10hr ordeal!

Gay Rights Activist Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 1268

Right! As some of u may know, im from Carlise but at uni in Swansea. The total distance between these two beautiful cities is 340 miles. last Sunday myself and my girlfriend went "up North" to stay with my parents for the week. Now its the first time ive embarked on a long journey in the clio (only had it a couple of months). Fair play to it, we got to Carlisle in just under 5 hrs and the car never missed a beat. Whilst up home we popped accross to the metro centre near Newcastle. In between shopping and eating, i bumped in to an RAC stand. I decided to take out their "option 1" cover.....Â£8.17 a month, roadside assistance and a tow home if it cant be sorted. I always travel with tools"just in case"! but this time the RAC proved invaluable.

Basically on our way back, 100miles south of Carlisle, near Liverpool, i had 3/4 of a tank of fuel. I was concentrating on the raod when i glanced at the fuel gauge for the second time in 2 mins.....IT HAD DROPPED TO ALMOST 1/2!! I continued driving thinking the gauge was being "gay" (a technical term i often use, no reference to its sexual orientation!) but to my disbelief it was falling rapidly and was now at 1/4, followed by loss of power. I pulled onto the hard shoulder and had a peak under the engine.....petrol was POURING (not just trickling) down the side of the engine!!!! I quickly turned the motor of and took a closer look. It appeared that there was a massive split/hole right down beside where the top pulley cover meets the plastic middle one. I would have been able to fix it if i had a trolley jack (i had full tools and even a connector in the boot!) but i didnt and it was pissing down. I decided to take RAC up on their offer and rang for assistance. They arrived within 20 mins but the bloke took 1 look and decided he couldnt sort it! He foned round some local garages but none of them could sort it....which was good because firstly i wouldnt get charge Â£50+ for a job that would take me 1/2 hour, and secondly because they have to take me home!! I waited 45mins for the recovery bloke who the proceeded to take me 240 miles to Swansea!!
This was good for 2 reasons......although i lost 1/2 a tank of fuel, in total i saved Â£20 on my fuel bill, It cost RAC Â£568 for the recovery cos they used a contracted local firm!!! I had only been a member for 2 days, and hadnt even paid the first installment of Â£8odd!! Fair enough the total journey time was 10hrs compared to 5hrs but i got to have a kip aswell!

Bargain!!

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

lol excellent ye jammy git

If that was me my car would've done that 2 days after my membership had ran out lol

Site Subscriber Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 2317

Kinda reminds me of when the AA hauled my 16v back from York....wasn't even a member Smile

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

i really need to sort some AA/RAC cover, i always feel like im driving about on borrowed time. Especially on long journeys, clenched buttocks etc!

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

pmsl i get the "clenched buttocks" feeling when giong over potholes etc..thinking its gunna 'hurt' my car....i respond as if i just hurt the car....."ooooo shit"

well taking out that membership was a moment of inspiration stan...

Site Subscriber Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 1141

AA are usually pretty good, had two rides in the vavler on the back of a 3city recovery wagon in the space of a month - one of them could have been avoided because it was only a split rad top hose but their loss!

Wouldn't got witht he RAC again. I get 15% off AA membership tho Smile

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

when Lynda used to have the megane before we got it her throttle cable went on the motorway so she decided to phone the AA, she told them of her predicament then she joine dup, a DD of 160 odd quid came out and they then sent a recovery man to her.

he arrived then explained if she had joined up waited 10 mins then phoned saying she had broken down she would have saved 60 odd quid on the joining fee and could have paid it in installments.

RAC/AA is for fairies, real men do it themselves, I have sorted all sorts by the roadside, in fact thinking back yeah the RAC/AA tow is a better idea.