Darkness
A few years back, I was on the way up to the Lakes with a mate. Said mate was rather well known for owning one crap second hand car after another, and seemed to have a different one every week. On this particular occasion, I think the offending vehicle may have been an aging Nissan Micra. He was also well known for not having the greatest of regards for speed limits. And so we were driving along a country road, at night, and rather fast, when without any warning the electrics failed.
I have spent nights in parts of Africa and South America that are many miles from the nearest cities or streetlights. But I have never experienced such darkness, or been so convinced I was about to die, as that moment of hurtling along in a car with no lights.
Thankfully the power came back seconds later, and we pulled over until we'd stopped shaking. Even today I still get a bit nervous if I'm driving anywhere with him.
(williamdilkes, Thu 19 Aug 2010, 23:55, 6 replies)

Turn Signal
Once, the alternator failed on our car, at night. Not wanting to wait for repairs or drain the battery unnecessarily with headlights, we drove forty miles at near highway speed on the light provided by a turn signal. It CAN be done, but it's fairly scary.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Fri 20 Aug 2010, 0:16, closed)

hahahahahah
Same thing happened to me in my Micra in '95, on the downhill part towards Sheffield on the M1. First the clock went, then the dashboard, then the headlights, in quick succession. Like a fucking ninja..
( DeadEyeDick, Fri 20 Aug 2010, 0:45, closed)

Haha
That happened to me on a Bandit 1200 one dark December night (driving home for Xmas) on a country road. I was doing about 60mph just coming into a bend then suddenly everything goes dark. I immediately dropped the anchors but inevitably ended up in a ditch knee deep in mud. Better that than a brick wall I suppose.

I later discovered one of the coil packs had blown, shorting out and blowing the main 30amp fuse. Fuckin scary stiff at the time.
(Vinnie Strokes Got bummed on, Fri 20 Aug 2010, 9:07, closed)

All the electrics failed on my Citroën Visa II...
I managed to drive 200+ miles with no headlights at all.

Luckily it was midday in August!

;-)
(SatchmoR No, mummy, don't put knitting needles in my ears!, Fri 20 Aug 2010, 11:19, closed)

Happened to me too, in my Audi (ooh, posh) on the m4 in the middle of the night, at a fair lick. The experience of travelling at motorway speeds while not being able to see at all will live with me. Cue brakes that seemed not to want to work. I'm still here though, and so's (most of) the car.
(IdlePeAcEsign if trouble were my mistress, i'd send her to them, Mon 23 Aug 2010, 21:42, closed)

Alternator went on my Corolla went
First I discovered was that the radio went dead. Then when I pulled over to find out what was wrong, the car wouldn't start.

Eventually bump-started it down a hill and headed for home. By the time I got to town (about 40 miles later) it was getting dark, and the car had NO electrics. No lights, indicators, horn, nothing. Corners and roundabouts caused the engine to splutter and threaten to stall. Anyway, got to the house, and (with the engine still running) nipped in to grab a multimeter and see just how much was left in the battery.

And that's how I know that a 1986 Toyota Corolla can run on THREE AND A HALF VOLTS.

Turned out that the alternator plug was halfway out. Not enough to illuminate the battery warning on the dash, but enough to stop it charging. An overnight charge and a push of the plug, job done.
( eXOBeX, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 0:23, closed)