Travel woes

We're off in Fanny and had a bit of bother on the way.
I'll leave this here though ...


Sent by magick

A decade on. Bittersweet, seeing some of those names.

glatt;1012385 wrote:

A decade on. Bittersweet, seeing some of those names.

True, very true.

Sent by magick

Limey, did you get your car running yet? I haven't heard anything more about it.

This is where it all started at 1pm on Wednesday. You are going to need your maps, folks ...
We'd left home with Fanny in tow at 8am and got as far as three miles north of Tebay services on the M6 when the engine suddenly lost power so I pulled over to the hard shoulder and called the AA (Automobile Association, vehicle rescue and recovery).
About 2.30pm the first AA chap turned up, diagnosed "injector fault" and suggested that we drive in "limp mode" to the service station where we could review our options in comfort.
Our planned journey was: home - overnight at Sandbach (Cheshire) - two nights near Shaftesbury - ten nights near High Wycombe - one night at Sandbach and then home. And I had the basic package from the AA which simply gets your taken to the nearest garage if repair is needed. Until we got Fanny that's all I'd ever thought necessary as I reckoned I could always rent a car to continue my journey. But renting something with a towbar is a little trickier ... so I upgraded to AA Relay, which takes you to a chosen destination.
We considered our possible destinations and decided that High Wycombe was the best option as we could leave the car with a garage for several days if necessary. That was a relay journey of 252 miles. If you upgrade during a recovery you only get the first 50 miles free, after that they apply a mileage charge (£2.50/mile). But I still reckoned it was the only choice as we deffo wanted to be at High Wycombe. We abandoned the side trip to Shaftesbury.
(Saving £60 in campsite fees and £80 in diesel costs).
The truck for the first leg of the recovery appeared at 7pm. We reckoned our ETA at final destination would be around 3-4am.

Sent by magick

First truck (a local garage subcontracted to the AA) took us 63 miles, to Charnock Richard services where a real AA truck awaited us. The first driver drove our car onto his truck and said, inter alia, that it didn't sound like anything was wrong with the injectors.
We left Charnock Richard around 9pm I guess. Truck 2 took us all the way to Warwick. This is when we discovered that the M6 is nothing but roadworks at night with regular holds ups and slows, and four lanes reduced to one and other shit. Driver 2 used the hoist to get the car onto his truck. He gave us a running commentary on the vices of all the other drivers on the road. We got to Warwick around 2am or so. We were losing the will to live .....

Sent by magick

Sounds like a PITA. Were you able to get a vehicle with a hitch bar? We feel for you, hopefully you and Fanny will get back on the road soon.

Unexpected mechanical woes are the pits. Hope ya get stuff sorted, Limey.

Try to enjoy yourselves, out of spite if ya have to.:comfort:











I'm gonna guess it's the fuel pump/filter.[/outoftheblueuneducatedguess]

[size=1]Definitely not the Russians.[/size]

Truck 3 hadn’t been told we were towing so we had to wait 45 minutes for a colleague of his to turn up with a road-light extension lead before we could set off. He took us from Warwick to within 40 miles of our ultimate destination. He too was a subcontractor and he, too, said he couldn’t hear the engine “missing” the way you’d expect with an injector fault. His boss told him to drop us at a service station (instead of taking us to our destination) because he was *potentially* needed elsewhere. He left us at 3.30am assuring us that another truck would pick us up. At 4.30am I rang the AA and begged them to make it stop! Please could we sleep? They cheerfully agreed to reschedule the next truck for 10am and we popped Fanny up and slept the sleep of the just.
Truck 4, scheduled for 11am, was rescheduled for 11.30, then 12.20pm .... meanwhile, with some sleep and caffeine in me I got proactive and booked the car into a garage near our final destination and told the AA to take the car there first, and then take Fanny and us to our destination.
We finally arrived at 3pm on Wednesday. 26 hours in the arms of the AA and 31hours after setting off.
The garage say they cannot find anything wrong with the car.


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Bad gas? Do some burnouts around the station if it doesn't skip a beat go back to fanny.

