UFO Car Stop phenomenon...
Many years ago, on a rather damp and misty night on the Isle of Skye, I was round at a friend's house dropping off some computery bits. We had a cup of tea and watched the tail end of a Discovery Channel nonsense piece about UFOs. Wooo spooky, "Truth Is Out There", fire up the Proteus for that X-Files whistle sample stuff. Great.
Off home I went, and thought "oh, if I cut over this back road I can catch the Chinese takeaway before it shuts". For those who know it, this is the Struan road; for those who do not, a single-track (wide enough for one not-very-wide car) road that winds across moorland and through some forest plantation. Did I mention the thick mist? Could barely see past the end of the bonnet.
So as I aimed my wee Volvo 340 off up the steep hill at the start of this road, I noticed that my headlights kept flickering. At first I put it down to just changes in the mist, but no - they would go a bit brighter, then back to normal. Odd. Oh well. Flicker, flicker. There it goes again. Odd. Heh, UFOs. Heh.

The hill gets steeper just as you get to the top and go around a corner, and then you're out of sight of the houses. Cog it down to third for the steep part, the engine splutters a bit. Must just be the damp, it's really misty. UFOs! Heheh. Mmmm, chinese food soon. Flicker flicker. Dammit, why is it doing that? Down to second for the tight bend at the top - splutter splutter blork.
Dark, and quiet. The engine stopped, the lights went off, the radios went off, the dashboard and all the instrument lights went off. FFFFUUU UFOs! ohshitohshitohshit UFOs!

No, a grotty earth terminal on the battery.

Sorry about the length, but at least it was easy to clean off the vinyl seats.
(gordonjcp, Sat 9 Apr 2011, 14:56, Reply)