Dream holiday or drive from hell?
Discussion
OK, some of you may or may not know about my grand drive from Brussels to Malta and back (with a couple of weeks in between) but I just got back a couple of hours ago and never again…
I must be the unluckiest person in the world.
The list of disasters is (in order of occurrence):
1. Someone driving into me in a service station in Genoa. This Italian just reversed straight out of a parking space into the side of my car! His excuse was that I was turning around in an area for refuelling diesel trucks and as I was driving a car it was my fault because I shouldn’t have been there! The car was driveable but it now has a very second hand looking right rear wing. And this was only after getting it towed from the Autostrada to a garage in Genoa and a clutch of Italian grease monkeys attacking the car with crowbars and hammers to “modify” the damaged body work so it wasn’t rubbing on the rear wheel. This was all on day two. I managed to drive it another 1100 miles to southern Sicily until problem number 2:
2. The car was turned away at customs in getting the ferry from Sicily to Malta because I didn’t have the V5. OK I know… my fault but I’d always been told never to keep the V5 with the car. Anyway I had to leave the car in a garage in Sicily complete with keys (to a complete stranger) not knowing if I’d ever see it again and go to Malta as a foot passenger. At this point I feel like throwing myself off the ferry mid Mediterranean. Once in Malta I managed to calm down and got a mate to go to my flat and courier the V5 to me at which point I got the ferry back to Sicily to pick the car up four days later. Thanks god it was still there and finally I got the car to Malta and had 10 days relatively trouble free motoring before heading home. And now to the next problem:
3. Halfway through day one of the drive home (Malta to Bari) a terrible grinding noise starts emanating from the engine. It’s not burning any oil or loosing any coolant. It’s not misfiring or down on power so I carry on. On day two (Bari to Venice) the grinding gets worse and worse until an hour outside of Venice the air-conditioning packs up but still the car drives fine and the gauges don’t indicate any problems. Great I think. The grinding was the air-con compressor giving up the ghost – no big deal, I can live without that. So I get to Venice (a very nice place and thanks for the tips Mr & Mrs Fish). The next day (Venice to Munich) the grinding still gets worse but still no problems with the driveability of the car or the dash gauges until about two hours from Munich on the Italian-Austrian border I hear a loud screeching and a ping and shortly after the dash lights up like a Christmas tree and the battery power starts dropping like a stone. What I think has happened is the air-con pump has eaten itself and seized thus placing additional pressure on the drive belt (which also drives the distributor) thus causing the belt to fail. So no distributor and no charge on the battery. I just had enough charge to limp into Munich.
So that’s where I leave it. I’m now back in Brussels (base camp for me) having got the train here but the car is with Porsche Munich (500 miles away) where hopefully someone will phone me tomorrow and tell me what the score is. On the plus side I guess if you’re going to break down in a Porsche, Germany is the place to do it. However I have to say the drive there and back has been one of the most stressful experiences of my life (not to mention expensive) and I will not be attempting it any time in the near future. I still have a 7-hour train ride to Munich and then a 7-hour dive back to pick up the car once they’ve fixed it.
I must be the unluckiest person in the world.
