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What A Day - Warning sick MGF inside

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2.1K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  Pendle Lass  
R
#1 · (Edited)
Hi All,

Please note time is 04:39 - Just back from Steve's fabulous wedding. Unfortunately I left yesterday at 12:00pm. So here's a timeline....

12:00 Leave wedding shenanigans with Squeaks & Lillypad

12:20 Have breakfast/lunch @ morrisons with above said F'ers
12:40 Start the Devon - Norfolk convoy with Lillypad

13:30 Temp. gauge rises one dot over centre during heavy traffic. Settles to normal within 200 yards of driving at 40mph+

15:30 Coffee at M4 services. Me & Jackie both check my coolant. Up to the seam, no bubbling, temp normal BUT cabin is absolutely roasting?

17:45 Head for M25 on my own - decide for anticlockwise as traffic info says so

18:20 Reach J9 and traffic stops (temp. spot on)

18:22 Temp gauge rises to 2 dots over centre so I pull onto hard shoulder immediately. Open boot, steam like nothing I have seen and the contents of my coolant system p**s out over the drivers side driveshaft.

This is where it gets good......

18:30 Ring AA - "Less than 60mins sir, you're top priority as you're on the hard shoulder and vulnerable. Yes you have full relay - I can see you live in Norwich, that's fine"

19:30 Highway enforcement officers stops to help. He asks "I can try and help if you like, just open the bonnet". I reply "unless you're checking the tread on the spare, you're probably not helping much"......

21:10 (Yes thats right, 2hrs40mins later), Maypole Recovery (??) arrive and tow me 4 miles to Surbiton services where I "am to wait for an AA patrol to arrive. They will be here by half nine mate, just spoken to them"

23:30 (Yes really) AA man arrives, "I can only do 60 miles and then you have to wait for another truck". I explain, he calls office and agrees to take me back to Norwich. He also buys me coffee and pasty at the Services - at least someone in the AA gives a ******.

02:30 Arrive at my mechanics garage to drop car off. Cant raise my lift as my phone has died from endless pointless calls to the AA so get my bag from car and walk the last 3 miles home.

04:20 Get home and not sure whether to laugh, cry or sleep till Friday


For the serious part, hopefully it is just a pipe or maybe a tank/cap failure. Having removed the inspection cover etc, no sign of coolant around the head that I can see nor any stains close by. Expansion tank is very wet on top if that helps and the loss was all over the drivers driveshaft (not sure if relevant).

So I'm fairly gutted but hopeful and still very much in love with her - the bug has been caught. Diagnosis awaited Wednesday with any luck.


Jason :(
 
S
#2 ·
Oops not good but been there with the AA, Broke down in soft top at 6.30 dragged off to a layby, AA will come, yes after many calls, 3.30. I think they purposely wait untill your phone dies, so it frustrates you even more. I tell you it was bloody cold.

There have been reports of late of expansion tanks splitting, but over the driveshaft could be a pipe or cap I suppose.

Best of lck with it.
 
C
#3 ·
Jason mate, that sounded a nightmare, glad you got home ok eventually and hopefully it wont be long before your back on the road.
One day i'm sure you'll look back and laugh :)
The AA sounded terrible, i take it they may be getting a call at some point!!

Steve
 
R
#6 · (Edited)
Cheers guys,

Indeed yes, the AA have just had quite a call :) Hopefully not HGF anyway - I know it can always happen but I would be unhappy and unlucky if it was as it was only done 1200 miles ago and was the uprated jobbie along with redowelling etc.

Time will tell ....


Edited to say the AA have offered a £100 compo and refunded my membership fee so feel a little happier. Also spoke to the guy/mechanic I bought it off. He's so confident it will be a pipe/tank and not HG, that if it is he will replace it himself - happy days after all. Hope to have it back for a weekend blast!
 
C
#11 ·
JasonMGF said:
Cheers guys,

Indeed yes, the AA have just had quite a call :) Hopefully not HGF anyway - I know it can always happen but I would be unhappy and unlucky if it was as it was only done 1200 miles ago and was the uprated jobbie along with redowelling etc.

Time will tell ....


Edited to say the AA have offered a £100 compo and refunded my membership fee so feel a little happier. Also spoke to the guy/mechanic I bought it off. He's so confident it will be a pipe/tank and not HG, that if it is he will replace it himself - happy days after all. Hope to have it back for a weekend blast!
Click to expand...
That all sounds good to me Jason, hope its sorted soon mate :)
 
J
#8 ·
Hi Jason
This sounds just like what happened to me !
It was the big coolant pipe that had gone, loads of steam !!
RAC took 2 hours to get out, (I was at the fire station when she burst so obviously not a priority ), and then managed to do a temp fix to get it the 2 miles home !
Hopefully it is just your pipe..
All the best ..

 
R
#10 ·
Well thinking about what you have said, when I looked at the engine I could see what looked like a heat resistant sleeve. It was laying on the manifold just before it narrows down. I wonder if this was attached to the coolant pipe or if it covers something else down there...hmmm

Re steam yes it was like the orient express. I felt quite sheepish stood beside 'her' - 4 lanes of stationary traffic so everyone looks at the poor sod that's broken down :(
 
D
#12 ·
Bad luck on all scores.

Maypole are a really good firm, but they work mainly for Green Flag so the AA must have been fairly desperate. When my HGF (similar area) went the AA were there in 40 mins and flat bed in a further 25. No complaints.
When the HG went on the Freebie in an underground car park in Plymouth AA there in 30 mins and helped push the car out as the lorry wouldn't get in. Great service.

Hope it's not HgF and it gets sorted soon.
 
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