The worst fleet car you've ever had+What's wrong with mine?
Discussion
I've been driving a 2010 Ford Transit Connect the past few days at work. On our fleet, it's my pick of the cars as the Vivaro is usually out of action, and the Astras are small and uncomfortable.
Sadly, I think my Connect is knackered. It has recently been spewing a lot of smoke out of the back, though it didn't seem to be consuming oil at any greater rate than usual. It was however running very rich and doing about 200 miles to a tank of diesel! The setup we usually have for looking after the cars is access to a garage with a stock of tyres, bulbs and fluids. Anything requiring more those basic items required contacting someone from maintenance, who would tow the vehicle to the fleet garage for remedial work.
I called maintenance just to give them the heads up on the smoking issue, though pressure to keep the vehicle on the roads meant I couldn't just garage it and wait for it to be taken away. It was also being driven when I wasn't at work. The technician came down, suspected a blocked EGR, so he cleared that and it seemed to fix the vehicle to some degree.
Now, a month later, I'm driving it again and it's feeling absolutely destroyed. It's got 142,000 miles on the clock, previously we would have got rid of old cars at 100,000 miles at the most. Now, we're being instructed to drag them to 150,000 miles, when they'll be taken off the fleet and probably scrapped. Last night, I was pulling away from some lights and as I took second gear, the vehicle started to buck violently as I opened the throttle. It persisted in this sort of way for about 30 seconds, not smoothing out and throwing a huge, opaque cloud of smoke out behind the vehicle. Much, much more than usual puff of soot it would shoot under load!
Eventually, it seemed to clear and smoothed out, then as I was heading back to the office, it started again, violently bucking back and forth and shooting out smoke. I've sent another request for it to be fixed, but it seems properly broken. I'm not sure how it can be justified keeping vehicles like this on the road. I brimmed the tank with diesel last night, and after 50 miles of mixed use, it had drank a quarter of a tank of fuel! 200 miles to what, 45 litres of diesel? Talk about economy. The rest of the van feels knackered too. The only thing still working in reasonable condition is the A/C! The steering wheel feels disconnected from the wheels, the van tilts and leans wildly in corners and the suspension feels battered and broken. There is a knocking noise coming from the rear which I suspect is a rear wheel bearing on it's way out, and one of the back brakes is starting to squeal. It'll be metal on metal soon.
I suspect it'll be back on the road soon enough. I'm starting to suspect the fleet's repair work isn't quite what it used to be...
So, what's the worst fleet snotter you've had to suffer?
Sadly, I think my Connect is knackered. It has recently been spewing a lot of smoke out of the back, though it didn't seem to be consuming oil at any greater rate than usual. It was however running very rich and doing about 200 miles to a tank of diesel! The setup we usually have for looking after the cars is access to a garage with a stock of tyres, bulbs and fluids. Anything requiring more those basic items required contacting someone from maintenance, who would tow the vehicle to the fleet garage for remedial work.
I called maintenance just to give them the heads up on the smoking issue, though pressure to keep the vehicle on the roads meant I couldn't just garage it and wait for it to be taken away. It was also being driven when I wasn't at work. The technician came down, suspected a blocked EGR, so he cleared that and it seemed to fix the vehicle to some degree.
Now, a month later, I'm driving it again and it's feeling absolutely destroyed. It's got 142,000 miles on the clock, previously we would have got rid of old cars at 100,000 miles at the most. Now, we're being instructed to drag them to 150,000 miles, when they'll be taken off the fleet and probably scrapped. Last night, I was pulling away from some lights and as I took second gear, the vehicle started to buck violently as I opened the throttle. It persisted in this sort of way for about 30 seconds, not smoothing out and throwing a huge, opaque cloud of smoke out behind the vehicle. Much, much more than usual puff of soot it would shoot under load!
Eventually, it seemed to clear and smoothed out, then as I was heading back to the office, it started again, violently bucking back and forth and shooting out smoke. I've sent another request for it to be fixed, but it seems properly broken. I'm not sure how it can be justified keeping vehicles like this on the road. I brimmed the tank with diesel last night, and after 50 miles of mixed use, it had drank a quarter of a tank of fuel! 200 miles to what, 45 litres of diesel? Talk about economy. The rest of the van feels knackered too. The only thing still working in reasonable condition is the A/C! The steering wheel feels disconnected from the wheels, the van tilts and leans wildly in corners and the suspension feels battered and broken. There is a knocking noise coming from the rear which I suspect is a rear wheel bearing on it's way out, and one of the back brakes is starting to squeal. It'll be metal on metal soon.
I suspect it'll be back on the road soon enough. I'm starting to suspect the fleet's repair work isn't quite what it used to be...
So, what's the worst fleet snotter you've had to suffer?
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