt had snapped & the battery had drained out.

[DieselFan]

Originally Posted by DieselFan

Just had a breakdown on our 11 month old i10 Automatic. The car was parked at home and in the morning it just wouldn't start. It is cranking, music system/ headlights turn on, so I feel it is not due to battery. Have called up the local H.A.S.S. They have promised to come ASAP. They are just a couple of kms away.

Will Hyundai cover the towing charges for this breakdown as the breakdown has happened during the warantty period? What are the experience of TBHP owners during similar situations.

Breakdown person came home. All he did was remove the fuel tank cap and let the compressed air/fuel mixture out and then fixed the cap back and the car started without any issues. Nowhere is this documented.

Also I thought the fuel tank always had a air pressure relief system built into it (Some small air hole) to prevent such a issue from occuring. Is my understanding wrong?

[shamanth]

couple of years back, i had driven my Zen from bangalore to Goa, While roaming around in Goa i noticed green liquid is falling from the car. When i opened the bonnet i realized coolant is falling off. It was sunday and MASS was closed showed to local mechanic, he identified the thermostat was gone and fan is not rotating. And i had to return back same day, so made the Fan direct with fan always working, got the thermostat changed when i came back to bangalore.

[sgiitk]

I have owned a range of cars since 1970 when I registered my first car - second hand Hindustan 14. Naturally, there have been breakdowns.

The most interesting breakdown I had was in Scotland in 1990 with my Peugeot 205. We had a blown exhaust which I got replaced in Inverness, along with an oil change. Driving out of Inverness all of a sudden the car just died. Examined and found that the centre carbon on the distributor was totally gone (worn out). I walked to a nearby hotel and called up the AA. They said it will take about an hour to respond. An AA vehicle showed up within the hour. I showed the chap the problem, and he said that it being Saturday all workshops will be closed. Then he remembered something. Towed me to the Peugeot garage. Fortunately some staff was in, and as may be expected well known to him. They were happy to sell me a new distributor cap (all of £5), which the AA chap replaced and waved me on my way.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by mb_jg

No, they were not carrying a replacement belt, but they did have a replacement battery. The original belt had snapped & the battery had drained out.

Wouldn't that carry risk of heating the car?? No belt ==> No pump??

[jkrishnakj]

I have owned a few cars since 1998.
1. M800 - 3 years, nothing at all. Never let me down, despite the several drives on the Pune-Mumb expressway
2. Maruti Esteem - Nil. Still love that car and regret selling it
3. Tata Safari EX - Broke down once due to the battery running out. TASS was quick to send their vehicle to check the issue, re-charge it and i was on my way
4. Tata Safari GX - Day 2 of my buying, had a harrowing experience at a speed of 100 KM/HR. A small clip chipped and i found my Gear Handle akin to a video game Joy stick. More of that in my ownership thread. Luckily, nothing hapenned and all is well to date.

[Gautam Dhaliwal]

Broke down, literally, recently due to Bombay roads and ford original equipment.
It was raining, and getting dark, a car pushed me to the right of the road. The road in question is the wide road leading to imax, there is monorail construction on that road. A part of the concrete road had caved, my tyre hit the edge, some 5-6 inches of sheer concrete. The tyre deflated instantly.

Now, i thought to myself, its ok, i can get out of this if i just replace this with my spare wheel. However, when i took out the spanner and tried to open the wheel nuts i realised that the ford spanner is good for only 3 nuts, post that it just became round from inside and wont hold on to the nut. Unfortunately, most wheels have 4+ nuts, mine had 4.

Spent 40 mins trying to open the wheel, another 50 trying to flag down someone so that i could use their spanner, all the time it was pouring. Then someone stopped and took me to a puncture repair shop.

So for all you ford owners, please change your OEM spanner to a more robust one, the kind that these puncture repair guys have. As you can see, i learnt this the hard way.

This is what happened, i had heard that alloys crack, but this is ridiculous! That is the wheel broken into two parts, have kept the top part as a souvenir. Is this expected to happen?

[kkg]

Around three years back, my family (my elder brohter, his wife, my two year niece, our parents and my grandmother) were returning from Panipat to Delhi in our Matiz. The car stopped just after a refill at the petrol pump.

My brother who is good at any hand on work,inspected everything but could not locate the problem. He called me and declared that the ECU is gone and to come and take the family. I felt very bad thinking that my whole family is standing on the road side at night. Luckily the petrol pump people gave some chairs to my mom and grandma to sit. They also called some mechanic from nearby village as they had their number.

Mechanic arrived and diagnosed that fuel is not reaching the engine.Upon checking a coupler was found out of its groove on the fuel pump,it was connected and car started.

After a while my brother recalled the car went into a big pathhole just a while ago and may be that led to the problem. But all is well that ends well. Only Rs 200 damage that was given to the mechanic.

[k_nitin_r]

I've only had my cars refuse to start because of an old dead battery. The shortest I've had a battery last was for a year and six months. Perhaps instead of getting an expensive battery, I should get one with a one year warranty (assuming Exide or Amaron still sell batteries with a year of warranty) and replace it after the year is up?

[sagarpadaki]

I was stranded with my parents in a remote village about 25 kms from Mantralayam.All because of a wrong decision.

We planned to go from Raichur to Mantralaya.Since the Bridge is broken(if it was present the travel distance would have been just 40 kms),we planned to go via a longer Raichur->Sirguppa->Adoni->Mantralayam which is 200 kms. After talking with few persons,they said that there is a shorter route via Raichur->Ieej->Rajoli Dam-> Nagaldinne->Mantralayam which is 150 kms.The road according to them was "very good"

And so we fell prey to the shorter distance and started our journey.The road till rajoli dam was bad with full broken patches.And the last 50 kms from dam to Mantralayam was the worst! It was craters on the roads or no roads at all.I misjudged a dip and went crashing in. Heard a LOUD metallic clang .Instantly the fuel guage that was hovering around the half mark started to go down and within 10 kms the low fuel warning lamp came up.I was scared that fuel had started leaking .But didnt want to stop in the middle of nowhere.When we reached Nagaldinne took the courage to stop it and checked for fuel leakages.There was none.And to make matters worse there was no Fuel station either.Luckily the village fellows told us that a person sells diesel in the village.We bought 10 litres of diesel from her at Rs 47/ltr. The fuel needle just moved up 1 mm.We went to mantralayam with fingers crossed.Later when we filled up the diesel the next day we came to know that there was enough diesel in it!.During the last 50 kms of the journey our i20 took 3 massive underbody hits because of the bad roads and inability to make out the irregularities on the roads.

The end result-Fuel tank damaged,Fuel pump broken(which led to the false alarm of low fuel),Front cross member badly bent at one side.And total bill of Rs 30,000!

All this because of one wrong decision to take the shorter path!