Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ - Cars and how to disable them.

Hi, guys

I know zip about cars. I'm looking for something you could do to a car that would mean it might trundle on for a mile or so, then suddenly break down.

It doesn't have to be detailed, I just need the name of whatever item, as in: "He removed the XXXX." or "He cut through the XXXXXX." That kind of thing.

Oh, and whatever method is used, it must be something that wouldn't be noticeable as sabotage to someone who has scant knowledge of cars. That could look like just a normal breakdown.

Any help appreciated! Thanks!

LabRat

Well, you could cut the brake lines, but that won't stop the engine, just the brakes. Or you could cut part-way through one of the belts (timing belt?), so that it would work at first, but snap apart at some later point.

Once, the car I was driving died because the garage had gotten water into the distributor cap -- the car worked fine at first, but later that night it stranded me.

And don't forget the lovely, all-purpose, vivid yet vague phrase "tampered with"

PJ

I know nothing about cars, but I was thinking something similar to what Pam said about partially cutting a belt - for some reason the word "fan belt" is what came to mind.

- Vicki

Dear Labbie,

Put some sugar in the gas tank? A banana in the tail pipe? (It always works in the movies).

CC

One time some kids stuck a Sugar Daddy -- for those who don't know it's like a big caramel lollipop -- into the gas tank of my father's car. It ran fine at first, but burned up the engine on the way to work.

Nan

I don't know the name of the belt, but there is one that is vital to power steering. When it snaps, the car still runs. However, you must do all the steering movements manually, which can make a car near impossible to manovuer.

Thanks for the swift help, everyone! Much appreciated.

Good advice, Pam.

LOL, CC! I thought of those, but I think they'd be more likely to stop the car dead in its tracks - doesn't sugar seize up the engine completely? - and I need it to work for a little bit after the fact.

The cutting through some kind of belt seems like my best bet, I think. Should do the trick and be relatively easy to disguise as a natural fault.

Nan's Sugar Daddy appealed to me an awful lot , but I couldn't think of any way the culprit would have something like that handy. <g>

EDIT: I've just noticed CC said sugar in the gas tank. I think that might be something different from what I was thinking of. Anyone know if that would work? Disable the car not immediately but a few miles or so further down the road? The idea has sparked something off and if it would do that I think I'd like to work with this one.


LabRat

I think the answer lies deep within our Sugar Daddy, Labrat.

I thought of sugar in the gas tank right away, but maybe that is too fast acting. I'm not certain. I mean, a boy I once dated went to reform school, but I, myself, never did.

But suppose the sugar was in something, in a more solid form, and it had to dissolve before it took effect? Ask poor Nan's dad, he'd probably say it worked.

CC-

Like...sugar lumps? But then, who uses sugar lumps these days? Hmmmmmmmm. Have to get the Muse athinking about this one... Thanks, CC!

EDIT: Okay, back. Thanks to the brainstormers on irc. Toffee, it is.

That should work! Now, just to get the Muse to write it all down...

LabRat

uhm.. i'm not so sure about that. i thankfully don't have any practical experience with these things, but i was under the impression that sugar in the gas tank would do a lot worse than make the car stop. see, sugar burns more intensely than gas. makes nice big hot shooting flames. again, i'm not sure, but i was told that sugar in the gas tank could produce an oversized explosion in the cyllandars, seriously damaging the engine and maybe even igniting the line back to the fuel tank.

i think your idea of a damaged belt is a better one. wear it thin in one place, nick it a bit. the belt goes round and round as the car drives off, and that weak spot wears thinner and then snaps, a few miles down the road. if you do it right, it'll look like ordinary wear and tear or maybe even a previously unnoticed defect.

only other suggestion i can give you is to mess with the electrical system. if you damage the alternator (the bit that connects the engine and the battery, so that the battery can recharge), the car will work for a while on battery power. you'll get a little light on the dashboard, like "check battery." it's easy to ignore that little light. the car seems to be running fine. but then the battery slowly drains, and, a few miles down the road, the engine gives out, the lights and clock and radio and things inside the car die down, and the car coasts to a stop. (this, btw, is exactly what happened to mom and i this one time when we were driving along the highway and the alternator burned out)

not sure exactly how you'd tamper with the alternator, but it shouldn't be too hard if you know what you're doing. i think if you just thin the wire, it'll overheat and melt down, and, in doing so, remove evidence that it was tampered with. it'll just look like a defective wire. or you could do something that would cause a short, and try to make that look natural (and, again, assume that when the thing melts down from the short, it'll be all but impossible to tell exactly how and why the short happened).