The list of disasters is (in order of occurrence):
1. Someone driving into me in a service station in Genoa. This Italian just reversed straight out of a parking space into the side of my car! His excuse was that I was turning around in an area for refuelling diesel trucks and as I was driving a car it was my fault because I shouldn’t have been there! The car was driveable but it now has a very second hand looking right rear wing. And this was only after getting it towed from the Autostrada to a garage in Genoa and a clutch of Italian grease monkeys attacking the car with crowbars and hammers to “modify” the damaged body work so it wasn’t rubbing on the rear wheel. This was all on day two. I managed to drive it another 1100 miles to southern Sicily until problem number 2:
2. The car was turned away at customs in getting the ferry from Sicily to Malta because I didn’t have the V5. OK I know… my fault but I’d always been told never to keep the V5 with the car. Anyway I had to leave the car in a garage in Sicily complete with keys (to a complete stranger) not knowing if I’d ever see it again and go to Malta as a foot passenger. At this point I feel like throwing myself off the ferry mid Mediterranean. Once in Malta I managed to calm down and got a mate to go to my flat and courier the V5 to me at which point I got the ferry back to Sicily to pick the car up four days later. Thanks god it was still there and finally I got the car to Malta and had 10 days relatively trouble free motoring before heading home. And now to the next problem:
3. Halfway through day one of the drive home (Malta to Bari) a terrible grinding noise starts emanating from the engine. It’s not burning any oil or loosing any coolant. It’s not misfiring or down on power so I carry on. On day two (Bari to Venice) the grinding gets worse and worse until an hour outside of Venice the air-conditioning packs up but still the car drives fine and the gauges don’t indicate any problems. Great I think. The grinding was the air-con compressor giving up the ghost – no big deal, I can live without that. So I get to Venice (a very nice place and thanks for the tips Mr & Mrs Fish). The next day (Venice to Munich) the grinding still gets worse but still no problems with the driveability of the car or the dash gauges until about two hours from Munich on the Italian-Austrian border I hear a loud screeching and a ping and shortly after the dash lights up like a Christmas tree and the battery power starts dropping like a stone. What I think has happened is the air-con pump has eaten itself and seized thus placing additional pressure on the drive belt (which also drives the distributor) thus causing the belt to fail. So no distributor and no charge on the battery. I just had enough charge to limp into Munich.
So that’s where I leave it. I’m now back in Brussels (base camp for me) having got the train here but the car is with Porsche Munich (500 miles away) where hopefully someone will phone me tomorrow and tell me what the score is. On the plus side I guess if you’re going to break down in a Porsche, Germany is the place to do it. However I have to say the drive there and back has been one of the most stressful experiences of my life (not to mention expensive) and I will not be attempting it any time in the near future. I still have a 7-hour train ride to Munich and then a 7-hour dive back to pick up the car once they’ve fixed it.
Bad luck mate - i'm sure you'll laugh at this one day downthe pub...
Did you get any cash out of the greasy italian who drove into your car..?
What was the clown doing reversing his car into that area if it was for turning trucks?? I hate the way people who are in the wrong *come up with* excuses like that.....
Massive treks in your motor can be fun if you learn to take rough with smooth. Hope it hasn't put you off and
here's to your next adventure!!Sorry to hear about your woes - still, at least you didn't suffer to the extent that rjben did in France last month.
Hope you manage to get everything fixed without too much inconvenience.
i'm getting kinda nervous about my planned roadtrip round Scandinavia now...
>> Edited by julianhj on Monday 25th August 02:53
Hope you manage to get everything fixed without too much inconvenience.
i'm getting kinda nervous about my planned roadtrip round Scandinavia now...
>> Edited by julianhj on Monday 25th August 02:53
Buffalo said:
Bad luck mate - i'm sure you'll laugh at this one day downthe pub...
Did you get any cash out of the greasy italian who drove into your car..?
What was the clown doing reversing his car into that area if it was for turning trucks?? I hate the way people who are in the wrong *come up with* excuses like that.....
Massive treks in your motor can be fun if you learn to take rough with smooth. Hope it hasn't put you off and
Cheers mate. I have the details of the bloke who reversed into me so it has to go through the normal insurance process. He was actually drving a Luton van but that's still no excuse. Hopefully he'll give the same excuse to his insurance company. That way it will deafo be a no-fault claim on my part.
