Le Mans - A Wedge Too Far ? No Chance
Discussion
Wednesday June 7th T-minus 6 days to departure
car overheats in standing traffic (fan failed to cut in)leave to cool top up with 2 ltrs of water continue journey replace blown fuse check system all seems AOK.
Friday June 9th T-minus 5 days to departure
commence fitment of new Kenlowe "blower" auxilliary fan
Saturday June 10th T-minus 4 days to departure
drain coolant and fit Kenlowe ATC unit in upper hose header tank connection, position relay and partially wire unit. Refill coolant system and run up to temp overheating, suspect airlock and begin purging system, after 2 hrs seem to have cleared all air from system but still running a little hot take for 5 mile drive still overhot and loosing coolant! Panic now begins to set in!
Spend all Saturday night searching Pistonheads and all other known sites for clues as to what cause could be.
Sunday June 11th T-minus 3 days to departure
finally decide it must be system loosing presssure via swaneck or expansion tank caps ring around local parts suppliers and locate a pair £4.00 & £8.00 respectively top up system check for air leaks and yippity doo all seems well
Monday June 12th T-minus 2 days to departure
Begin packing car for journey,tent,gazebo,gas cooker,flares,supersoaker,flying helmet,fuses,fanbelts,bulbs,oil,brakefluid,ATF Fluid, gaffer tape cable ties, spare pants etc.
Tuesday June 13th T-minus 1 days to departure
Have garage finally complete wiring to Kenlowe unit and check over cooling system all is A1, I now have the cars standard 13" rear mounted Otter switch activated automatic fan plus a new 13" front mounted Kenlowe "blower" which is automatic via its own seperate ATC control and an extra dash mounted auxillary overide switch for manual operation of both fans if required so no overheating issues in Le Mans this year!
Wednesday June 14th Departure Day
Awake 03:00hrs roof off 03:15hrs warm up engine and leave home 03:30hrs (my neighbours love this time of year!)
travel around M42 whole length of M40 round M25 down M20 to Junction 8 Maidstone at 07:15hrs starts to rain (hood up - sh*t) meet up with SE London,NW Kent & Surrey TVRCC groups prior to boarding 11:00 Speedferry from Dover.
Arrive Boulogne 12:00hrs and the party of 30 odd cars split into groups of around 5 cars each and head off towards our lunch rendevous in Grandevillers still pi**ing down.
95 mile journey in convoy with 450SEAC (Reverend) Tuscan (Billynomates) 450 Chimeara (Trinitycall)and 330 BMW arrive Grandvilliers without incident.
After quick baguette and fuelling up we head of to our first night stopover in Rolleboise still pi**ing down and all goes well until around 5kms from the hotel the wedge coughes and sputters to a halt with all the symptoms of running out of fuel! After much pulling and poking of leads to fuel pump by Rev it sprang back into life and ran for a further 1km before cutting out. After removing the wheel and generally fiddling about with fuel pump it was clear that she was not going to run so hail the RAC International Recovery Service. Rest of my group head of to hotel whilst I await man with van 20mins later wedge is on the back of smart French recovery truck and I am being given a lift to hotel!
Great nights alcohlic compensation and a little car dressing (nice wheels Dave!)
Thursday June 15th
I wave goodbye to one group after another as they leave for LeMans.
Final group to leave consists of 2 Griffs 1 Chim and Dicky & Julies Red 350SE shortly after I think they too have left I hear Richard calling Gandalf where are you? I make my way to the front of the hotel to see Richard waving his lower rear bodywork section around! It appears his entire rear spoiler and bumper was left behind on the curb as he exited the car park!Whilst negotiating with the hotel to arrange for said bumper section to be repatriated via the Post news arrives that my Wedge has been fixed and will be ready to collect at 14:00hrs Hooorah.
