Sitting at a red light, the couple next to me was admiring my ride (even thou they were in a BMW) and I lightly revved the engine, thick white smoke started coming out the battery side vent. AC belt burnt! LOL At least i could drive it home.
Right front brake line blew in stop-go-stop-go beltway traffic. Took out both headlights and scratched the nose. Nicked the bumper cover of the Jeep Compass that I hit. And then there's .......... fuel pump was on the way out. Kept cutting off at all the stop lights and stops.
Great topic! Mine was in my first 84 manual with worn out struts. I was 16. Tried to pass a slowpoke and hit a dip going about 35. It bounced and swerved me onto the side of the little 1 lane road and was stopped by a tree stump. Right in front of my aunt anr grandfather! Only pushed in bottom part of bumper. 18 years later i still get asked if Ive tried to climb any trees in my car.
------------------ Patrick W. Heinske -- LZeitgeist@aol.com
1988 Fiero Formula - Automoda convertible repainted PPG Ferrari 'Giallo Modena' yellow 1988 Fiero 4-cyl Coupe - Dad's car, the Indy 'clone' (soon to be back on the road after a 6 year rest)
Iwas driving home form work one day and the clutch line blew a hole in it.. The next day after work again I was going to meet the tow truck to pick it up in my nissan truck when the fuel pump died on that.. Had to call for a second tow truck to meet the first tow truck. my neighbors got a good chuckle out of both my vehicles coming in on tow trucks... told them gas was too expensive...!!
Locking both sets of keys in the trunk at the Dells Run in 2002. Fred tried to "jump" the trunk release for me and couldn't. After the locksmith arrived, we realized that the trunk release button hadn't been plugged back in when I put the decklid back on - whoops!
I just bought my first Fiero with my Army bonus back in 89 and took it out for the first time with a buddy of mine. I wasn't use to the clutch and the first light I came too, I spun out in front of a Cop and got pulled over in front of a gas station after convincing the Cop that it wasn't intentional and getting off with a warning I realized I needed gas and was on empty, then I spent the next 30 - 45 minutes trying to figure out how to open the gas cap with the Cop sitting in his car watching.
Probably my most embarrassing Fiero moment: I was taking a really hot Brazilian girl out on a date. We decided to go to a bar & grill downtown. The parking garage had a steep incline at the entrance, right where you have to stop and get your ticket. And the Fiero had a manual transmission. I stalled the car twice, trying to get going up the hill.
Back when I was having starter problems: It was late October and time to put the Fiero to bed for the winter. The car was almost completely out of gas and I didn't want to store it like that so I headed up town to put half a tank in. Put gas in the car, paid, and went back out to the car and it would not start...no click, no nothing. Luckily the car is a manual and the gas station was at the top of a slight hill AND I was pointed the right direction. An older gentleman helped push it out of the parking lot and onto the road and on my way I went. Now, if you recall, I said this was a slight hill. First try was in 3rd gear with no luck and of course it took away all of my momentum. I got out to push along side it right when a friend of mine was passing my. I thought "great, he can help" but all he did was pull over at the next block to watch. I tried bump starting two more times with the last time in 4th and it still wouldn't fire.
It was that day I found out two things: 1) My friends are douches and 2) I had more than just a starter problem
Had an 85 SE back in 85, I pulled up to a stop sign , turned the wheel to the right, checked for on comming traffic from the left, seeing none, pulled away from the stop sign, checked one more time to the left, then BAM !!! I'd just driven into a tree on the right fender & wheel.
The intersection was set up weird, the sign was not in the usual place, it was set back about 5 feet from the corner. Turned out the tree was on the corner. I cracked the right fender up, and bent the right front suspension, you could see the wheel was out out alignment.
Backed it up & pulled away, then a few blocks away I stopped & check the damage. I was so pissed, $500 dollars later, they replaced the fender & fixed other damage.
Probably my most embarrassing Fiero moment: I was taking a really hot Brazilian girl out on a date. We decided to go to a bar & grill downtown. The parking garage had a steep incline at the entrance, right where you have to stop and get your ticket. And the Fiero had a manual transmission. I stalled the car twice, trying to get going up the hill.
When the cashier said over the loud speaker "a little red car is rolling across the parking lot". It was my first drive last year and I didn't leave it in gear or use the E brake. I left my cart at the counter and ran out the door. Caught up to the car before it hit anything or got hit. I surprised myself by finding out I could still run pretty rast - for a 68 year old. Lots of folks at Target got a chuckle out of that. I had to go back in the store and get my cart of stuff.
When the cashier said over the loud speaker "a little red car is rolling across the parking lot". It was my first drive last year and I didn't leave it in gear or use the E brake. I left my cart at the counter and ran out the door. Caught up to the car before it hit anything or got hit. I surprised myself by finding out I could still run pretty rast - for a 68 year old. Lots of folks at Target got a chuckle out of that. I had to go back in the store and get my cart of stuff.
That was you?
