Team-BHP - Has your Car ever got stuck / stranded? Where & How?

Most of us on TBHP are travel freaks. We take our vehicles to far flung places, through all sorts of roads. Some people like adc, hvk and others take their 2wd vehicles to places people would dread to take a 4wd. Others like mobike008 take their cars across the country braving all kinds of roads.

However, I was thinking, there should be thread which could have the experiences of us being stuck due to the terrain.
Stuck because our vehicles could not take us farther than that due to the terrain, altitude, and mechanical/electrical breakdowns.

I hope this thread will serve as a log book of all the incidents where we were stuck with our vehicles during their course of use.

In order to make the entries more systematic and meaningful, I suggest the following format be maintained by all of us:

1. Where were you stuck? The place name in detail.

2. Why were you stuck? The cause like terrain too rough/vehicle stuck/vehicle breakdown/out of fuel etc etc.

3. How did you come out? Towing, pushed the vehicle manually/got a mechanic to repair it/repaired it on my own/was towed to the service station etc etc.

4. What were you stuck in? The make and model of the vehicle including the kms on the odo.

NB: This thread does not include the instances of being stuck/vehicle breakdown in daily traffic and commutes.

Mods: Please feel free to merge it in case a similar thread exists on the forum.

1. Where were you stuck? In Mumbai -- Just outside the Juhu Aerodrome S.V Road during the 1997 June Floods, it was around 5:00 pm when the heavy rains started and all hell broke loose.

2. Why were you stuck? In Mumbai there is a very bad Storm Water Drainage planning scheme. And there is an underground river called the Mithi River which broke loose and Mumbai being an island city was almost drowned.

3. How did you come out? Got a tow from one of our society members who then drove a Mahinda DP 540 2 x 4. He is not a Team BHPian but an ardent Mahindra offroader. Luckily till then the GSM networks were still working. He and another member of the society in a Mahindra CJ 340 with a tow pole and wincher assembly and recovery chain drove towards where I was stuck. The CJ 340 towed me till higher grounds and then the DP 540 towed me back home to dry land.

4. What were you stuck in? In a Premier 118NE 1992. The water had already got into the exhaust, fuel system, inside the car's cabin and already risen till a little above the fenders.

I have loads of these, stuck nay scared to my wits incidents...

LONG POST.

First One:

1. Where were you stuck?
NH 17 somewhere between Manipal and Panaji. About 20-30 kms from Gokarna. I really don't know where but somewhere there.

2. Why were you stuck?
This was in 99 or 2000, our band was playing at one of the youth fests in Manipal. And I had to stay back because I made some "friends". So ended up riding back alone as the rest of them had left a day earlier. The ride was a Bullet 350 STD, bought used. She just plainly stopped. Tank was more then half. I never knew what went wrong. But the next day she started after a bit of tinkering around with the points.

3. How did you come out?
It was 2:00 am or thereabouts. And on this road when it gets dark. It gets pitch dark. You cant even see your nose. Initially I thought it was ok. Would get it started in sometime. But it would just not start. After exhausting myself trying to kick it to life. I sat on the bike. The noises around me were getting louder or maybe since I was only hearing them they seemed to get louder. Every breeze that blew made me think some animal is close by. I saw a truck coming and waved at it. He stopped a few meters away. I asked him where the nearest village was. He said 2 kms. Great!!

I can push the vehicle that distance.

So I started off. I was not carrying any luggage just a backpack and water bottle.

I switched on the parking lights and started pushing. Then I started making out its getting tougher, realized the road was sloping upwards. Now pushing a Bullet is a task, pushing it upwards is madness.

So I started taking breaks. Watching the speedo to check the distance covered. Took me 45 mins to cover 1 km.

By now I was stone dead and my legs had gone weak. And the scare had got into me. I started getting goosebumps and a chill down my spine.

And then it rained. Initially I was happy, it took away the tiredness. But after 15 mins it would not stop. Got heavier and crazier. I just stood there drenched to the bone.

I cursed the bike a million times. I thought I would die there that day.

So I just sat there next to the road, waiting for morning to come. It rained till dawn. I was sure I was getting pneumonia as I was in the rain for about 2-3 hours. But luckily I didn't fall sick, got a terrible cold though.

Dawn bought relief. Saw a TATA 407 coming down the road. Waved out to him and he stopped. He was a very helpful guy. He was carrying raw coconuts to the temple towns. It was not possible for both of us to load the bike. He said he will come back with help. He came back with some wooden planks and couple of other guys. we loaded the bike with a lot of trouble and he drove me all the way to the Goa border. There I called my friends to come and get me. And that was the end. The guy only charged me for the diesel used and I payed for his lunch. Though he tried shoving the money in my pocket.

On the truck I actually shed some tears.

4. What were you stuck in?
Bullet 350 STD, ran about 10k kms then.

There are more of this Bullet stories. This was the first one. I have never really penned these down anywhere. So excuse me the long post as I wanted it listed somewhere.