Good to their word Wedge is collected at 2pm and is running fine it turns out that the immobiliser had taken a dislike to the fuel pump circuit and had closed the relay thus preventing the pump running the garage had bypassed the relay and Bobs your Mothers Gearbox! We`re off to Le Mans again
or so I thought.........................................15 kms later I have the hose from the filter to the oil pump split depositing entire sump contents all over the engine bay, hot manifolds and drivers side exterior bodywork - it really does now resemble a Spitfire after a mission!
The said hose was too short to cut out the split and reattach but by cleverly inverting the hose it was possible to get the split far enough up the spigot to clip it below the hole thus keeping the 2 ltrs of Magnatec I was carrying in the boot inside the engine until I could obtain more oil and new hose which I did a few kms further on.
This got me to Le Mans for much eating and drinking with the gang in Maison Blanche.
Friday/Sat/Sunday June 16/17/18th
Drinking and eating interupted by several hours of noisy cars and fun fair, fireworks, flares and tomfoolery car behaved throughout including a 6 am 130mph run down the Mulsanne straight and a rather keen 40km tussle with Reverend and Billys Tuscan. All seemed fine for the Sunday night run to Honfluer until a cable parted company from the coil and I was left at the roadside again - this fortunately was a simple fix and we were back on the road again to spend the night in Honfluer (although I went to Harfluer en route!)so missed dinner.
Monday June 19th
Trip to the Pegasus Bridge and D Day Beaches was followed by a mad dash to Boulogne only to miss my ferry by about 15 mins! and had to wait in the car park for 6 hours.
But at least there were no further incidents with the car and she got me safely home in the small hours of Tuesday morning.
Am I going next year?
You try and stop me!
car overheats in standing traffic (fan failed to cut in)leave to cool top up with 2 ltrs of water continue journey replace blown fuse check system all seems AOK.
Friday June 9th T-minus 5 days to departure
commence fitment of new Kenlowe "blower" auxilliary fan
Saturday June 10th T-minus 4 days to departure
drain coolant and fit Kenlowe ATC unit in upper hose header tank connection, position relay and partially wire unit. Refill coolant system and run up to temp overheating, suspect airlock and begin purging system, after 2 hrs seem to have cleared all air from system but still running a little hot take for 5 mile drive still overhot and loosing coolant! Panic now begins to set in!
Spend all Saturday night searching Pistonheads and all other known sites for clues as to what cause could be.
Sunday June 11th T-minus 3 days to departure
finally decide it must be system loosing presssure via swaneck or expansion tank caps ring around local parts suppliers and locate a pair £4.00 & £8.00 respectively top up system check for air leaks and yippity doo all seems well
Monday June 12th T-minus 2 days to departure
Begin packing car for journey,tent,gazebo,gas cooker,flares,supersoaker,flying helmet,fuses,fanbelts,bulbs,oil,brakefluid,ATF Fluid, gaffer tape cable ties, spare pants etc.
Tuesday June 13th T-minus 1 days to departure
Have garage finally complete wiring to Kenlowe unit and check over cooling system all is A1, I now have the cars standard 13" rear mounted Otter switch activated automatic fan plus a new 13" front mounted Kenlowe "blower" which is automatic via its own seperate ATC control and an extra dash mounted auxillary overide switch for manual operation of both fans if required so no overheating issues in Le Mans this year!
Wednesday June 14th Departure Day
Awake 03:00hrs roof off 03:15hrs warm up engine and leave home 03:30hrs (my neighbours love this time of year!)
travel around M42 whole length of M40 round M25 down M20 to Junction 8 Maidstone at 07:15hrs starts to rain (hood up - sh*t) meet up with SE London,NW Kent & Surrey TVRCC groups prior to boarding 11:00 Speedferry from Dover.
Arrive Boulogne 12:00hrs and the party of 30 odd cars split into groups of around 5 cars each and head off towards our lunch rendevous in Grandevillers still pi**ing down.
95 mile journey in convoy with 450SEAC (Reverend) Tuscan (Billynomates) 450 Chimeara (Trinitycall)and 330 BMW arrive Grandvilliers without incident.