(just kidding!.... my truck sometimes doesn't go into park and I have to be sure to use the e-brake... but it is old.. '73)
Nope. Delivering pizza, had set the e-brake. It didn't release fully but I didn't know that at the time. The car felt funny as I was driving and I couldn't figure out why. I hadn't had time to hit the restroom yet as we were super busy.
Let's just say it wasn't very fun for me. I mention it now because it is funny, but at the time, I had nothing else so I did what I had to.
Probly when a friend and Fiero enthusiast let me drive their rare car around the parking lot, it was described as having a tricky first gear... I was anxious to drive it and I had only once before driven a 4 speed Fiero and was used to my 5 speed. I didnt even think about it possibly being a 4 speed. So I proceeded to try and start out in 3rd gear, killing it twice, thinking well.. he said it was tricky...then sucessufully starting from a stop in 3rd. After getting atound the parking lot and back to where he was he said, do you want to go around again in 1st? He was a good sport and I felt a little embarrassed. There were a few other Fiero guys standing in the lot too who witessed this. But I sure did take it around in 1st again
When the cashier said over the loud speaker "a little red car is rolling across the parking lot". It was my first drive last year and I didn't leave it in gear or use the E brake. I left my cart at the counter and ran out the door. Caught up to the car before it hit anything or got hit. I surprised myself by finding out I could still run pretty rast - for a 68 year old. Lots of folks at Target got a chuckle out of that. I had to go back in the store and get my cart of stuff.
Oh, I may need to revise mine :-) I had an 86 coupe that I used as a daily driver my last 2 years of undergrad. I paid $50 for it and it was a great little car once we replaced the clutch BUT it had a tricky e-brake. One morning, running a bit late to my 9 AM class, I must not have pulled the e-brake tight enough. Throughout class, I noticed my mom kept calling my phone and just wrote it off to her being annoying. As class ended, a friend met me in the hallway and said, "Public safety is out with your car, it rolled across the parking lot into another car." I was mortified.
Fortunately the other car sustained little damage and although public safety left the driver a note, they never called about it.
I was out with a girl on a date and we were sitting at a light, and I start to smell coolant and the guy in the car next to me informs me I'm leaking fluid. So I'm freaking out and I quickly pull over and turn it off. I call my dad and he comes and drives my car home (turning it off and coasting for a bit and then turning it back on) and I drive his. It was pretty embarrassing. Luckily it didn't happen on the way to the 30th, since that was the week before.
When I was going down the Autobahn and thick white smoke started coming out the back. Upper coolant hose had burst at full speed... That was back in 2003, though.
[This message has been edited by yellowstone (edited 07-24-2014).]
The following is something I posted in my local Fiero club's forum HERE back in 2011 regarding an autocross which I had just finished participating in. It's a little long, but I think it's worth the read.
When I turned up at the track this morning, there was this beautiful pristine 1988 Fiero GT 5-spd sitting there in the pit area. Turns out this GT belongs to Charles from Bellingham, who just bought it. And get this, there are only 10,000 miles on this GT. I'm not kidding... 10,000 miles. Wow.
The course layout was really really good. It allowed fast cars to go fast, and it allowed slow cars to go fast. How's that possible? There were no tight corners, no need for a lot of power to get going again. This was Duke country!!!
Now for the twists and turns of the day... I blew my first run in the afternoon by getting way too cocky, and entering a turn much too quickly with ummmm, exciting results. Spinning the car does tend to slow down the run. On my next run, I launched... turned after the first cone... and then the engine got VERY quiet. It was deader than dead, and she wasn't going to re-start. The track crew then earned their pay and found out first-hand how heavy a Fiero actually is and pushed me off the track.
I had my suspicions what the problem was, but before I could even curse or cry, Charles walked up to me and said, "Do you want to co-drive my car?" Excuse me, do I want to co-drive an '88 GT with 10,000 miles on it? Hell Yeah!
It occurred to me that the last time someone autocrossed an '88 GT with 10,000 miles on it was probably back in 1989!!!!
Anyway, as excited as I was, I was also terrified that I might possibly damage this pristine car. Putting it into the fence would not be the wisest thing to do!
It turned out that the '88 GT had lots of power, which was great, but it also had 23 year old tires on it with rubber as hard as porcelain, which was not so great. Combine that with shocks and struts which have deteriorated from sitting for two decades and all I can say is that the first slalom I went through was... challenging. I couldn't believe how squirrely the car felt. It felt dangerous. Did that slow me down? A little... until the next run.
The next run I wanted to push it a bit more, just a teeny weeny bit. Bad move. I totally lost control of the car and nailed, not clipped, but nailed two cones. Worse than that, one cone wedged under the front of the car. It was with great shame and embarrassment that I returned to the starting grid with a bright orange cone wedged under this beautiful pristine '88 Fiero GT. Did I mention that this GT only has 10,000 miles on it?
Charles was very good about it. He didn't yell at me or strike me or anything. Charles is a fine man.