PS: I could not afford a cell phone then. I was a student.

1. Where were you stuck?
Near the Prati Shirdi, which is close to Somatne Phata, near Talegaon.

2. Why were you stuck?
I had gone to Prati Shridi with my parents and my Aunty. It was just four of us in my car and the rest of my cousins were in his car.

By the time we came out of the temple, there was a massive traffic jam, and as many of you will know, it is a small village road, and there were only two options with us.

Either we go towards Hinjawadi (Which we did not want to go, as we were completely unaware of the road) or we take the road which is behind the temple and connects to the other side of the express way via a small bridge.

So my cousin and I decided to take the second route as the villagers confirmed that the cars can eaisly go from that route.

So we started off. Unfortunarely, I was the first one of the lot to take the route and crossed the bridge. There is a sharp left turn, which I took and my cousin missed it, so he went back to the temple.

It had been drizzling after a nice rain and the route which I was on was a kuccha road (no tarmac or cement), single lane path.

By now it was getting dark and I was slowly moving my car in the first gear. There comes an Indica from front, so to pass him, I manuvere the car towards left and within a second I find the car on three wheels, with the rear right wheel in air and the front left in a rian created drain, a deep one. Right below that around ten or fifteen feets is the mumbai-pune express way.

The moment the left wheel got stuck, I thought of slotting in reverse and giving it a nice race to come out of the ditch, but it went in vain as the tire just rotated, nothing esle.

I could in no way get my parents and aunt out of the car. Tried calling my brother, but there is no coverage.

3. How did you come out?
In the meanwhile, there are a few more four wheelers honking their hearts out. An elderly villager came out of his commander jeep and asked if I had a rope, after checking the situation. Quite obvious I did not have one. So looking at the situation, he went back and asked a few more car owners to step out for help.

Four or Five men came out for help and they asked me to be in the drivers seat and slot the reverse gear and they lifted the front left wheel. With caution I revved the engine and the car was out of ditch!

All of this happened in matter of ten minutes.

One of the uncles there offered to drive the car out of the kuccha road, but I thanked him and politely declined.

4. What were you stuck in?
I was in my Palio 1.2 ELX petrol 2002 38K on odo, when this incident occured.

Cheers!

My most scary experience of being stuck:

1. Where were you stuck?

In the sand dunes inside the vast emptiness called More Plains.

2. Why were you stuck?

Well, as the folks who've traversed the Manali-Leh highway (and many others) will know, there's hardly any tarmac (or a contiguous track) in More Plains. Add to that the numerous diversions into sand. During one of those diversions, I lost sight of the road and ended up going deeper towards the dunes. Wasn't able to maintain enough momentum and got stuck on the incline to cross one of the dunes. And did I say that I was driving a 2wd sedan. Then I made the mistake of panicking (saw a large twister coming my way), which made all my driving skills go out the window.

3. How did you come out?

A tempo traveler driver (with whom I'd had a nice chat at Sarchu) saw us stuck from a distance, came running to us and used his presence of mind. The car couldn't move ahead, so he backed it up about a 100 mt and then came gunning towards the dune in first gear with the car fishtailing like crazy. It worked and the car scaled the sand dune, which incidentally was the last one before the road re-began. That day I learnt one important thing; never panic when stuck, rather gauge your situation and then take the corrective action. Been stuck in sand twice after that but have always came out without niggles.

4. What were you stuck in?

Esteem, 2007 with ~25K Km on the odo.

This is turning out to be a very interesting thread of our experiences of getting stuck, for various reasons and at various places. let me add one of my incidents:

1. Where were you stuck?

I was stuck on the NH-75 going from Rewa to Varanasi close to a place called Reunkut which is famous for the Hindalco Aluminium plant, the dam which used to feature on old 100/- notes.

2. Why were you stuck?

Well, I have, like most of us, always had the urge to travel and decided to go with my dad on our 1979 Bajaj Chetak to a place called Dalla since he needed to collect some documents which he had to present at a court at Sidhi, a further 100kms away from Singrauli on the other side. Dalla is a around 200kms from my so-called hometown Singrauli.
The road was then newly being made by IRCON and they had dug it up to unimaginable levels(more than 50ft at places) to replace the macadam.
It was horribly potholed, dusty, boulder strewn and slushy.
We were able to make it to Dalla and back till Renukut through those hellish roads by 0200HRS at midnight.
While climbing the ghat after the dam, the rear wheel got punctured. We replaced it and continued our climb but then one gear wire broke.
It was 0300HRS.

I told my dad to get on one of the buses and continue his journey since he had to go to court 100kms away the next day. I then tried to move in 1st and 3rd gears since I had one more gear wire to work with. The old lady tried her best but the 1st was too short heating up the engine and 3rd to long to support the climb in the ghats.