An oxygen sensor that was going bad caused something like that to happen with my car. It would work for a while, then it wouldn't and the engine would lose power. I'd turn the car off for a while and when I started it up again it would work for a while, then it wouldn't and the engine would lose power again. Diagnostics didn't detect what was wrong in the early stages of malfunction. After it got worse the diagnostics pinpointed it.

Auugh! That's pretty bad. At least you had a instant bedroom.

I should think an injector fault would throw a code that a code reader could read.

Heavens above! It sounds like an automotive soap opera.

I know that I'm stating the obvious here but the incident itself tends to be a relatively minor part of the whole event.
It's subsequently being at the mercy of others who are pulling the strings, often in different directions, that causes the real stress and hassle.

I've never had the misfortune of having to stop on a motorway hard shoulder but the thought of it scares me given the potential dangers.
From your photo it seems that you retreated to higher ground. Very wise!

So are you camping now, or back home?

what kind of car is that? I don't recognize it. Kia?

lumberjim;1012437 wrote:

what kind of car is that? I don't recognize it. Kia?

I hope limey will forgive me if I'm treading on her toes here, but it looks like a Skoda Fabia Estate.

Google Images

Skoda Fabia Scout (estate) indeed, Carruthers.
Yes, we are at our annual music camp so don't need the car for a good few days yet. Hopefully the garage can find the fault ....

Sent by magick

Here's some old fashion driving music for the ride home.

[YOUTUBE]2y1TZXc5DiY[/YOUTUBE]

A sensor went bad on my Avalanche and it started getting 27 miles to the gallon so I fixed it with a piece of black electrical tape over the check engine light.

limey;1012446 wrote:

Skoda Fabia Scout (estate) indeed, Carruthers.
Yes, we are at our annual music camp so don't need the car for a good few days yet. Hopefully the garage can find the fault ....

Sent by magick

Wow, quite an ordeal. Here's hoping.

Cap'n... which sensor was that? Mine gets <> 15 mpg now. I could use such a fault of my own! :D

Pamela;1012489 wrote:

Cap'n... which sensor was that? Mine gets <> 15 mpg now. I could use such a fault of my own! :D

You can get a chip to increase hp and better mileage. My neighbor is into race trucks and he works on my truck. I don't have 4x4 if that helps.

I got the jalopy back today. Garage could find nothing wrong with it. They charged me Nothing At All for their work in trying to trace a fault.


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You probably can't empty the fuel tank and refill it with fresh fuel in case bad fuel was the problem; but, you can top off the tank with fresh fuel (preferably with the highest octane rating your car can use) to dilute any contamination. There are also drying additives, that you pour into the gas tank, to get rid of any water condensation in the tank that might be pumped into the fuel line. These fairly inexpensive measures would help rule out a fuel problem if the symptoms recur.

Well, we got home. Here on my island home there is but one sort of diesel so if that’s the problem I’d better buy a new car. But we got home without a hitch [emoji108]


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limey;1012890 wrote:

Well, we got home. Here on my island home there is but one sort of diesel so if that’s the problem I’d better buy a new car. But we got home without a hitch [emoji108]

Pleased to hear that all is well.

It's always a bit of a worry embarking on a long journey after car problems.

There are always thoughts at the back of your mind about a repeat performance.

It came as a surprise to me to read that diesel fuel isn't the only liquid causing concern on Arran.

They are becoming Britain’s desert islands. The heatwave has caused a water shortage crisis for islands from the Isles of Scilly to the Outer Hebrides.

Even Scotland’s mountainous and often cloudy Isle of Arran has been hit. Scottish Water had to charter ferries to transport 750,000 litres of water to the island from the mainland last month to prevent residents from going thirsty.

Sunday Times

It's paywalled but there might be a free article or two.

The field behind my house. Not much of a water shortage here. I saw the trucks. I think they were a publicity stunt or sump'n.

Sent by magick

But that's not potable water.

xoxoxoBruce;1013033 wrote:

But that's not potable water.

True. But the grass is way WAY greener than it was in Englandshire last week.


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That's cuz it's on the other side of that fence.

The grass is always greener over there.

:D

Gravdigr;1013104 wrote:

That's cuz it's on the other side of that fence.

The grass is always greener over there.

:D

Bravo, sir!