What is the wierdest auto problem you have encountered and what was the fix?

Question

What Car/Engine
What Problem
What Fix

Here is mine: 1988 Olds 98. Began running rough, changed ox sensor, changed mass flow sensor, finally took it to a GM dealer. Mr. Goodwrench, laughed walked to the rear door cigarette lighter and pulled out a penny my 3 year old son had drop into the empty lighter slot. Car ran great after that. Truth is better than fiction.

Answer 1

2000 (11/99) Ford Focus / Inline 4

A bad wheel speed sensor (damaged in an accident and butt-spliced back together) that didn't turn the amber ABS light on until after we'd replaced the bad sensor with a new unit. (Had to hook the dastardly thing up to a labscope to confirm it wasn't working correctly.)

Cleared the diagnostic trouble code and, after two hours of the code coming back, got disgusted and test drove it; it turns out the Focus ABS computer does a self-diagnostics test and won't turn the ABS light off until the car has exceeded 15 mph without issue. We did so and the dash light switched off and stayed off through three more ignition cycles and further messing with the brakes.

Answer 2

I bought a 1992 Mercury Tracer brand new. About 6 months after I bought it, there would sometimes be a horrible smell inside the car. It was like burning plastic. I took it to the dealer and they checked it all over. They thought maybe I had run over a plastic bag and that it had been stuck under the car. Nope, that wasn't it. The smell continued. The worst was after leaving a circus with a car load of kids. We were in the parking garage. The smell was soooo bad, but we couldn't open the windows or we'd get the smell of exhaust from the other cars. It was horrible. Finally, one day my dad was driving behind me. He was beeping and I turned around to look through the back window and saw smoke coming from the little plastic housing unit of the third brake light. Turns out that they had put a lightbulb in that was too strong for the unit. It was burning the plastic! They replaced the entire back behind the seats and I put a wing with a third brakelight on it so I wouldn't have to have one inside the car. No more problems!

Answer 3

98 voyager van - it must have a problem w/ the electrical system or the computer. At random times, after going over a bump, the door ajar light will come on, the automatic lock will lock and unlock rapidly and the interior lights will flash on and off. It's as though the car is possessed. I thought it was caused by moisture getting in somewhere, cause it usually happened when it was raining, but after this last weeks deluge w/ no issues I may be wrong. After 3 sunny, dry days the "service engine light" came on - the next day the van was possessed again. As soon as I drive it to the mechanic's garage it refuses to do it.

Answer 4

I worked at a Lincoln/Mercury dealer in Melbourne Florida. A man came in to the body shop complaining about a rattle coming from the back of his new Town Car.Three of us looked and looked and couldn't find the rattle. Finally we put someone in the trunk and went for a ride. He said it sounded like it was coming from inside the body panel between the back seat and the trunk. We took a air chisel and cut a hole in the panel and found a nut hanging from a wire with a note attached stating:" Ha Ha you finally found me". The dealer then gave the man a new Town Car and his was sent back to the factory and they were going find out by the build list just who might have done this and heads were going to roll.

Answer 5

A customer came in with a 95 Dodge ram pick up and said there was no air coming from the vents and the blower motor fuse keeps blowing. I pulled it in and installed a new fuse, sure enough it blew as soon as I turned the A/C on. I pulled the fan motor out from under the dash and about tens pounds of dog food came rolling out from the HVAC case. The lady had mice in her garage and they were stashing dog food inside her truck. She got a couple cats after that and we never saw her again.

Answer 6

1986 Chevy C10 truck, 305 ci. Would start to run rough after about 4 hours driving. Ran fine before that every day. Was winter time. Had water in gas tank, would sloush around and impregnant"sock" in tank, cutting off fuel. Finally figured it out when it was cold enough for water to freeze in bottom of tank and truck ran fine all day. Fixed it by cleaned out tank and installing new sock in tank. Sock was water seperator same as used in the diesel trucks.

Answer 7

1988 Ford BII.
It wouldn't start after my wife drove it to the store.
She pulled in and realized that she forgot something. Turned around. Got back in and tried to start it. It wouldn't crank over so she came in and got me. I went out opened the hood and tried everything I could think of. NOTHING worked. The next day as the bronco sat there I went out and just by sort of dumb luck I checked the shifter. MY WIFE FORGOT TO PUT IT IN PARK. I put it in park and she started right up.

Answer 8

Not too weird -but I had a leak in my gas tank on the bottom right in the middle of the tank--rubbed a bar of SOAP on it. It would last quite a while so I always carried a bar with me in the car.ken

Answer 9

my mom stoppped at a shoe store, turned off the car, then decided she didnt really have time to buy them, so she tried to turn the car back on, and it didnt
the fix: tighten the battery cables

Answer 10

clunking noise when turning

solution
removed bowling ball from trunk