No call from Porsche Munich yet either
Thought you may all be interested in the latest update. Well my nightmare continues. After breaking down in Munich last weekend (see above) and having to get the train back home I was called on Tuesday to say my car was fixed. Great I think… The assistance company books me a flight to Munich for this morning to go pick up the fixed car. So I get up at 5:00 am on a Saturday (yuk!) and fly to Munich. I’m at the Porsche garage for 9:00 am: “yes, sir your car is fixed, here is the bill” 160 EUR for a new alternator belt. Not too OTT I think. So far so good. I say my goodbyes and head off on the 7-hour drive for Brussels. 10 mins later 12 kms away from the garage, after much smell of burning rubber and smoke coming from the engine the belt goes ping and the battery voltage starts dropping again! Same problem as before. I limp back to the garage and make my displeasure known. Turns out the air-con compressor has ceased thus causing the belt to go again. My annoyance is that they didn’t even check that the pulleys were turning freely before fitting the new belt. They obviously just got the car in, saw the broken belt, put a new one straight on without doing any investigative work and then parked the car up leaving me to find the source fault again. So it looks like the UK isn’t the only place with Mickey Mouse mechanics. Anyway I had to leave the car there (again) and fly back to Brussels so the upshot of it is I’ve had a 12 hour round trip to Munich for no reason and I still have no car. Oh and I still have to go pick it up whenever they fix it and do the drive back which is yet another full day. Not a happy bunny…
The only consolation is I got chatted up by a rather nice Frauline (sp?) on the flight back who gave me her number and told me to look her up when I’m back in Munich
>> Edited by t1grm on Sunday 31st August 00:14
The only consolation is I got chatted up by a rather nice Frauline (sp?) on the flight back who gave me her number and told me to look her up when I’m back in Munich
>> Edited by t1grm on Sunday 31st August 00:14
Sorry your stress management level is so low. Try driving a 95 quid Bedford CA ex potato van 9000 miles across Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to Nepal on frequently corrugated dirt roads, with remould tyres, the temp gauge permanently in the red (gets up to 50 C in the Afghan desert), get held up at gunpoint in Turkey, get ameoebic dysentery in Iran, get stoned in Masshad by Islamo-looneys for going too near some shrine, get to Kathmandu, make a profit on selling the van, bus up to Kashmir, get stuck in the '65 Indo-Pak war, make it out of there, then third class train to Bombay, pilgrim boat up the Gulf (sleeping on deck) to Basra, stop in Kuwait to sell blood to hospital to make bus fare to Baghdad, train to Istanbul, run out of money in Istanbul, hitch home in Euro winter.
Then save up for two years and do it all again.
Yoof of today got no backbone.....bring back National Service.
>> Edited by dadi1940 on Sunday 31st August 09:38
Then save up for two years and do it all again.
Yoof of today got no backbone.....bring back National Service.
>> Edited by dadi1940 on Sunday 31st August 09:38
Dadi1940
I’m impressed… No doubt this is some kind of recollection of a trip done in your youth or perhaps more recently? You’ve far more backbone than me! Don’t want to be rude but does the 1940 in your handle reflect your DOB? I like a nice 3-5* hotel where I can chill out myself if I can get it. Anyway, whilst I’m not trying to take away anything that you did, my guess is that if you embark on a trip such as you did (whenever it was) half the things that happened to you, you might well expect. My holiday on the other hand was supposed to be three weeks of pampering and mollycoddling myself in glorious countryside whilst I cruised the highways of Europe in glorious freedom. Unfortunately that didn’t happen but that’s the way it goes. Anyway, at some point I’ll have me car back and that’s all that matters really.
Cheers
Gary
I’m impressed… No doubt this is some kind of recollection of a trip done in your youth or perhaps more recently? You’ve far more backbone than me! Don’t want to be rude but does the 1940 in your handle reflect your DOB? I like a nice 3-5* hotel where I can chill out myself if I can get it. Anyway, whilst I’m not trying to take away anything that you did, my guess is that if you embark on a trip such as you did (whenever it was) half the things that happened to you, you might well expect. My holiday on the other hand was supposed to be three weeks of pampering and mollycoddling myself in glorious countryside whilst I cruised the highways of Europe in glorious freedom. Unfortunately that didn’t happen but that’s the way it goes. Anyway, at some point I’ll have me car back and that’s all that matters really.
Cheers
Gary
v8 westy said:
i always take some tools and stuff like tank tape and cable ties and a few electrical bits and pieces, i would have removed the aircon compressor, found a drive belt and driven home, less hassle all round!
Cheers for the advice mate but my car actually starts laughing aloud when I approach it with a spanner in my hand... no really I can hear it... it does... honest. I have a similar effect on women...
t1grm said:...and I thought that was just a TVR quirk!
Cheers for the advice mate but my car actually starts laughing aloud when I approach it with a spanner in my hand......
t1grm said:
I have a similar effect on women...
Hmm, here's a tip: "never approach a woman with a loaded spanner"
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