Strange one-off things your car has done

Dauphin · 19-03-2015, 11:37 PM

Want to share some weird car glitches?

This is in my AU II:

The other day I came home after a bit of a drive to do some chores to find someone in my driveway with their hazards on. As a joke, I turned mine on while waiting and discovered my hazards wouldn't come on! After parking, I switched the car off and tried them and they worked fine. Have tried them since a few times and they are working fine. That was the only time they've not worked.

One time 7 or 8 years ago I was reversing out of a driveway and my engine just stopped for no reason. It's the only time it's ever stopped on its own.

About 5 years ago I was driving home in a rainy thunderstorm after midnight on New Years' and my dash illumination lights starting flickering and browning out and there was a tiny ticking sound. It stopped after a few seconds and has never done it ever again.

About three months ago I was driving along and my indicators went crazy when I went to indicate a lane change. They both started quickly flashing randomly, then after a few seconds it stopped happening. Hasn't ever happened again.

Any other weird stuff like this happen to you?

**Silver Ghia** · 19-03-2015, 11:49 PM

My FG while reversing along a straight farm driveway at speed a couple of weeks ago. Heard the warning chimes with some big warning message coming up on the cluster. Couldn't read it as I was watching where I was going, but obviously the car didn't like going backwards that fast. Never seen it before, and never since.

**Charliewool** · 19-03-2015, 11:50 PM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5aW08ivHU

XR Martin · 19-03-2015, 11:55 PM

I was putting oil in a previous EL that I had just performed an oil change on, then quickly noticed a large amount of fresh oil underneath the car....but the sump plug was on!
I never figured out how it happened? Only thing I could think of that it was one of those quick pour bottles and I had dumped it all in there too fast causing it to leak out of somewhere?

Yellow_Festiva · 20-03-2015, 12:04 AM

Had a Citroen that my sister was trying to sell whilst I was overseas. Lass turns up for a test drive and brings along a CD to see if the player worked.

Apparently after the drive she was walking to the car and seemed interested in putting in an offer. She soon worked out that she left her CD in the car.. how? When the car was off, locked and they were walking away talking the CD starts playing at full volume!

She didn't buy...

CoupeKing · 20-03-2015, 09:11 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O08w8CegEeg

/close thread.

DBourne · 20-03-2015, 09:20 AM

In my previous 5, drove home one night from work and the tri gauges didn't move at all, no oil temp / pressure registered, no boost etc. I thought great, something's gone wrong.

Got home, turned the car off, turned it back on, all was fine. Never did it again.

For reference:

**Mesa** · 20-03-2015, 09:51 AM

If you want one off weird glitches, buy a SAAB convertible. They're full of them.

ZedTee · 20-03-2015, 10:12 AM

A couple years ago I was driving my XG on duel fuel, I was coming to a corner to turn left, the engine was still cold and stalled when I depressed the clutch, I put it in 1st instead of third and jumped off the clutch to roll start it, big compression lock up to the corner right as a copper was turning into the road, he spun around and pulled me over. I explained what happened and he could hear how badly the gas was tuned so he let that go. He looked at the tyres and found a few down to far, he checked my lights, the left indicator wouldn't work! I just had it on to turn the corner but wouldn't work! He then asked me to beep the horn, It wouldn't work! I got a minor defect for the three items and went on my way. Next corner was a left, Indicator worked fine and has worked fine ever since, then I pressed the horn and it worked fine! No idea what happened but I think my ute was trying to get itself off the road!

ZedTee · 20-03-2015, 10:21 AM

Another one was my Brother in Law was driving my sisters (his wife) Green VY commodore ute. He hated the thing, he's a Toyota man through and through. He was stuck driving it cause his wife made him sell his very well maintained 2005 hilux for a family car, she couldn't stand the thought of selling her flogged out, under-maintained standard commodore. Anyways he was filling up at the servo one day and he came out to the ute with the windscreen wipers on flat out with the windscreen washers on. He pressed the button to unlock the door and they just stopped. A few days later the Hazard lights came on while he was driving down the road. Couldn't turn them off. He sat on the side of the road for 10 minutes locking and unlocking the doors and swearing at it etc, when he gave up it just stopped. He put his foot down that the commodore had to go and got himself another 2005 hilux.