After quick baguette and fuelling up we head of to our first night stopover in Rolleboise still pi**ing down and all goes well until around 5kms from the hotel the wedge coughes and sputters to a halt with all the symptoms of running out of fuel! After much pulling and poking of leads to fuel pump by Rev it sprang back into life and ran for a further 1km before cutting out. After removing the wheel and generally fiddling about with fuel pump it was clear that she was not going to run so hail the RAC International Recovery Service. Rest of my group head of to hotel whilst I await man with van 20mins later wedge is on the back of smart French recovery truck and I am being given a lift to hotel!
Great nights alcohlic compensation and a little car dressing (nice wheels Dave!)
Thursday June 15th
I wave goodbye to one group after another as they leave for LeMans.
Final group to leave consists of 2 Griffs 1 Chim and Dicky & Julies Red 350SE shortly after I think they too have left I hear Richard calling Gandalf where are you? I make my way to the front of the hotel to see Richard waving his lower rear bodywork section around! It appears his entire rear spoiler and bumper was left behind on the curb as he exited the car park!Whilst negotiating with the hotel to arrange for said bumper section to be repatriated via the Post news arrives that my Wedge has been fixed and will be ready to collect at 14:00hrs Hooorah.
Good to their word Wedge is collected at 2pm and is running fine it turns out that the immobiliser had taken a dislike to the fuel pump circuit and had closed the relay thus preventing the pump running the garage had bypassed the relay and Bobs your Mothers Gearbox! We`re off to Le Mans again
or so I thought.........................................15 kms later I have the hose from the filter to the oil pump split depositing entire sump contents all over the engine bay, hot manifolds and drivers side exterior bodywork - it really does now resemble a Spitfire after a mission!
The said hose was too short to cut out the split and reattach but by cleverly inverting the hose it was possible to get the split far enough up the spigot to clip it below the hole thus keeping the 2 ltrs of Magnatec I was carrying in the boot inside the engine until I could obtain more oil and new hose which I did a few kms further on.
This got me to Le Mans for much eating and drinking with the gang in Maison Blanche.
Friday/Sat/Sunday June 16/17/18th
Drinking and eating interupted by several hours of noisy cars and fun fair, fireworks, flares and tomfoolery car behaved throughout including a 6 am 130mph run down the Mulsanne straight and a rather keen 40km tussle with Reverend and Billys Tuscan. All seemed fine for the Sunday night run to Honfluer until a cable parted company from the coil and I was left at the roadside again - this fortunately was a simple fix and we were back on the road again to spend the night in Honfluer (although I went to Harfluer en route!)so missed dinner.
Monday June 19th
Trip to the Pegasus Bridge and D Day Beaches was followed by a mad dash to Boulogne only to miss my ferry by about 15 mins! and had to wait in the car park for 6 hours.
But at least there were no further incidents with the car and she got me safely home in the small hours of Tuesday morning.
Am I going next year?
You try and stop me!
firefox1712 said:
Lovely tale - glad you enjoyed it despite the shenanigans.
Write a book - you have the knack.
Write a book - you have the knack.
.................... It Shouldnt Happen To A Wedge................ A Wedge Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest ......................
Wedgeside Story! Thats the one! right oim orrf to Penguin to get a contract straight away Cheers FF
rev-erend said:
I've still got the oil under my fingernails..
Any change of you traveling with another group next year
Any change of you traveling with another group next year
Was going to invite you with the WSV, and it looks like you might need it
Glad you had a good time and at least you got there, which was more than me
I reckon next year you'll going to install some sort of refrigerant system to cool your engine
I'll go for Wedgeside Story! At least it has music - just like a Wedge's sound.
You could call your car Maria and sing "I've just met a girl (car) called Maria" at it. Dunno what happens when you get to the rat-a-tat-tat of the song "America" though.
Out of the Welsh and English who would be The Sharks?
You could call your car Maria and sing "I've just met a girl (car) called Maria" at it. Dunno what happens when you get to the rat-a-tat-tat of the song "America" though.
Out of the Welsh and English who would be The Sharks?
Edited by firefox1712 on Wednesday 21st June 18:10
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