I was replacing the A/C hose at the compressor. The car was on a lift, I was standing under it wrestling the hose into position. The metal tubing shorted across the starter solenoid. Did I mention the car was in first gear?
The hose got jammed against the solenoid terminals, so the starter engaged and would not stop spinning. It drove the front of the car right off the lift.
I was in the auto hobby shop on an Air Force Base that was full of other car enthusiast doing repairs on their cars. Only the front end dropped off the lift. I was able to get the hoses off the terminals in time to stop it from going all the way off. EVERYONE in the shop got involved in "how to get the front back on the lift" and the car back on the ground.
Right after buying my Formula, I had taken it over to my gf's to show her the car and took her for a ride. When I stopped to get gas and got out, I realized I had no clue how to open the fuel door. She pointed it out to me when she saw me looking around the door frame for the lever. (clearly in her line of sight from the passenger seat)
My '87 GT wasn't starting while trying to leave the 25th Anniv. Show to go get lunch. Blake almost had the ICM changed before MStangsBware piped in and asked, doesn't yours have a FP cut-off switch?" Sure enough, I had just forgotten to connect the fuel pump... I'm sure there are many more, but that one stands out to me.
The first summer I had my Fiero, in 2003, I found out the hard way the fuel pump liked to get heat soak and not re-start after driving the car awhile and shutting it off. First time it happened, I fooled around with it for awhile and then called a tow truck. However, by the time the truck arrived, the fuel pump had cooled and it started right up! Of course the guy charged me anyway. Then, a couple hours later it failed to start again! I hadn't yet discovered the pattern and so I reluctantly called the tow truck again. Same guy! He laughed at me over the phone for driving such a piece of junk. So I waited around and after an hour or so the truck never showed. On a whim I tried the car again. It started right up! Now I faced a dilemma - do I leave and risk missing the tow truck guy (who will probably charge me AGAIN since he has my credit card number) or do I wait around and explain I'm an idiot who doesn't know what is wrong with my junk car? The guy might be real busy but he might show up two minutes after I leave.
In the end, I waited around for another half hour and then drove right home and put the car away. I watched my Visa bills and never did get charged for a second (non) tow. But I am sure I made an impression on the tow truck guy that all Fieros are junk.
[This message has been edited by css9450 (edited 07-25-2014).]
In Brighton, Michigan there is a road with a double round-about. Basically, you go from one round-about directly into another (see red line).
I had just gotten my Formula and was about to discover how crappy the tires were. I usually drive pretty aggressively through the round-about, because people have a tendency to pull out in front of people in them (especially this one). By driving a little more aggressively, people hesitate pulling out...making it a little safer for everyone. First time through, I got through the first round-about and into the second when the rear cut loose on the damp road. I ended up facing the wrong way during rush hour traffic. How there wasn't someone else coming through, I'll never know. Those tires weren't around for much longer.
Locking both sets of keys in the trunk at the Dells Run in 2002. Fred tried to "jump" the trunk release for me and couldn't. After the locksmith arrived, we realized that the trunk release button hadn't been plugged back in when I put the decklid back on - whoops!
I did that with the only set I had on me, 200 miles from home, in subzero temps one night. Had to be rescued by my mom and brother with the spare.
I bought my first Fiero, a 1988 GT, in 2002 off Ebay. I'd never driven a Fiero; heck I'd never sat in one. It was about 200 miles away and I took Amtrak down to pick it up. I loved it! I couldn't wait to get out on the road with it and passed several gas stations as I pulled up onto the freeway to head home (it had a quarter tank of gas according to the gauge). I couldn't have been prouder if it'd been a Ferrari. Wind in my hair, every woman wants me, every guy wishes he was me . . . for about a hundred yards til it ran out of gas..
I was driving my 84 4 speed down a paved country road when a somebody comes up behind me and rides my bumper. I kicked it down and took off as fast as that car would allow. The person behind me kept right up to me. I figured I could lose them at the next intersection because I can turn faster than them. Well, I sure did turn fast. I dropped it to second, began to turn right and dumped the clutch. This was my first experience with a mid-engine. All of the weight in the rear spun me right around. I was lucky I didn't end up eating some trees. But, the embarrassing part about all of this was the person behind me was some kid in their mom's minivan.
Got pulled over by the same cop because I didn't take off the tint on the side windows like he told me to 2 weeks earlier and it wouldn't restart because the ICM was too hot.
quote
Originally posted by kriswinner:
In Brighton, Michigan there is a road with a double round-about. Basically, you go from one round-about directly into another (see red line).
The other side of that exit is just as fun...
[This message has been edited by Gokart Mozart (edited 07-27-2014).]
I competed in an all GM car show in Colorado. When the Emcee announced the winners, I had won best of show. He requested (over the loudspeaker) that I bring my car up in front of the stage to accept my award. Just as I pulled into the winners circle, a hose to the intercooler pump ruptured and blew about a gallon of coolant all over the place.