ford71V8 · 20-03-2015, 11:20 AM

I remember jumping into my old XY put keys in the ignition, and then before turning key, like always, put my foot on the brake. Placing my foot on the brake pedal turned the starter motor over. Was the weirdest thing. Car was auto and in Park and I was yet to touch the key. Car didn't start but probably because I had not yet given it any gas.
Foot off brake pedal, starter stops.
Foot back on, starter motor turns again.
2 of us scratching our heads over this one.
Turns out it was an issue with the gear position/selector switch and that it used same loom for taillights (memory is a bit vague, was many years ago and I was a very confused teen just wanting to get home).
New switch and all good but that was a strange one

Brodes · 20-03-2015, 11:53 AM

Early last year my EL XR8 began to hold gear for a bit too long which slowly worsened over the coming days to the point where it would need to redline before changing regardless of the throttle position. I first inspected the throttle position sensor with a good clean which failed to fix it, then in the coming days after this I continued to drive it pending further investigation and it decides not to do it anymore & hasn't since. Odd.

revcore · 20-03-2015, 11:54 AM

Back when I had my ED Futura the indicators stopped working so I replaced the flasher unit then as soon as I tried the indicators again the flasher unit burnt out. Put another flasher unit in and the same thing. Finally put yet another one in and was good as gold after that. Don't know what happened but it sorted itself out.

Dezza · 20-03-2015, 12:15 PM

My EA used to have self levelling suspension. One night I was driving along, and it decided to dump all the air out of the rear shocks. The trip computer started beeping, and the compressor pumped them back up to normal. I had the self levelling stuff for about 4 more years after that, and it never did it again!

**aussiblue** · 20-03-2015, 12:42 PM

My FG Ute used to frequently stall in reverse after I first got with a felling like it had hit a large kerb or the diff was sticking; didn't happen again after I found and tightened the loose battery cables that were also giving me DSC fault codes. And I had the self levelling suspension compressor in my NB Fairlane start while the car was parked with ignition off .

Whitey-AMG · 20-03-2015, 01:46 PM

Was driving to work as per normal one morning. Listening to my normal mix of Sabbath, Lamb of God , Rainbow etc,. I get stuck at the lights and my phone runs out of battery. I switch from Aux to Radio and some whiney song from Rihana comes on. Plays for about 10 secs and the GT stalled dead at the lights. I try to restart and it took multiple attempts and a barrage of car horns before BlueyGT fired up and got going again. Has never done anything like that prior to or after the Rihana incident....... Spooky.

Brodes · 20-03-2015, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluey-GT

Was driving to work as per normal one morning. Listening to my normal mix of Sabbath, Lamb of God , Rainbow etc,. I get stuck at the lights and my phone runs out of battery. I switch from Aux to Radio and some whiney song from Rihana comes on. Plays for about 10 secs and the GT stalled dead at the lights. I try to restart and it took multiple attempts and a barrage of car horns before BlueyGT fired up and got going again. Has never done anything like that prior to or after the Rihana incident....... Spooky.

\m/

Road_Warrior · 20-03-2015, 01:51 PM

My BA once, driving one winter morning and had the heater cranked, I heard a loud "crack" behind the dash and the gauge cluster fogged up and become covered in condensation. It never did it again

THE SLUG · 20-03-2015, 07:52 PM

Since I got my licence in 2011, my AU has done plenty of weird things that it has later rectified all by itself, the main one though was after my first and last attempt at doing doughies in the wet in a cul-de-sac...

I spun it around only one time, straightened up and started to head back down the street only to have the rear wheels start to chirp and get noticeably bound up. Oh dear, there were some branches on the road, maybe one got caught in the wheel? Nup. Nothing there. Continue down the street and it gets really bad, unless I'm going dead straight the wheels try to lock up and chirp, whilst making a god awful clunking. Yep, I thought, I've buggered the diff. Luckily home was just up the street, I limped her home and left it in the driveway for a month whilst I drove the 4runner. Started her up one day to show my dad, chuck it in gear and go for a drive. No clunking, no binding up, no problems at all. She drove like a peach, and has continued to do so until this day. Dunno what happened there, the diff was definitely not happy the night it happened!

Dezza · 21-03-2015, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussiblue

And I had the self levelling suspension compressor in my NB Fairlane start while the car was parked with ignition off .

