Thursday, November 6, 2008

Chuffing Car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My plans have been completely scuppered for this evening due to my car deciding to break down on the way home, in a traffic queue, completely blocking the road. I couldn't believe it, it just cut out, no stall, nothing just the battery light coming on and no engine noise.


It refused to start, just flashed its glow plug light at me in defiance. A couple of lovely women (no men, gits) helped me push my land barge of a car into the exitway of a pub carpark to clear the road and I called the AA and sat in the car waiting for them to turn up.

I got a text to say they were turning up at 17:45, which was only about 25 minutes after I'd called them (lone female advantage I suppose). I'd already rung the Ford garage to see if I could get the car dumped there if necessary and given Jez the good news. About 17:40 I tried to start again and the bloody thing did. I let it run a bit, switched it off and restarted it - all ok.

I didn't trust it as far as I could throw it so waited for the AA man, who turned up pretty much on time. I explained the situation to him and admirably (I thought anyway) resisted giving the car a healthy kick. He checked the obvious things like oil etc but as it has only just been serviced they were all ok. Then he got his laptop out and plugged it into my car, not surprisingly the little madam wouldn't talk to it. He got round it by telling the computer the car was a much younger model, 2007 no less, this flattery seemed to work and she was soon singing like a canary to the laptop.

Two faults showed up (which he has written down), one being a sensor problem which is common on Mondeos of the age of mine and the Ford garage will most likely have the part in stock. The other one sounded more worrying, something about fuel pressure doofer dongler (will be fun explaining to garage). As it was running ok he said he said to drive and he would follow me home to make sure all was ok.

It drove home ok needless to say.

4 comments:

  1. That's a bit pooh! I sympathise, years ago I had a Renault that would randomly stall, I don't know how many times I had to get help pushing that to the side of the road. That would always start again by the time the AA man arrived and I'd feel a right numpty. Hope it gets well soon.

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  2. Its been pretty reliable up til now. I used to have a Citroen Xantia with the faffy suspension. Had a few corkers with that! Including one where the hydraulic fluid all leaked out on the orad outside my house which meant no power brakes, no power steering and no suspension! Luckily I only got about a mile away but it was a difficult drive back with no power steering.

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  3. That's why commuting by bike is the way to go ;)

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  4. Too tiring and time consuming for me to do everyday now, complicated by laptop transportation and running. That is the first time I've had problems with the car but its only 6 years old, its not ancient. I got rid of the Xantia when I movedjobs to Blackpool as I couldn't rely on it, commute was only 7 miles before then so it didn't worry me quite so much.

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