What's the smallest car problem that turned into your biggest regret?
Posted by mariyagel@reddit | askcarguys | View on Reddit | 36 comments
Hey everyone,
You know those tiny issues you notice and think,
Eh… I’ll deal with it later?
Yeah… sometimes “later” turns into a huge bill.
Maybe it was:
- A weird noise you ignored
- A warning light you kept postponing
- A small leak that didn’t seem urgent
At the time, it felt minor… but it ended up costing way more than expected.
I’m sharing this because I’ve actually dealt with it before.
Acceptable-Deer-2152@reddit
My stock K-series was making a weird ticking noise, I tried to diagnose myself and couldn't really figure it out. All I saw was that lifter #2 on cylinder #1 was stuck on vtec (it was at this point I should have taken it to the mechanic). I drove it home from school (2.5h trip) and about 40 minutes from home it started knocking really badly and went into limp mode. Ended up swapping the engine with a $400 junkyard pull in 2 days.
JonnyWzrd@reddit
A bit of a different take on this, because it‘s not the one thing I ignored that then broke and turned into something catastrophic:
Got an E39 for a couple years now and couldn‘t / didn’t take care of a lot issues it developed throughout the years. Nothing major, stuff like a broken window regulator, then a button broke on the climate control, then the shocks gave out, the list goes on. I‘m currently concidering selling it because there is so much stuff that pilled up and it‘s even gotten to a point where all repairs combined would cost a bit of money. I regret not tackling smaller stuff right away. One or two small things on their own are not a big deal, but now that there is just too much work I lost the joy of driving it.
RustBucket59@reddit
On my 2011 Escape, I'd hear a soft whirring noise from the engine whenever it went above idle. I thought it might have been the serpentine belt idler wheel or maybe the alternator. I figured that it would show me the problem someday.
About eight months later, my temp gauge suddenly went all the way to H and two of the cylinders shut down in a limp mode. I parked, opened the hood, and the water pump had literally blown apart. Coolant and steam everywhere. I was very lucky that it only cost $500 to fix and there was no head or block damage from overheating.
XOM_CVX@reddit
Tire thread looked pretty decent. It was dry rotting on the side wall tho.
Blew up while going 80+ mph. Nothing happened but could've been real bad.
mariyagel@reddit (OP)
Glad you’re safe, tire blowouts at high speed can turn dangerous in seconds.
robindawilliams@reddit
Had an old 80s ex military land rover defender, one day right before a big trip into the rockies I notice a few little drips of oil from the engine area. First thought? Oh good, my British car has oil.
Several hours up a mountain towards a camp site I suddenly see my oil light come on and I look behind me to see the most well oiled dirt road in history. Turns out the oil cooler line connector had cracked (must have damaged it when working on the truck in the previous week getting ready to go, or maybe it just decided today was the day).
Driving trucks up a mountain where normal cars can't easily get to is fun, trying to get a truck back down is dramatically less fun and took the better part of a day to get it somewhere that a friend could run enough oil and stuff to bypass the cooler to get it drivable again.
mariyagel@reddit (OP)
That sounds rough. Small leaks seem harmless, but turn serious fast. Glad you fixed it, getting stuck on a mountain is really difficult.
asul1843@reddit
I bought an used VW despite knowing how awful the the waterpump and electrical situations are.... and the waterpump blew up after 3 months
QuickCharisma15@reddit
I bet you were surprised pikachu face after that hahaha
asul1843@reddit
more like damn, opened wallet
pyroplane@reddit
Last winter, both batteries were weak on my 2018 diesel. Instead of replacing, I just charged/boosted when needed. One morning I jumped in truck and headed to work- and it wasn't until I hit a big bump that I realized hood wasn't latched properly from night before. Hood flew open, thankfully didn't destroy windshield. $8000 damage.
2 new batteries woulda been $500.
Pinkys_Revenge@reddit
Carb on my ‘66 mustang would boil over after turning it off hot. Was a bit of a pain to get it started again afterwards but I ignored it.
Then the engine blew up.
Turns out the fuel was going down into the cylinders, past the rings, and diluting the oil. When I drained the oil it looked like there was more fuel than oil.
CameronsTheName@reddit
Had this happen on an old mechanically injected diesel. The seal on the pump failed and filled the timing cover with fuel, which over time would leak into the sump.
I had an oil leak and it felt more like fuel rather than oil, which confused me but I continued to drive the car. Eventually the old girl spat its rods out under 38psi of boost.
UmatterWHENiMATTER@reddit
Second car.
Bought someone's project. Mistake #1.
Camshaft support was cracked and would leak oil into the plug tube and push the tube out (didn't know enough yet to know this was likely a cracked head). Tried to remove and replace it (not knowing that's not really likely to work) and very carefully torqued a lifter into the side of a valve. I heard PING and couldn't find an issue.
Drove great until the highway where I dropped a valve at 7000 rpm.
