Just outside of Sofia, Bulgaria with my Astra, heading for a campsite in the pitch black and knackered after a day of driving, pulled off the "motorway" on to on a slip road to be confronted with a brick wall where the campsite had duly been closed. Literally !
Panicingly beached the car just off the side of the road and couldn't get it off again.
One nice fellow stopped and we progressed through the languages neither of us had in common.
Bulgarian, Russian, English, settling on broken French and German.
We tried to push it out but not much use.
Luckily the police turned up.
They took the piss out of me a little (drinking, drugs, sleeping, all with hand signals as still no common language) then flagged down a passing artic truck.
They had to pass on the first one they stopped as not the right type or something?!?
Second one was stopped, quick laugh as they explained as he probably was shitting himself over being pulled over... Roped up the car to the front of it and he pulled me out backwards.
Everyone shook hands and were very friendly, no doubt laughing at the silly tit with the steering wheel on the wrong side that couldn't drive.
All in 20mins. No chance of that happening over here.
Would be road closed and hours delay before common sense dropped by the traffic wombles.
Then a little later in the journey, on another day mind, ran out of fuel searching for a petrol station that would take a card as had crossed the border to Romania with no local cash.
Flagged a lift some 15miles to the nearest one with jerry can in tow. No worries.
Getting back however zero luck. Walked about 3 miles with can in tow. 20ltr container with about 15ltr in it.
Finally someone stopped for me.
On a moped. And this was a big dude.
Not being a slight build either, here are two fat blokes on a 50cc with gears ?!? with 15ltr in tow cos sod all place to carry it, not exactly bombing down the road.
Hills were hilarious.
I thought I'd have to get off and walk it, but by god he thrashed the hell out of it and somehow we made it back to the car.
Once again language wasn't common. I tired to offer him some cash with my much thanks, but he gave me a look of disgust and rode off (and I wasn't being stingy!).
Snapped the plug off the end of the clutch cable on the astra one time.
Had to drive it home 20 miles, urban, without a clutch which was fun.
Mainly setting off from the lights by having it in gear and starting it, else it would not go in from idle.
Other than starts, quite easy.
Accidentally put 20quids worth of petrol in the astra.
Had run out of veg and it'd been so long since I'd put diesel into it (years) that having driving the petrol CRX, I was just on auto pilot and picked the petrol pump.
Got quite far before there was a problem.
Figured out the issue once I undid the injectors nuts - thought it was air issue.
Luckily broke down outside an Aldi.
Tripped in and bought a lot of veg. Brimmed the tank, bled the pump through, fired up and continued on my merry way
On a CRX mk2. Night before a an epic trip to Norway from Harrogate via Harwich & Denmark as the more direct Newcastle ferry had been fire damaged, I snapped the bleed nipple off the cooling system.
Christ knows why I chose a Saturday evening to do that. So first thing Sunday morning was buying chemical metal and two hours later thanks to a hair drier, the bolt was holding enough that a spirited drive to Harwich meant we didn't miss the ferry.
Knowing better than to mess with it (sure...), whilst waiting for the connection from Denmark to Norway, I noticed it weeping and cracked the bloody thing off again. Cue more chem metal but sadly this time it didn't hold. So ended up sleeping in it till morning whilst it dried fully before getting to destination and doing a proper bodge fix.
Lastly, hardly embarrassing, but might have been for the breakdown guy.
I blew the engine on a mk1 CRX around Applecross on a car club outing. It was starting to go and I figured might as well let it as was going to do an engine swap anyway.
Rang the breakdown folks. They arranged to collect it and deliver it all the way back to Harrogate where I was at the time.
So left the keys in it under the visor in a layby, and I went shotgun in another car, opened the beers and continued on the road trip.
Managed to persuade a lad to sell me his CRX by plying him with beer (he said it was a death trap, I needed a car) he was replacing with a teg and drove that back home at the end of the trip.
She was beyond repair but still had a MOT ticket.
Turned up at home a few days later and there it was with the key through the letterbox.