Then, the second wire too broke.

It was the month of December. Pitch dark and biting cold. I made up my mind to spend the night with the scooter since I couldn't leave it on the road anyway.

There was a JCB parked on the side. I pushed my scooter close to it and sat on it and spent the entire night that way. No vehicles, no people, just the jungle and its sounds. I was too tired even to get scared.

3. How did you come out? At 0800HRS I hitched a truck ride to Renukut, purchased 4 gear wires, fitted 2 of them and reached home without a hitch.

4. What were you stuck in?

Bajaj Chetak 1979 model. My dad's all time fav vehicle.

1. Where were you stuck?
It was on NH17, travelling from Ernakulam to Thrissur, a few kms before Kodungallur. The time was around 8:30pm.

2. Why were you stuck?
This was in Oct 2008. I was travelling with my wife and 5 months old daughter. Stopped around a roadside shop to ask for directions. And the car did not get back to life.

3. How did you come out?
Asked the guys around there for any workshops nearby, and I was getting tensed because (1) not a familiar place (2) my baby started screaming out, and it went on and on.

And then some guys from the nearby Banana chips shop came out, and offered help to push the car. A few metres off, and the car got back to life, they waved me not to stop, and I missed a chance to thank them. Next time when I travelled via that route, looked for the same shop, but couldn't find the exact location where the car stopped.

4. What were you stuck in?
Ford Ikon 1.6 ZXi NXT 2003 December model (with around 38K done). Got the ford service guys to come home and check the problem next day, and it was some loose connection around the starter console. They fixed it FoC.

This was the only incident I can remember :)

Hmmmm.. I should be able to add quite a few episodes here. In reverse order down the memory lane:

1. Where were you stuck? Inside Jawahar Tunnel connecting Jammu with Kashmir. June 2010

2. Why were you stuck? The ECM misbehaved and died. Engine would not fire.

3. How did you come out? Had to open the bonnet and re-set ECM. Took a while and there was lots of truck traffic and a military convoy jamming the tunnel behind us. And all this while standing in dark with near freezing wind howling through the tunnel and water dripping from over head.

4. What were you stuck in? Suzuki Grand Vitara.

You can read about it in detail here : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post1958388

Been stuck in my Jeep so many times that I lost count. And, I might add, it's a heck of a lot of fun :D

In a 2WD car:

1. Where were you stuck? The drive from Mahabaleshwar to Old Mahabaleshwar.

2. Why were you stuck? Late evening, with only me & my sister in the car. There was this thin road right outside a graveyard. Some UV came from the opposite side and I had no choice but to take the Premier 137D off the road. Too bad she never got back on...the rear wheels only kept spinning in one place. It was dark, a graveyard right across, two of us in a 2WD car and not a soul in sight (pun intended).

3. How did you come out? Luckily, another UV came up behind us and I flagged them down to help. Told my sis to sit on the back seat. With jet black tints, the locals didn't know there was a lady in the car. They willingly pushed my car out, I sincerely thanked them and drove off.

4. What were you stuck in? The Premier 137D. One heck of a workhorse!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sudev (Post 2314475)

Hmmmm.. I should be able to add quite a few episodes here. In reverse order down the memory lane:
4. What were you stuck in? Suzuki Grand Vitara.

When you answered, I was kinda surprised. But then, if the ECU gives up, anyone can be stuck.:D

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 2315475)

2. Why were you stuck? Late evening, with only me & my sister in the car. There was this thin road right outside a graveyard. Some UV came from the opposite side and I had no choice but to take the Premier 137D off the road. Too bad she never got back on...the rear wheels only kept spinning in one place. It was dark, a graveyard right across, two of us in a 2WD car and not a soul in sight (pun intended).

Is it that easy for a 2wd car to get stuck?? Gets me thinking....

The last episode was a ECM breakdown and I would not have put it here but if you read the total story I knew ECM was misbehaving before I went in to the tunnel so in a way ot was risk that I took which led to being stuck.

This is from April 2006.

1. Where were you stuck? Middle of Sambhar Lake, Rajasthan.

2. Why were you stuck? While the name implies a lake actually it is a dry salt flat most of the time. When it rains the top layer - few inches at most - becomes extremely slushy. When I enetered the lake bed it was dry but about five kms inside it was wet and I got royally stuck. Later I came to know it had rained a few days back.

The slush is so slippery that even walking becomes a sort of sliding motion and you can push your car sideways if you can find purchase for your feet - more than ankle depth sucking mud.

3. How did you come out? Walked out to end of lake bed in middle of the day. Thankfully it was only early summer so the heat did not fry me or my wife. There is a small road that runs beyond the periphery where we waited for some one / something. Finally a bus saved us. Virtually collapsed inside the bus due to extreme heat stroke.
Got dropped off at next village from where a tractor and a long was arranged to tow out the car.

4. What were you stuck in? Esteem ATX 2004