Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related An automobile question

Hey all,

I have another question. Lois pulls her car to the side of the road and puts the hood up. She needs to make the car not work so that someone will have to come to fix the car. But I don't want it to be really obvious what is wrong (or that she made the car not work). What does she do? Any ideas would be welcome.

ML

What season is it in? Probably the easiest thing you could do is have one of the hoses spring a leak, or have the engine overheat.

Laura (vetern of starters giving out, radiators breaking, alternators wearing out, and all manner of mechanical problems)

Sugar in the gas tank would do it, though she'd be in for a huge repair bill when she wanted her car again. From what I've heard from people who have gone through it (someone pulled a "prank" on the car in the high school parking lot, etc.), it does enough damage that some people just replace the car rather than try to get it to run right again.

It might be more drastic than what you want her to do, but it would have the benefit of not being obvious until the car went through a major inspection.

Kathy

Is this spur of the moment or premeditated? How easy (or not) does she want to problem to be to fix (not to find -- you clearly want that to be difficult).

Something with the battery and/or electrical system can be very difficult to track down, but can be pretty easy to fix once located. Loose or corroded connections, electrical shorts . . .

Lois is planning to break down - so that she can flag someone down. He then needs to be stranded when she steals his vehicle (she doesn't want him following her).

I don't think she wants to permanently disable the vehicle, however. I suppose I could have her put sugar in the gas tank. But then the rental car she put the sugar in would be destroyed. I'm not sure she is going to want to do that.

I like the idea of having her use her Swiss Army knife to put a hole in a hose. But what hose would she put the hole in? Or how would she disable an electrical system or a battery?

ML

If this is premeditated, can't she just bring along a non-functional car battery? Simple enough to switch it with the good one, and then hide it somewhere (in the trunk under a bunch of stuff, maybe? Or under the seat?

Of course, if "someone" is Clark, he'll find the battery pretty easily.

Take the distributor cap off, and stick it in her pocket or purse. Easily fixed, but only if you have the part, and I've heard that it disables the car.

LOL, but just had a moment of dizzying deja vu when I read the replies. I asked a similar question a while back and for a confusing moment thought it was that thread resurrected.

Here's a link to that question, just in case some of the answers I got back then are of any use to you:

Car Thread

LabRat

Take off the distributer cap, loosen one of the screws underneath and put the cap back on. It breaks the connection and the car won't start. It's an easily fixed sabotage, does no damage, and is awfully hard to spot.

No, this isn't original with me. I read about it, years ago.

Nan

Nan, that's perfect. That's what I'll do then. It sounds easy enough, doesn't require any additional equipment and won't cost the rental company or insurance company a fortune in repairs. And thanks everyone for your ideas. Now, back to work on my story (until the next question ).

ML