Not so much trouble with the car as troubles with the husband's unwillingness to fill the petrol tank. SIGH. The worst case of empty petrol tank happened on a cold winters night on a country road 6 kilometres from home. Late night. Two small dogs in car. It was the worst because I was sooo angry. However, if you ever need someone to push a car up-hill, call me, I have loads of experience.
Oh, and the best was when he drove 3 friends to the golf course and on the way back the usual happened. They teased him no end, as well as complaining about having to push the car up-hill.

Wendy, sigh. Oh Patient One usually will wait until the gas gauge is on O before filling up - he seems to be able to judge how far we can get on that last bit before we really do need to fill up. I did that just once and I ran out of gas! Never again...

My car burned up on Christmas Day once. My parents had gone to my aunt's house and I was going to my sister's (we had been at the hospital for hours that week with my toddler niece, who had pneumonia and she had just gotten out). Being as how it was Iowa in December and cold, I went outside to start my car and let it warm up and then went back inside to gather up everything I was taking. Came outside, naturally locking the door behind me. Turned around and saw smoke *billowing* out of my car. Needless to say, my keys were *in* the car.

I retrieved the keys, opened up the house, and tried to call my brother. No answer. Called my brother-in-law (not the one who's house I was going to but one who lived much closer) and hysterically told him my car was on fire. He started to ask questions and then immediately jumped to the (correct) conclusion: "Are you home alone? I'll be right there."

Meanwhile, some neighbors had come over and one asked me if I'd called the fire department. To this day, I am most embarassed that this had not even occurred to me. So back inside to call 911 I went. Brother-in-law arrived with fire extinguishers and while he was attempting to extinguish car, the fire department arrived. Meanwhile, I called my sister to tell her I couldn't come over because my car had burned up. She arrived shortly thereafter to take me home with her, once the firemen left (one of whom she'd gone to high school with and dated).

And that's my worst car story.

My car story has to do with gas gauges. I've had at least, two cars, where the gas gauge stopped working. In both cases, the gauge was stuck at EMPTY. So in order, to know about how much gas I have in the tank - I would 'fill up' my tank, then set my mileage gauge to zero - and keep track of how many miles I went. (My tank held 10 gallons, and I got minimum of 22 miles per gallon - so I'd get gas before 220 miles.)

I knew how miles to the gallon I got, so I could guess when my tank was really nearing 'empty', and I would fill up before I ran out.

But, a funny story of a friend of mine - her car too had the gas gauge stuck, but in her case, the gauge was stuck at FULL. She lent her car to someone, and forgot to tell them about the gas gauge not being accurate - and later, she got a call from them because they ran out of gas. She asked them, how much did you drive? why did you not fill up on more gas? And their reply, "Well, we did drive quite a bit, but every time I thought about adding gas, I'd see the gas gauge and it indicated it was FULL, so I did not put more gas in." Ha-ha!

Lesson: make sure you have a working gas gauge, before relying on it to let you know whether you really still have gas in the tank or not.
For some reason, I think it is not that uncommon to have a gas gauge that does not work.

I have several, but won't bore you with all of them! Four that stick out in my mind are: 1) Breaking down just outside of Barstow, 108*, no phone service, and having to hike 1/2 mile to get to a phone. 2)Breaking down 1/2 mile from home, 8 months pregnant, and yes, 108* outside, and walking home 3)Breaking down 1/4 mile from home and pushing my VW the rest of the way barefooted 4) Breaking down on the highway in a car we were delivering for a friend and hiking a mile to find a phone. This one was an odd one, so I will tell you about it. We got to this little store at a cross point with another road. While we were there, a man came in and explained in halting English that his friend was sick and could he call an ambulance. While the clerk dialed I went out with him to see if I could help--nurse's aide at the time, dealt with sick people at my job, thought maybe I could do something.

When we got to the car (old 4 door Volvo) the man sitting in the passenger seat was gray, lips blue, and he had wet himself. Upon searching for a pulse, I realized with growing horror that there WAS no pulse and he was in the middle of a massive coronary. OMG! I had the other guy flip the seat flat and started CPR. It was crazy. The ambulance finally arrived and took over and his heart was in b-fib. Don't know if he survived.

Here's the odd part. We had that stupid car towed to a garage, which of course was closed by the time we got there. Tried starting the car up and guess what? It started just fine and ran fine all the way home. I think it broke down because I was needed at that crossroad that afternoon. God does work in mysterious ways.

I was 16 and as a typical older sister, I had to tow my 15 year old sister around with me wherever I went. One day I asked her to go put oil in the car while I took a shower and then I would take her to her boyfriends. I had just finished my shower when she asks me, "Where do you put the oil?"

Come to find out, she had put the oil in the master cylinder. I called my mother and described to her what had happened. She said, "DO NOT drive that car and whatever you do, DO NOT put your foot on the brake pedal!!"

Well, fast forward a few hours and one very angry sister. Our dad gets home and asked why were were still home. We told him and then told him what our mother (who honestly knows way more about cars than he does) said. He told us that it would be fine and that we could go (I think he just wanted us out of the house).

Ever wonder how long it takes for oil to get through your brake system? About 10-15 miles. This also cost about $600 to fix.