Pretty much what it says on the tin. I've got characters driving along in a relatively old vehicle (banger old not classic old) on a mostly level-ish road and the plot demands that they break down in a far more permanent/excessively costly to fix manner than running out of fuel or whatever. Anyone got any ideas?
Engine siezed up from lack of oil, or a thrown rod or a cracked engine block. Those would require a lot of work, like basically rebuilding the engine or pulling it and putting a different one in. Maybe they bottomed out pretty hard some ways back and cracked the oil pan and have been losing oil fast, and just kept driving. I don't know how far you'd have to keep driving for it to sieze up, and you'd probably notice some serious nproblems before it happened, like a lot of smoke and noise coming form the engine. But if they're in a despearate situation and need to keep running to avoid death or danger they might do that. Or maybre the driver and passenfger just don't know anything about cars and keep on driving long after it ran out of oil due to a slow leak they didn't know about. Or maybe the dirver is like "Oh yeah, there's always this slimy black stuff under the car when I pull out." and he doesn't realize it's oil or how important that is.
They're not either of those things. They are however very, very skint and short on options, so any car maintenance that they couldn't do themselves would likely get put off and put off in the hope that the necessary money would become available before the problem became terminal.
Welcome to my domain! Blew a hole once in head gasket, leaving a trail of flames behind. That's when I learned that mixing 10w40 with the native 5w30 will not improve performance. Timing belts x 2, engine seized. Broken radiator, overheating, will go for a while if one stops every 5 miles to let it cool down, refill the rad, until eventually claps out. Gear box, replacement cost a multiple of the value of the car. Fuel injectors, again replacement vs value of the car. Had a Landrover once, practically replaced everything, steering column, engine x 2, gearbox, clutch. Still wouldn't go beyond 20 mph and only for 15 miles. Some friends took that one, with all the caveats, replaced everything and got the same result. That might not help your story though, seeing as that car was just possessed. A couple didn't recover from hitting walls, no-one injured thankfully. My nephew's car was scrapped recently because the rear axle buckled, wheels tilting at an angle. I'm sure there's a few I'm forgetting. If they come back, I'll add them to the list.
When I was in college, i was drying my beater car 5 hours home from my university... the car started smoking beneath the hood. I pulled over in the middle of nowhere up in the mountains (not wooded, thank god). It was the radiator. I had enough money to call a tow.... I was still 5 hours from home. My dad had to send me money. if you are a broke college student, any amount of car trouble is a detriment.
Well ... if your car continually breaks down, then grabbing a branch and giving it a “damn good thrashing” would certainly do it.
Broken timing belt could cause the engine to seize, and is only fixed by complete engine replacement.
Lots of causes: - An over-tightened belt would cause it to stretch and crack. - A working temperature that is too low or too high. - Ageing of the belt. - Contact with a foreign element or a misalignment issue. I'd say it's best to look this up on google. As for what it would look like:
I vote thrown rod. That's an engine replacement. Plus, it's nice and dramatic for your story. A car throwing a rod sounds like a shotgun blast. BOOM! Then you immediately lose all power and coast to the vehicle's final resting place on the side of the road.
Just remembered another factor to take into consideration; the WIP is set in the UK which means that for the car to be on the road it would have had to have passed its annual MOT. Does that change the options at all?
If you wanted it to be permanently broken, I suggest that the chassis be rusted out to the point that the critical parts that hold the suspension components no longer have anything to be bolted to. That's usually the death knell for a car, since it can't be repaired without a complete dismantling of the car.
Well, "broken to the point that fixing it would cost more than the car was worth and/or is outside the budget of a skint owner" would do.
That could be a "cheap" as a set of new tires. Just have the transmission crap out. That's a pending problem that won't be caught by an inspection.
I've been hearing a lot of bad reports about the Tesla Cybertruck. Brake pads that accelerate the truck instead. Doors so sharp that closing them on your leg by accident can cause deep gashes. A trunk that can crush your fingers. A body made of stainless steel, so when it rains, the car rusts. And it costs in excess of $100K. How much of this is real, and how much is just press speculation? I mean, if it's real, then ... yikes.
Aside from the things already mentioned I’d say things that could cause uneconomic repair on an old clunker would include a blown head gasket A failure in the transmission Failure in the gear box Sudden loss of coolant or oil leading an engine to seize A subframe giving way as a result of rust Failure of a wheel hub leading to a wheel coming off at speed Or any kind of crash that bends or breaks vital components… for example if you roll an old car it won’t be economic to fix the crush damage to the roof and pillars
Another factor that I should have probably factored in before. Although I've been calling it a car, that was mostly to trying to keep things simple. It's actually a camper van that my characters live in. It's a clapped out, geriatric wreck that's older than its driver and probably barely passed its last MOT but it's their home. So the write-off threshold would likely be higher.
Lots of these are still options. My vote of throwing a rod still makes sense. It happens when an engine runs out of oil entirely. An inspection might not catch a slow leak. I don't know if that's something they check. Either way, it's totally possible. The leak could have started after the inspection, anyway.
Be aware of terminology here though, if you are writing in a British setting we would refer to a thrown rod as a broken piston
Thanks for that. Using a USA term in a UK set story while being a Brit myself would have been embarrassing.
You won't see it. The belt breaks from excess wear and tear, and the car will lose power. So an older belt will more than likely snap under tension while the motor is running.
