A funny thing happened to me on the way to Norwich...

..well there I was just having picked up a pie and a coke from my fave shop, and off down the road, and the Freelander started hissing at me.

Odd.

It got worse.

Sounded like a demented snake.

Then the power which had been off, got worse.

Then I noticed it was smoking ..and finally I was getting little orange lights telling me the EMS was unhappy. I had by this time a pretty fair idea that the turbo was blowing, or blown...fancied a dodgy wastegate..

Turned back and limped to the local grease monkey, who was out to lunch. Really. So I poked around at the turbo hosing and me finger went right through it and came out covered in black gunk same as was sprayed all across the front of the engine compartment.

Arrgh. I had figured it right. Turbo hose blown, no pressure, no power, to little air=too much fuel, EMS confused, giving up..

Anyway the grease monkey gaffer taped it up, and after an initial start that blew clouds of turbo oil out into the nice Suffolk day, its running perfectly.

New hose arrives tomorrow.

Moral. Carry gaffer tape. ALWAYS. And just because the grease monkey looks like something out of a trailer trash movie, doesn't mean he isn't damned knowledgeable and helpful.

And of course it was last week the Sunvic thermostat simply died..now replaced, yesterday the MAC OSX hard disk died, now replaced..and I had to take my mother to hospital..and a complete reinstall of everything....and today the turbo hose blew..

it's been one of those weeks really..

Just in case your existence has been blighted, remember, it could be worse..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher
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"They said smile - things could be worse. So I smiled and they got worse"

Reply to
Andy Hall

How did that work then ?

Dave

Reply to
Dave

It was only a fix to the peripherals. Nothing to be done on the mother board. Memory access is highly voltaile and totally random, and only the stuff in the PRAM really works at all :-(

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

A Les Dawson sketch comes to mind for some reason ;-))

Reply to
cerberus

Mock ye not, we'll all be there one day;!..

Reply to
tony sayer

Don't buy shitty Land Rover products.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Regrettably, but until I get there, my sense of humour will survive :-)

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Less mockery, than a fairly accurate rendition of her state.

Watching someones worldview disintegrate as more and more of the brain loses oxygen supply, is interesting, but not actually very amusing.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Actually, its a very decent car. the BMW engine is the best they ever fitted to that range.

Mind at least it got me home: Some cars would have sat there at the roadside protesting 'I can't cope with this'

The hose was a mere £5.19

Its all back up and running. More power than I can remember and a lot lower fuel burn judging by the sound..it now sounds 'on tune' and it hasn't been like that for 6 months, so I reckon this problem has been there awhile.

It's not new either..that car.. so I can't say its any worse than anything else.

The last two cars that left me sitting by the roadside were both vauxhalls..one snapped its timing belt at 65K and the other snapped its CAMSHAFT at 95K.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Last breakdown I had was a Vauxhall (Cavalier, so probably not relevant to more recent models).

Apparently it was a dodgy fuel relay.

the symptoms were: Engine fault light and immediate loss of all power. Will not restart until AA man arrives 55 minutes later, when it starts with no problem. Then repeats it again half an hour later.

Don't you love faults like that?

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Oh dear. Sorry to hear that.

(Metaphorically) some of the functionality in Leopard is helpful - e.g. Time Machine. It automates some of the things that are really important to do but which are otherwise forgotten.....

Reply to
Andy Hall

Ah Wifes oil Peugot GT..ran OK for an hour, then wouldn;'t start till cold.

Eventually replaced a 10 quid water temp sensor.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

You were heading to _Norfolk_. What did you expect, the erudite presenter of a celebrated TV panel game?

Just be grateful he didn't flap his gills at you and demand payment in elvers.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Where www means Wash Wide Webbed

Reply to
geoff

I turned round and took it to teh local SUFFOLK garage...

Been there..done that..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Ooohh! Might need a bit of care and attention but my Landrover 90 is nearly twenty years old and 160 000 miles. Taken me all over Europe too. Perhaps you are referring to the newer varieties?

Second item on the list of things always to have with you. A piece of thin stiff wire. Handy for holding things on including exhausts. I even got a 2CV carburretor going once when a screw dropped out. Also for poking muck out of things and replacing lightweight hinges. Never travel without one. Thick wire is also handy but you can always unbend a wire coat hanger from your luggage.

Peter Scott

Reply to
Peter Scott

Hee hee. You guys still haven't got it. In Norfolk we make a point of appearing that way to dissuade outsiders. Trouble is it's starting to fail and loads of houses are being bought up by well-off southerners. Now lots of locals can't afford to stay. Time for a new tactic. Blue-tongue, H5N1? Hmmm.

Peter Scott

Reply to
Peter Scott

No, to everything they have made. Land Rovers tend to be like grandad's hammer. Still doing great service after 100 years and only needed 14 new handles and 10 new heads.

My shitty inferior FordxFord has done 160,000 miles in less than ten years including numerous trips around Europe, four per year on average. Nothing has fallen off it, ever. All it has ever needed is the routine manufacturer's servicing every 10,000 miles which costs £109 same as a Mondeo.

The last LR product I had used to rattle up £600 per service and needed a new engine at 60,000 miles which cost £3,500. Words like "s**te" don't even begin to describe how shitty Land Rovers are as work vehicles. Fine for anyone who wants a toy, bloody useless otherwise.

Look around the world, HiLux, LandCruiser, Ford. The Aussies laugh at LR products.

Reply to
Steve Firth

The message from %steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth) contains these words:

Hired a brand new top of range Mondeo estate last November. Looked nice outside. Interior trim falling off.

Hopefully their owners are a bit more civilised in their language than those two sentences.

Once had a Toyota. Bodywork like tissue paper -- dented if you so much as looked at it.

Aussies tend to have factories to build vehicles suitable for Oz.

Wherever in the world you go you tend to find that vehicles not properly developed to suit the local conditions don't exactly perform brilliantly or last well.

My all-time worst vehicle (and I've had several LandRovers) was a Pontiac

The runner up was an Austin 1110.

Most elusive fault was in a top of the range Plymouth Fury III

Most stupid design blunders were in a Plymouth Fury I with a blueprinted 440 cubic inch engine (7.5 litres to you) -- back 2 plugs on the nearside bank officially couldn't be changed without removing the steering column. And the engine weighed so much the front brake disks warped repeatedly. Left that car parked for a while and it sank through the asphalt driveway -- it weighed over two tons.

But all those manufacturers also produced some good vehicles.

I once made the stupid mistake of asking in the Cadillac factory how many vehicles came off the production line without requiring remedial work. The answer was to the effect that in a good week they MIGHT get ONE!

There is no excuse for some of the failings of LandRover production engineering. On the other hand LandRovers, especially of the Defender variety, offer the possibility of building a vehicle from scratch with LandRover and pattern parts in a manner which should ensure indefinite life. Difficult to get that with any other vehicle I can think of. Strip a new door. Take off the skin. Send it to be galvanised. Wrap the galvanised frame in rubber to prevent contact with aluminium. Refit the skin. Reassemble. Repaint. Etc. etc. My "current" one carries an F prefix, though there's not much more of the original than the gearbox and transfer box, roof bonnet, front wings, front bumper and seats!

See a vehicle for what it is. And make a balanced assessment. My boring car is an Accord. I've even had bits fall of an Accord!

Reply to
Appin

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