Took the death CRX around Germany and Czech. Inc a stint on the autobahn to find the top speed
That didn't break down, tho it was mainly held together with structural filler.
Broke it for parts after.
Panicingly beached the car just off the side of the road and couldn't get it off again.
One nice fellow stopped and we progressed through the languages neither of us had in common.
Bulgarian, Russian, English, settling on broken French and German.
We tried to push it out but not much use.
Luckily the police turned up.
They took the piss out of me a little (drinking, drugs, sleeping, all with hand signals as still no common language) then flagged down a passing artic truck.
They had to pass on the first one they stopped as not the right type or something?!?
Second one was stopped, quick laugh as they explained as he probably was shitting himself over being pulled over... Roped up the car to the front of it and he pulled me out backwards.
Everyone shook hands and were very friendly, no doubt laughing at the silly tit with the steering wheel on the wrong side that couldn't drive.
All in 20mins. No chance of that happening over here.
Would be road closed and hours delay before common sense dropped by the traffic wombles.
Then a little later in the journey, on another day mind, ran out of fuel searching for a petrol station that would take a card as had crossed the border to Romania with no local cash.
Flagged a lift some 15miles to the nearest one with jerry can in tow. No worries.
Getting back however zero luck. Walked about 3 miles with can in tow. 20ltr container with about 15ltr in it.
Finally someone stopped for me.
On a moped. And this was a big dude.
Not being a slight build either, here are two fat blokes on a 50cc with gears ?!? with 15ltr in tow cos sod all place to carry it, not exactly bombing down the road.
Hills were hilarious.
I thought I'd have to get off and walk it, but by god he thrashed the hell out of it and somehow we made it back to the car.
Once again language wasn't common. I tired to offer him some cash with my much thanks, but he gave me a look of disgust and rode off (and I wasn't being stingy!).
Snapped the plug off the end of the clutch cable on the astra one time.
Had to drive it home 20 miles, urban, without a clutch which was fun.
Mainly setting off from the lights by having it in gear and starting it, else it would not go in from idle.
Other than starts, quite easy.
Accidentally put 20quids worth of petrol in the astra.
Had run out of veg and it'd been so long since I'd put diesel into it (years) that having driving the petrol CRX, I was just on auto pilot and picked the petrol pump.
Got quite far before there was a problem.
Figured out the issue once I undid the injectors nuts - thought it was air issue.
Luckily broke down outside an Aldi.
Tripped in and bought a lot of veg. Brimmed the tank, bled the pump through, fired up and continued on my merry way
On a CRX mk2. Night before a an epic trip to Norway from Harrogate via Harwich & Denmark as the more direct Newcastle ferry had been fire damaged, I snapped the bleed nipple off the cooling system.
Christ knows why I chose a Saturday evening to do that. So first thing Sunday morning was buying chemical metal and two hours later thanks to a hair drier, the bolt was holding enough that a spirited drive to Harwich meant we didn't miss the ferry.
Knowing better than to mess with it (sure...), whilst waiting for the connection from Denmark to Norway, I noticed it weeping and cracked the bloody thing off again. Cue more chem metal but sadly this time it didn't hold. So ended up sleeping in it till morning whilst it dried fully before getting to destination and doing a proper bodge fix.
Lastly, hardly embarrassing, but might have been for the breakdown guy.
I blew the engine on a mk1 CRX around Applecross on a car club outing. It was starting to go and I figured might as well let it as was going to do an engine swap anyway.
Rang the breakdown folks. They arranged to collect it and deliver it all the way back to Harrogate where I was at the time.
So left the keys in it under the visor in a layby, and I went shotgun in another car, opened the beers and continued on the road trip.
Managed to persuade a lad to sell me his CRX by plying him with beer (he said it was a death trap, I needed a car) he was replacing with a teg and drove that back home at the end of the trip.
She was beyond repair but still had a MOT ticket.
Turned up at home a few days later and there it was with the key through the letterbox.
Took the death CRX around Germany and Czech. Inc a stint on the autobahn to find the top speed
That didn't break down, tho it was mainly held together with structural filler.
Broke it for parts after.