Nothing spectacular so far for me and my x1/9.

Christmas party 2013 at work. Drove two work colleagues that morning. One for lunch and one to a bar later on. Time to drive home, no passengers luckily. 300 Yrds out of car park the throttle cable snaps! (right at the pedal) A good half an hour fiddling and I managed to nip it together with some flanged manifold nuts and a bolt. (i just happen to carry this type of thing around in the boot)

So I'm limping it home, avoiding main roads being very light on the throttle and at some traffic lights the engine started to refuse to rev. I just manage to trundle through the lights and into a bus stop and it dies completely!

Scratching my head I end up calling green flag as its almost 10pm. Only to discover they only cover cars less than 15 yrs old LOL! It took over half an hour to get though so they could enlighten me! Shame they didn't mention that to my other half when she took out the policy!

Police even stopped to check I was ok, complimented the car and didn't know what it was. Its always good to be proud of your car even when its broken! I didn't mention I was on the way home from an xmas party, although I would have confidently taken a breath test.

Got home with a tow from my brothers land rover 130. On the way it was clear the battery was completely dead. Probably due to me using the X to jump start a 3.9V8 discovery the night before... DOH!

Two breakdowns in one 10 mile journey which took 3hrs!

I had fitted a universal throttle cable which had snapped and I had killed the battery so the poor car only has its owner to blame!

I should add that I don't think the x1/9 is any more likely to brake down than any other old car.

The only time my current X1/9 broke down was due to me putting the wrong petrol in the tank. I thought the higher octane stuff would burn cleaner with the polished ports and unleaded valves. It burned hotter and apart from boiling in the carb make no noticeable performance difference. I had to let her cool and limp home.

All the other issues are due to me poking about and finding bodges on my driveway.

You could open this up to the general Fiat page as I've had some doozies in other Fiats and different makes.

I've had a few break downs

1st major one was Input shaft gear on gearbox were grinding, suddenly it started to slip like a bad clutch - till i had no power at all Bye bye gearbox!


2nd was a ruptured front flexipipe - lost braking while doing 70mph, downhill towards a set of red traffic lights.... poo was present

3rd was Dead coil pack - i limped it home like 15miles, last 3 it couldnt do
Had to call it quits in fear or flooding my cat with fuel killing it

I've lost alternator power before - limped that home!

Ziggy

Worst one i had was breaking down in Calais just off the ferry, stopped for fuel and she wouldn't start. Dodgy battery was eventually diagnosed, but no break down cover for a car that age meant we tried and tried for ages to get her going on our own.
Six hours later she fired up and was fine for the rest of the week!
But a scarey moment thinking I would have to leave her in France!

In the olden days I used to have a Beetle. Cal' look, lower than low and noisy!

So there was a cute girl in the IT dept who was on a year out from Uni. Most of the single guys had hit on her with no luck. One night I offered her a lift home. She said yes. I made sure everyone saw her getting into my car that night!

She was telling me how she loved Beetles. We were getting on really well and I was just directing the conversation around to "what are you up to later" when......my exhaust fell off....on a junction.

Cue me pulling over, dodging traffic to retrieve offending item.

Rest of the journey home was in silence.

She didn't accept a lift again.

Hi there, normally only on the sicento forum so new area for me

My beautiful 1962 almond green morris minor traveller throttle cable broke on a main set of traffic lights crossing the A45 in Birmingham

Problem was I was with my very new girlfriend, and the only thing we had to operate the throttle with was one of her stockings!

She obliged by removing one, and I tied it to the carb, fed it between the bonnet and the wing and drove home using the improvised "solution" as a hand throttle.

We've been married 23 years now, so she is either a naive mug who had never previously had the "oops it's broken down" routine pulled on her, or a genuine person who really loves me. I think I know which one by now.

Sticking solenoid on the starter motor. Something deeply satisfying about returning to the car in a crowded car park, turning the key and nothing happens, then popping the bonnet, fetching a hammer from the boot, disappearing under the bonnet with said hammer and whacking the starter with it, starting the car and driving away

Never had a "good" breakdown, just the fact my cars know exactly when to breakdown to be a dick. So complete electrical failure when I was attempting to take my ex to an anniversary dinner, flat battery the one time I'd arranged to give my OH a lift home from work..springing an immense oil leak during a day out, suppose having the brakes fail entirely on hartside on a sunny day gave me an excuse to sit and admire the scenery.