Nix-geek@reddit
Honda V-6's are known for a specific, very small, oil leak that will drip oil directly into the top of your alternator and kill it.
It's super annoying as the alternator is a pain in the ass to replace on most of their vehicles.
Cool_Dark_Place@reddit
Not Honda, but I actually had this happen to my '95 Toyota Corolla. Blew it's valve cover gasket, and it only leaked in one very tiny spot right over the alternator. Didn't discover the leak until my battery light came on.
Sink_Single@reddit
Had a slight vibration in the front end, didn’t think much of it. Weeks go by, I’m on the highway, all of a sudden the truck is bucking like crazy. Get it pulled off to the side, front driveshaft is toast.
Turns out that one of my hubs was not unlocked all the way, kept driveshaft spinning, and the double u joint grenaded. Took out the transfer case and cancelled the road trip. $600 tow bill, $2k repair.
InternationalCall957@reddit
I owned a 2001 clio sport took it on a track day and on my cool down lap thought I heard a rear wheelbearing noise. I dismissed it since it wasnt that bad and continued the rest of the day in a friend's car. Track was about 90 miles from home and this was at the end of February in Scotland so it was cold wet and dark. On the way home I got about 10 miles going down a slippery back road and suddenly my back wheel locked up and spun me into a ditch at about 40mph. Turns out the wheel bearing noise was actually my brake disc which had cracked and it locked up the wheel when it caught enough of the pad/caliper.
QuickCharisma15@reddit
I had a 97 Miata 5 speed I bought on Craigslist. It was nice, had only 114k miles at the time. I test drove it and it seemed fine. No issues for months. One day the check engine light comes on and it’s flashing. I was surprised by it but I didn’t feel any vibration or loss of power when I pressed the gas harder. I took that car to 110 MPH with the check engine light flashing, just to ensure there was no issues with fuel or spark. It was code p0300 for random misfire, multiple cylinders. That’s another reason I was confused as to why I wasn’t losing any power.
Well, I never took the time to properly diagnose it and kept driving it almost every day, and the day before my first wedding I was driving to the wedding venue to decorate. On my way back to my house, my best man and I are in the car and I see the alternator light turn on and my AC goes hot, and I hear a grinding noise.
“Oh shit, the serpentine belt must’ve broke,” I thought. No, it ended up being the harmonic balancer. On those Miata’s, the 1.8s use 4 little short bolts to secure the crank pulley to the crankshaft nose. Well, those bolts came loose and my crank pulley was wobbling, except this time it was completely rattling around. The reason for the P0300 code was because after 1995, all Miata’s had a crankshaft position sensor that sensed a thin trigger wheel behind the crankshaft pulley.
Since that trigger wheel was getting misaligned intermittently, that explained why I never felt a loss of power because there was nothing ever wrong with the fuel, air, or spark.
Well, I was 21 years old and didn’t make a lot of money so I bought a used crankshaft from a yard in Texas online and tried it. My mechanic father in law plastigaged the crank and said we could probably use standard size bearings but the crank is barely within tolerance. Me being a dumb, cheap, and lazy kid, I said let’s just run it.
Bad idea. It had rod knock immediately after I started it up when I put it all back together. It hurt my soul.
I never ended up fixing that car due to money and my own laziness.
And during this whole process, I remembered the previous owner telling me they replaced the timing belt shortly before I bought the car. And they didn’t lie. They did replace the timing belt, but they didn’t torque those four little bolts down tight enough and I was young and inexperienced with fixing cars. I miss that car to this day and I did end up selling it for $1000 with the engine removed from the car and used that money to get me a ND Miata. Then I sold that ND a few months later because I was getting divorced LOL. My marriage started and ended with a Miata
Montebano@reddit
maybe the miata was trying to prevent the marriage, because it knew.
QuickCharisma15@reddit
You’re not wrong 😂
TheGeek00@reddit
Transmission was clicking and “galloping” for like a year and a half. On the day I decided to take it in, it finally died on the way to the shop. Now I have 4 neutrals and no El Camino. Very sad.
ClassyCrusader117@reddit
Bought a car with non-stock rims. Thought it was a little thing, but since they were bigger than factory, they kept rubbing against the tire walls and wearing them out. Making me have to buy new tires every month. Never buying a car with aftermarket’s wheels ever again
ActionJackson75@reddit
I had a nice impala, that still drove well. It hadn’t been expensive to own at all, but I ignored that over the course of a week or two it gradually took longer and longer to start. Eventually I broke down on the highway and was so frustrated it left me stranded I just sold it to a junkyard. In hindsight it was obviously just a bad fuel pump or filter and today I could fix that in a lazy afternoon, but back then I let it total a car.. what a shame
RevolutionSalty8360@reddit
Had a transmission go out on a vehicle. Shop said $1400, or an employee could do it on the side for $750. Being young and stupid, I bought a convertible (at 16% interest) because I thought it was cool. And not even a nice one, a Sebring with 25k on it. I live in WI and this was my only car.
