Engine blowout?

jester77

Was at the gym last night standing at the window taking a breather. Across the road I was looking at a guy parallel parking against the flow of traffic. What happened next was very fast but this is how I saw it. Girl coming in his direction at a fairly high speed. Loud bang, dark smoke from the front of the car, screech of brakes, car spins a few times and the back of it crashes into another car further down the street. Initial reaction was that she hit the guy parking but he wasn't touched. There was no other car around, so I can't see that she hit anything. The front of her car was an absolute mess, lights and number plate on the street and bonnet pushed in. The bumper looked ok from where I was but that was a good distance away. Would an engine blowout do this sort of damage?

Seth Brundle

Could a tyre have blown causing the spin and when she hit the car down the street the bodywork damage was done?

jester77

A tyre could have blown, everything happened so quick. But I don't think the front of her car hit anything, she spun on the street and the back of her car hit a parked car. But I could have seen it wrong.

mike65

If the bonnet is stoved in then she hit something! Engines blow up very rarely and when they do they don't literally explode all over the place. Rather they disassemble themselves internally which might cause a few bits to drop off due to all the shaking! Then oil and water mix and you get a plume of white smoke and metal-on-metal grinding for a split second and then silence.

http://www.bofunk.com/video/481/engine_blowup.html

Mike.

The_Magoo

Could it be possible that the damage was due to a prior accident, she was trying to get the car home when this mechanical failure occured, or was the car ok before this little incident!

jester77

I'm not sure how the car was before hand, just happened so fast and right in front of where I was standing. There was a black car parallel parking and next to it was a laneway, then a small little trailer and the car she ended up crashing her rear end into. I would have put my life on it that she hit black car but she definetly didn't, but there was nothing there to hit... really confused over it. Maybe she rear ended someone who drove off, can't think of any other logical explanation

stevenmu

Sounds like maybe a prior crash did some damage to the car, possibly engine and/or front suspension. The bang could have been something previously damaged giving way such as the suspension, or part of the engine seizing, causing her to spin.

My first thought reading the post was that she might have dropped into 1st while going fast and moving to avoid the car parrallel parking, which could make the back spin out (altough like Mike said I would have thought that'd be white smoke too), but the front end damage points to previous crash damage.

milltown

It is possible that the engine went pop and seized, locking up the front wheels. Being of the less mechanically aware sex it would not dawn on her to drop the clutch to keep the wheels turning.

Actually, that may be unfair. I'm not sure many people would figure out what's going on and press the clutch pedal quick enough to avoid a disaster.

Seth Brundle

surely if something like this was happening, instinct would get the driver to brake and clutch at the same time?