Yeah, the best breakdowns are always when there's an audience to see your embarrassment. Turned up at a pub one night with X19 on the coast, it's the only place for miles arround so always popular with the locals. Parked up overlooking the sea right outside the main bar and the ignition switch decides its a good time to fry itself!
Lots of people walking passed saying 'nice car mate'....thanks buddy, except she don't go!
Only people I can get to tow me home are my mum and sister!
All street cred well and truly out the window as a nice crowd gather to watch us leave!
Gotta love the X though...

Hmmmm best breakdowns......

Fiat scudo eating it's own turbo and injector pump, limped to parents home 7 miles at 15 mph without enough power to even get up the slightest of inclines. Then towed home by RAC - replaced lots of parts cost nearly £800 in just parts and never ran right ever again.

Fiat Brava 1.4 threw a piston ring in Hull - drove back to South Wales on three cylinders and lots of smoke / bottom end oil pressure causing the dipstick to push into bonnet and dent it, the spilt oil kept catching fire when stationery.

Landrover defender, headlight switch blew up in the middle of the Yorkshire dales at 10pm in winter.... parked up slept in it, then completed my journey to Scotland in daylight, lost drivers side window wiper arm. Gaffa taped my mobile between the light stalk and dash to have full beam - covered half the lights with gaffa tape to get home.

Again in the landy, headgasket went, so removed expansion cap - refilled with water on side of M3, drove home and topped up the water, managed another 2k miles with the cap off and putting in a few litres every 10 miles or 30 mins of engine running.

Daewoo matiz - the plug leads kept coming loose and cutting all power, replaced for new - but they weren't good enough would drive fine for a few miles then engine would stall - happened outside a pub garden full of people: I lifted the bonnet with the engine running and there was electricity jumping all between the leads and the block - which was soaking wet with oil and water. I drove it home and sold it..... very very cheap!

I think I have the most spectacular breakdown for you guys...

My X1/9 had just rolled over 106,000 miles (first clutch went at 103,000). I was doing the quarterly commute from Iowa to NJ from Chiro school, when somewhere on Rt 80 in PA in the early morning hours I heard KABANG!!! It felt like I ran over a railroad tie. When I checked my mirrors, they were filled with nothing but white smoke.

As the car came rolling to a halt, a quick look under the engine cover revealed a softball sized hole in the block, where a rod had liberated itself at a most inopportune time. Not that there is an opportune time.

After the tow truck ride to a rural service station that proclaimed enthusiastically, "I always wanted to fix one of these"! Weeks went by with no word from Billy-Bob as they had no idea what to do.

So, I made 2 calls to junk yards and came up with a 1500cc engine from a Strada for the princely sum of $425! Drove it out to PA and 2 weeks later she was ready to go.

The X served me well to 175,000 miles when I gave it to my little brother. Great car and I can't believe how cheap everything was compared to what I've moved on to.

firstcar-Y10 said:

Sticking solenoid on the starter motor. Something deeply satisfying about returning to the car in a crowded car park, turning the key and nothing happens, then popping the bonnet, fetching a hammer from the boot, disappearing under the bonnet with said hammer and whacking the starter with it, starting the car and driving away

Click to expand...

A similar thing happened to my series Land Rover. Cold morning, flat battery, smug looks from all the people with modern stuff until I got the crank handle and started the car.

I've got another landrover story on the way to wales in my dads 110 some how the alternator mounting bracket broke throwing off the belt all we had to hand was a ratchet strap staped it back down put the belt back on and drove around wales for the day and back home.

and another time when we was coming back from a day out offroading my dads mate 110 starts overheating losings a lot of water luckily we was on a road next to the river avon filled a few bottle up with river water and drove home.

also drove home a few times in difflock after blowing a few diffs up.

Only time I've had a car break down on me was when i was stuck in my dads discovery offroading giving it a bit to try and clean the tyres to get some traction it got abit hot blew off the water pipe on the top of the head and caused the water pump to collapse we didnt want to drive it home so called the RAC.

It was in a Citroen CX Safari 2400ie Auto - just steamed past someone in a Fiesta going uphill - the sodding auto box chose two gears simultaneously standing the car on its nose. Fiesta driver very nearly collected me from behind.....bet he needed new undies !!