24hrs to be recovered!
Discussion
took the frog to the beach last sunday... was driving home on the studland-corfe castle road at about 6:30pm when the engine just died... the starter motor was fine, there was plenty of coolant and no oil leaks etc... looks like the coil pack has demised...
called up heritage rescue and they said they would send someone out... a recovery chap turns up an hour later and basically tells me what i told the people on the phone... ie the car was dead and i needed a low-loader.
he disappears off and i'm back on the phone to heritage... to cut a long story short, we sat in the layby beneath corfe castle until just after midnight when heritage finally admitted that they could not get hold of a low-loader capable of picking up the frog that night... we ended up getting a taxi home (at a cost of £90 which will be recovered!) and arriving home just after 1am... great stuff as i was up at 3am to go to the airport.
eventually, i arranged for the car to be picked up on monday (i really wasn't too happy to leave it sat in the middle of nowhere overnight), and having spent far too long on the phone trying to chase things up (especially as i was now in malta), the car eventually arrived in my office car park at 6:30pm on monday...
...so that's 6 hours before we were recovered and 24hrs before the car was recovered...
a great way to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary!
p.s. cheers to speedy for digging up the telephone number for heritage,,, as i had left my wallet at home.
called up heritage rescue and they said they would send someone out... a recovery chap turns up an hour later and basically tells me what i told the people on the phone... ie the car was dead and i needed a low-loader.
he disappears off and i'm back on the phone to heritage... to cut a long story short, we sat in the layby beneath corfe castle until just after midnight when heritage finally admitted that they could not get hold of a low-loader capable of picking up the frog that night... we ended up getting a taxi home (at a cost of £90 which will be recovered!) and arriving home just after 1am... great stuff as i was up at 3am to go to the airport.
eventually, i arranged for the car to be picked up on monday (i really wasn't too happy to leave it sat in the middle of nowhere overnight), and having spent far too long on the phone trying to chase things up (especially as i was now in malta), the car eventually arrived in my office car park at 6:30pm on monday...
...so that's 6 hours before we were recovered and 24hrs before the car was recovered...
a great way to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary!
p.s. cheers to speedy for digging up the telephone number for heritage,,, as i had left my wallet at home.
Edited by toxic frog on Thursday 9th August 20:22
toxic frog said:
(i really wasn't too happy to leave it sat in the middle of nowhere overnight), and having spent far too long on the phone trying to chase things up (especially as i was now in malta
Maybe it was karma coming back to bite you on the bum for basking on a yacht while everyone else was in Blighty? 
Good point about the lowloader though, fatwomble, I was wondering that myself the other day.
Sorry to hear.
I recently had my first ever break-down and needed recovering (Not in the Elise fortunately). The Turbo on my diesel golf just suddenly went so I rang the RAC and explained what had happened and that I would need recovering and a hire car. An hour later a little van turns up and the poor RAC guy spends half an hour in the pouring rain digging around the engine bay and under the car before deciding what I had told him - I needed a recovery vehicle. He didn't believe it was the turbo though. After another half an hour the recovery truck turns up and now the two of them look at my stricken car before deciding that the best thing to do is take the car to VW and me to Avis for my hire car. They still don't accept the turbo has blown. To cut a long story short I get a phone call from the VW dealer a couple of days later to tell me.................... the turbo's gone. FFS!
In fairness to the RAC I'm sure they get a lot of calls telling them what's wrong with the car when the problem is something else altogether. I suppose they therefore treat us all as complete numpties.
I recently had my first ever break-down and needed recovering (Not in the Elise fortunately). The Turbo on my diesel golf just suddenly went so I rang the RAC and explained what had happened and that I would need recovering and a hire car. An hour later a little van turns up and the poor RAC guy spends half an hour in the pouring rain digging around the engine bay and under the car before deciding what I had told him - I needed a recovery vehicle. He didn't believe it was the turbo though. After another half an hour the recovery truck turns up and now the two of them look at my stricken car before deciding that the best thing to do is take the car to VW and me to Avis for my hire car. They still don't accept the turbo has blown. To cut a long story short I get a phone call from the VW dealer a couple of days later to tell me.................... the turbo's gone. FFS!
In fairness to the RAC I'm sure they get a lot of calls telling them what's wrong with the car when the problem is something else altogether. I suppose they therefore treat us all as complete numpties.
fatwomble said:
Bad luck, I hate it when they send out the little van to check that you are telling the truth when you tell the the vehicle is dead.
Is it normal for recovery companies to struggle to get a low loader to suit an Elise?
No reason why it should be a problem,I saw an Elise recovered last week, it rolled up on the truck without any problem.Is it normal for recovery companies to struggle to get a low loader to suit an Elise?
If I had known it was going to take so long I would have come out to see you Alex. I was on my way to my mothers place when you called, but I wasn't there long. I could have taken you home.
fatwomble said:
Is it normal for recovery companies to struggle to get a low loader to suit an Elise?
Had an issue last year. Wasn't the car's fault but a previous poor (non Lotus) mechanic didn't do the alternator belt properly... Anyway Direct Line didn't even pretend they were going to fix it and sent a low loader (used CASTLE as a Bournemouth local agent) which arrived in 45 mins.And for once to give Eastunders their due (as I favour Sportomotive these days for servicing) they squeezed me in that day and put it back together.
Philygumbo said:
toxic frog said:
well it's looking like the ECU might be stuffed... not great as i'm a little on the poor side right now (scratch that last comment... i'm always on the poor side).
bugger
Says the property tycoon with the big yacht.bugger
(at Phil!)
Sorry to here about the frog mate! Hope you get it sorted soon! I think I saw it being taken towards the M27 on the back of a trailer towed by a landrover type thingy last thursday night.
lotustuart said:
Philygumbo said:
toxic frog said:
well it's looking like the ECU might be stuffed... not great as i'm a little on the poor side right now (scratch that last comment... i'm always on the poor side).
bugger
Says the property tycoon with the big yacht.bugger
(at Phil!)
Sorry to here about the frog mate! Hope you get it sorted soon! I think I saw it being taken towards the M27 on the back of a trailer towed by a landrover type thingy last thursday night.
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