Medcuza2@reddit
Ignored a small leak in the boot (found out later it was from the rear windscreen channel).
Bottom of spare tyre well was constantly flooded and thus rusted out till you could see the tarmac under. Should have fixed the leak asap when I noticed my boot getting wet.
dumpitdog@reddit
A unique thing I did not know nor considered is that Ram trucks track drive hours and idle hours. I bought a Ram truck with low mileage and thought thinking that was a safe bet but after about 2 years it developed the "knocking" suggesting the cam was worn. About that time I was playing with the computer and found this tracking information and noticed that the idle hours was more than 8000. I typed that correctly, 340 days of idle. I researched it and Rams do not like to idle as the oil pump doesn't do a good job of pumping oil when it idles. So I traded it as fast as I could to a dealership that wanted a truck but I still last $5-6k in the overall process.
keithrc@reddit
Jeez, did the previous owner not know how to turn it off?
BondGoldBond007@reddit
Contractors in the south live in their truck with the AC on. The humidity kills ya.
Several hours a day isn't uncommon
reidft@reddit
My fusion had a transmission fluid leak, so I sold the car that largely had zero issues and bought a Kia Optima. I then put 4x what I paid for the Optima into repairs only for the engine to grenade in less than a year.
I miss that fusion.
Downtown_Reward_6339@reddit
I had a 66 Mustang with a Holley on it that developed an idle problem a few miles from work. I made it in, opened the hood to give it a quick check. There was gasoline everywhere, the transfer tube was leaking.
I sat in front of my car with a fire extinguisher and waited for it to cool. Had a coworker tell them I’d be late because my car hadn’t caught on fire yet. Had him bring out an extra extinguisher.
It never ignited, I fixed it the next day in the lot and eventually switched to Edelbrock Carbs. There are just too many points below the fuel line where a Holley can leak.
bfk1010@reddit
Land Rover Discovery 1997, water radiator always comes out and the engine temperature goes all the way up. I changed the radiator 3 times, and the issue always came back. After selling the car, I discovered that installing an aftermarket steel radiator cover would fix the issue because the original one was plastic and would always break.
keithrc@reddit
My son ignored it, not me, but I'm still the one who regretted it:
He was driving a hand-me-down Volvo S40. He doesn't see a center median on a turn and hits it one night. No visible damage, car drives fine- he thinks he's dodged a bullet.
A couple of days later, the oil light comes on. He adds a quart and goes about his business. Then the oil light comes on again a few days later. He's broke, thinks it'll be fine until Friday- payday. By Thursday, the check engine light is on, but he doesn't stop or tell anybody, thinking it's just a little more severe warning than the oil light. That evening sometime, I get the call: "My car just suddenly stopped running, and it won't start again."
The car was worth about the same amount as a replacement engine. We got him a used Ford, because if we hadn't, he'd have lost his job and moved back in with us.
That Volvo was a sweet little car.
B4DR1998@reddit
I used to have a BMW E39. It had the notorious inner pipe coolant leak. It takes some effort but it’s relatively easy to fix. So I started working on it. After disassembly I felt like I deserved a break. So I left it for a few days intending to finish the job later. All of a sudden I got sick and the delay became insanely long. Pretty much a year. I couldn’t finish it eventually and sold the car for a bag of peanuts. New owner fixed it eventually and sold it.
Blu_yello_husky@reddit
Maybe not my biggest regret, but definitely a preventable predicament, last year the car i bought was periodically having issues where it wouldnt start or it would stall randomly while driving, but start back up right away. I ignored it as I figured it was just bad gas or worn ignition components, especially since it was only once every week or so, so it wasnt super frequent and it always started back up anyway.
Ultimately what was happening is the fuel pump was going bad, and one day on my way home from an appointment, the car stalled in the middle of nowhere and wouldnt start again. I had to tow it home, and after my diagnosis, I discovered the fuel pump had completely gone dead. I should have addressed it when it stalled the first time. I replaced the pump and haven't had any problems since.
MNmostlynice@reddit
Thought my shock blew out on my truck. Some clicking was coming from the rear and I knew they were old. Kind of let it go for a few weeks before finally buying new ones. Got the truck up on jack stands in the garage to do the swap and saw the gas tank support/suspension mount crossmember was rotten. The clicking I was hearing was the top of my shock on the underside of my bed. I ordered the crossmember, popped the bed off, and dropped the tank to cut out and weld in the new part only to notice the frame behind my tank was rotted and had a crack about 18 inches long where it rusted through. Luckily Rust Buster makes pre cut frame sections and I was able to get a mobile welder out to get that fixed. What was going to be a $125, 30 minute shock job on a nice Saturday afternoon turned into 3 weeks and $2000. This was on a 12 year old truck too… Minnesota is fun.