Paul

p.s. just did a web search. it's hard to find reliable info, but the best i can find is that sugar in the gas tank will carmelize in the engine, gumming it up. however, the same site says that it can also carmelize in the fuel line, clogging it. in either case, it should stall out, but i'd still be worried that it'd be unpredictable. not to mention that you don't know how quickly the toffee will disolve. oh, and it'll be fairly obvious what whappened as soon as someone checks out the engine. but maybe that's what you want. sorry... i'm half asleep at the moment, so i hope i'm making enough sense to be at least somewhat helpful.

If you use the Sugar Daddy suggestion, it would probably be concluded that it was some kid's dirty trick which was what we figured at the time. If you don't like the Sugar Daddy, here's a second suggestion, culled from life experience. You don't need to damage the alternator or the electrical system. If someone were to simply cut and remove the alternator belt, the battery doesn't recharge. It will start all right, but after while the battery discharges and the engine dies. If you look under the hood, you discover the alternator belt gone. The conclusion would most likely be that it broke -- and with it gone, there is no evidence that there was any human agency involved.

I used that particular idea in Four Days to Nightfall. I know it works because it happened to me.

Nan

Thanks, Paul and Nan.

There are no kids in the scenario, Nan, so that one won't suit the circumstances. But anyway there's no concluding to do because it never gets to the point of the car being examined by a professional, so that aspect isn't something that matters terribly.

Your other idea sounds very workable, though and I think I certainly have enough ideas to be able to work something out. Thanks again for the help!

Paul, many thanks for doing all that web checking. You're a star! Most helpful. I think, on reflection you're probably right that the unpredictablity of the toffee solution makes it dodgy. I don't want the car running for three hours and forty miles before it hacks out its last gasp, after all.

LabRat

A Sugar Daddy in the gas tank doesn't take very long. My father only had a few miles to drive to work, and the engine quit before he got there. The repair people cleaned it out, but it was never the same again.

Nan

Well, that sounds about perfect, Nan. Okay, last question - how common are these Sugar Daddies? <G> Would you be likely to find them in the store of a one-horse town at the backend of nowhere for example?

LabRat (whose Muse still likes the idea of sugar in one form or another...)

Well, Sugar Daddies have been around for a long time. I've seen them everywhere, so I think they could conceivably be found in just about any grocery store. They are actually just a big piece of toffee on a stick. Even if they aren't around by that name on the East Coast, a handful of generic toffee candy dumped in the gas tank would have exactly the same effect. If you want to be safe, that's what I would use.

Nan

Just a quick thought.

I have a strict rule that I *never* give my horses any sugar, but I know that *many* people still give it to theirs. And then we use sugar lumps.

So you can find a box of sugar lumps in any stable around... You probably don't a have stable with horses in your story, but I just thought... well, just letting you know that some people *do* use sugar lumps So if that person who's about to fill the tank with sugar came from there...well.

Pelican

domino sells sugar lumps by the box. you can find them in most grocery stores. they're not used too commonly, but some people still like them. and i know of at least a few restaurants (mostly in fancy hotels, but a few others, as well) that serve their sugar in lump form. considered more elegant or something. <shrug> i use sweet & low. :p

Paul

Another thing you could do is put a ping-pong ball into the gas tank. At first, it floats in the gas and the car runs fine but eventually, the ball finds its way to the hose that takes the gas to the engine and gets stuck, being too large to actually travel down said hose. This prevents any more gas from getting into that hose and the car stalls because it seems to be out of gas, even though the gauge says the tank is full. Once the car has stopped and probably been turned off, the ball will fall back into the gas tank, floating harmlessly once again...until the car is turned on again and the whole process starts over. Also, the driver won't realize it's sabotage until a mechanic takes the gas tank out and finds the ping-pong ball!

Sorry, Pel, Paul and Anne - got distracted elsewhere and completely missed these replies to my query.

Thank you! This is all very helpful and useful. And Anne - very interesting. <G>

LabRat

I'm late in coming to this but will reply from my experience. Sugar in the gas tank does indeed work and does damage the engine. The pistons seize up and stop moving. The car has to run a short while before it takes effect. The ping pong ball idea is also a good one and uses the same principle as something I know about. Pour a jar of pickles into the gas tank. Make it sweet pickles and you get a double whammy. Of course, not everyone carries sugar, ping pong balls or pickles around with them, so it has to be planned rather than a spur of the moment thing. If it's on impurlse, you can jam the valve on one or more tires with a toothpick or matchstick. It goes a little way before all the air escapes. Slashing the sidewalls is very effective, but immediate.

My knowledge is gleaned from having once taught some very mischievous

So many options, so many ideas. <g> Thanks, Jude - and everyone else for the very valuable input. It's definitely all very interesting. Now all I have to do is choose one.

LabRat