This didn't happen directly to me, but I was a passenger for it. My brother's roommate had been car shopping on and off for AWD turbo 4-cylinder cars over the past couple years. I went with him on a couple of test drives, most recently for a 2014 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. It was at a dealer near their apartment, so we met up there and went for the test drive. Almost immediately he knew something was wrong with the transmission, and when we got on the freeway we heard a massive clunk followed by a weird smell. As he slowed down and pulled over, the rear end completely seized, and the car just barely made it to the shoulder. We stood behind the guard rail while waiting for someone to pick us up. The car had less than 30,000 miles on it when it broke, and he ended up getting a MazdaSpeed 3, which doesn't have AWD.
Anyone else have a car break down like that during a test drive?
I had the power steering stop working during my second class of driver's ed.
When I was a little kid–young enough that I barely even remember it, so probably the mid- to late 1980s–my parents had a VW run out of gas in the middle of an intersection during a test drive.
About five years ago I test-drove a Lexus LS I was considering getting as a hobby car. It never actually stopped running, but a few blocks into the drive, the tachometer needle dropped to zero and stayed there until key-off. I also jumped onto Kellogg and when I negotiated the long sweeping west-to-south ramp at the I-135 turban, the car kept wanting to pull to the side, requiring frequent input of corrections through the steering wheel.
If I had purchased the car, which I did not since I felt the owner was asking for too much (about $4500 for a car which I thought was barely worth $3000), I think I would have had to replace the shock absorbers (the LS has dual-wishbone suspension, so tracking is more affected by shock absorber wear than is the case with McPherson struts), and also disassemble the ECU and the instrument panel controller to replace leaking capacitors.
Quote from: J N Winkler on July 02, 2020, 11:43:09 AM
It never actually stopped running, but a few blocks into the drive, the tachometer needle dropped to zero and stayed there until key-off.
Sounds like a sensor problem, maybe?
My wife and I were once driving I-57 south from Chicago to Herrin, and somewhere around
Mount Vernon Effingham the speedometer needle went wacky, going back and forth between 0 and 100 and stuff. When I pulled off the Interstate at the Whittington exit, the automatic transmission wouldn't up-shift past second gear, so we limped the next 26 miles home on shoulder-less two-lane roads without breaking 35 mph. Turned out to be nothing but a bad O
2 sensor, and stupid computer that decided to enter limp mode for something so harmless.
Quote from: kphoger on July 02, 2020, 11:49:23 AMQuote from: J N Winkler on July 02, 2020, 11:43:09 AM
It never actually stopped running, but a few blocks into the drive, the tachometer needle dropped to zero and stayed there until key-off.
Sounds like a sensor problem, maybe?
In this case I don't think it was, since the engine and transmission continued to function normally. Leaking capacitors in the ECU and IP controller are known problems in the first-generation LS and this type of tachometer malfunction is a classic symptom.
Lexus forums have instructions for repair that generally entail pulling the ECU and IP controller boxes, opening them, using a solder iron to take out the capacitors, and then soldering in replacements. This is "brain surgery" since you are working directly on the circuit boards.
Quote from: J N Winkler on July 02, 2020, 12:40:38 PM
Quote from: kphoger on July 02, 2020, 11:49:23 AMQuote from: J N Winkler on July 02, 2020, 11:43:09 AM
It never actually stopped running, but a few blocks into the drive, the tachometer needle dropped to zero and stayed there until key-off.
Sounds like a sensor problem, maybe?
In this case I don't think it was, since the engine and transmission continued to function normally. Leaking capacitors in the ECU and IP controller are known problems in the first-generation LS and this type of tachometer malfunction is a classic symptom.
Lexus forums have instructions for repair that generally entail pulling the ECU and IP controller boxes, opening them, using a solder iron to take out the capacitors, and then soldering in replacements. This is "brain surgery" since you are working directly on the circuit boards.
My GS has had a couple vaguely similar issues. In the right side rear door, there's some kind of damaged sensor that causes the battery to drain. The previous owner's wife backed into the door and there's a pretty big dent in it. Since I still haven't found exactly where it is, and a shop wasn't able to fix it, I still leave the battery unhooked when I'm not going to drive the car for awhile. A couple times I forgot to unhook it and had to charge it overnight, and in one instance I accidentally briefly hooked it up backwards (it's a reverse post battery and I was tired), causing several fuses and relays to blow but no lasting damage. Before I had fixed all the fuses, the car would start, but no lights other than the courtesy lights in the doors would come on, and it wouldn't shift out of Park. During this, the fuel pump failed so after awhile it wouldn't start at all, but now it's fine.
Not a breakdown, but on a test drive in 2000, the car's fuel warning light came on before I even left the dealer's lot.