Mine did that too when I first got the car. It would be hard to diagnose because starting the car would stop the compressor. Then one day it actually did it while driving. The compressor jacked the rest of the car to maximum height and we couldn't stop the compressor without pulling the fuse. Was one hell of a bouncy ride! Apparently the height was managed via a switch on the rear trailing arm. There was a little bit of play in the rear trailing arm so the switch wasn't disengaging properly!

jpblue1000 · 21-03-2015, 12:35 PM

Had an XF lock up the front left wheel on the freeway while traveling at 100Km's/h
left a small flat spot and of course sent the car careering towards the edge of the road as the left side tried to stop. my foot remained on the accelerator the whole time.
It freed up and away we went. checked the wheel bearing and caliper upon arrival home and all was good, and didn't do it again for over 100,000k

JP

CyberWasp · 21-03-2015, 03:06 PM

Many years ago I was stupid enough to own a 202 Fuel Injected VK Commodore.

Once it actually made it back home under its own steam and not via a tow truck.

Lunch · 21-03-2015, 08:18 PM

Not really a 1 off but years ago i had a turbo pulsar, previous owner had put a timer and boost gauge etc, was running 5 psi when i bought it, was 11psi when i sold it 2 years later, the only reason the bonnet was lifted when i had it was to fill the washer bottle and maybe to change the fluids 1ce..

MrMaestro · 23-03-2015, 02:24 PM

I've had a one-off 'what the...?' moment I've had while driving my G6. I was driving along at night listening to a CD when the ICC switched itself over to an emergency broadcast. As far as I could tell it was somebody muttering in a foreign language with lots of static.

And it locked up the ICC. I could either have this random guy talking, or switch the whole thing off. The menu and input buttons didn't respond. When I turned the car on the next morning everything had returned to normal.

I think it must have been Chinese state-sponsored hackers trying to gain access to my CD collection.

thehammer · 23-03-2015, 04:13 PM

my AU XR8 decided to drop the last 4ft of it's exhaust on the road, heard something scrape and then look in my rearview half my exhaust had departed the car sliding down the road, oh, and the car following me was a cop car, turned around picked up the exhaust and the cops were parked next to it, they had a laugh as I put the exhaust in the boot and let me go

thehammer · 23-03-2015, 04:20 PM

actually got another one, same car AU XR8

was living in Broome and decided one day to head 10km out of town and see what the top speed was, never tried before. Got the thing up to 240 fastest I've ever been in a car before or since. Went back home get out of the car and notice the righthand tail light had popped out of it's mounting by about 6 inches, only the inside bolts holding it on, figured the airflow did it

taped it up for a while and eventually got a new taillight, when people would ask what happened to the taillight, most people didn't believe me

ebv8 · 23-03-2015, 04:34 PM

2002 AU XR8 once bunny hopped at 100kmh with cruise control set, only did it once
and my old 1997 BA Mazda 323 1.8l while going around some spirited high speed bends bellowed white smoke, so i stopped it and started again and never did it again, i even tracked it and still didn't blow smoke

Kempe · 23-03-2015, 06:08 PM

Bought a second gen Magna back in 1998 and first weekend went a drive and when we returned after parking it wouldnt start and it was 36c that day.
I'm in the RAA so they sent out a local guy because we were in the country and he worked on it for 3 hours while we went for a pub lunch.
He was on the 2 way to someone who was contacting someone else and every one was stumped as what the problem was.
He should have towed it back to his workshop but he obviously wanted to handball the job back to where we purchased it for a warranty fix.
He towed the car and us all the way back to Adelaide to the dealer we bought it from
They had the car for 3 days and still couldnt get it to start then they rang me up to collect the car.
Asked them what was wrong and they had no idea the car just started up and seemed fine.
I used that car as a daily for the next 15 years and ran up 250000km mileage and it never did it again

vbomber · 24-03-2015, 09:53 AM

On my old AU rear left door opening itself and the car not sounding the horn alerting me it was open.... I was the only one driving it so it was never touched, never done it again but there was always something strange with that door....

smciner1 · 24-03-2015, 11:00 PM

Driving through Melbourne in my BA GT and I locked the Doors using the Button on the Dash and the Alarm Chimed to turn on (mind you the Car was still running as I was driving it), got home and my Wife opened the passenger Door to get out and the Alarm starts going off with the Car still running. Frigging weird. How does the Alarm arm with the Car running?