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Updates...
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24th March 2008 - Buckingham Ford
called in to see James at BF and
he informed us that STango had arrived at their place on
Saturday 22nd March in a racing car type transporter,
along with two Aston's from Italy. So STango arrived
back in the UK quicker than we did!
Seemed that the driver has the job of 'popping around
Europe and collects the cars and brings them directly
over to the UK. At least our fears of being relayed
across Europe did not materialise, thank goodness.
As James is from the sales side, he didn't have the keys
to open up for us to check the car out and also retrieve
all our remaining bits from the car. That's the plan for
tomorrow... that and try to sort out a car for Anne and
check for any damage (other than the engine being
knackered) |
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25th March 2008 - Hertz
- called the customer service
number in the UK and explained that we'd requested and
'sold' an E grade car ie Merc C class or Audi A4, but we
got a Laguna. Not that I have anything against Lagunas,
but it's just not quiet what we were looking for and the
thought of cruising down through Monte Carlo in a Laguna
just isn't quite the same as a bright orange ST.
- anyway, you'll love this excuse that I was given, in
France they upgrade the rating of the Laguna from a
grade D to a grade E. Talk about blowing their own
trumpet!
- can't say that I was over impressed in the excuse,
sounded a bit of a b..s..t but what can you do?
- apparently as a sign of goodwill, I will be getting a
$50 discount voucher being sent through the post, so
this may end up on ebay. No, wait, we'll hang on to it
as we're due to be going away in June, so you never
know!? |
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26th March 2008 - Buckingham Ford
- Anne popped down to the garage
today and they were kind enough to lend her a temp car.
Ok, so it's a Ford Ka, but it was really appreciated and
hats off to them
- called the service manager about 17:15 and he gave me
the update. Basically it seems that the auxiliary belt
has broken and the result is that that has broken the
cam belt, which in turn has truly knackered all the
valves and thus killed the engine. Opps, looks like it
will cost in the region of £3k for the engine alone,
never mind the cost of the labour, but they have been
onto Ford today and a new engine has been ordered. I
asked as to whether the odometer will be reset but no it
won't although there will be a record on the car's file
that it has had a new engine, so I've asked as to how
this will affect the second hand value of the car - they
will get back to me on this. |
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27th March 2008 - Buckingham Ford - fault due to a cam
belt tensioner failure
- I popped down to the garage
today and the service manager was brilliant in showing
me STango and the state of the engine which they had
stripped down. The problem seems to have occurred by a
fault in one of the brackets that holds the cam belt
tensioner. Part of this tensioner broke (about the size
of a 1p) and this caught in the aux belt, which in turn
led to the engine trashing. He showed me the cylinder
block and how the valve should be lying flat - but not
one was. There was also dints in the pistons and a
possible crack in the head unit. So poor STango was not
looking too well.
- They will keep us informed as to the status and as to
how long to get it fixed will depend on the new engine
arriving. Expected that the labour will be in the region
of 20 to 25 hours at £70/hr to get it fixed.
- To be honest I feel happy with the work they are doing
and really glad that we insisted that it be brought back
to this dealership (even though they have had a good
laugh at my expense!) |
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4th
April 2008 - Buckingham Ford - Engine arrives
- Had a call from the garage to
say that they have just received the engine and it was
better dressed than they were expecting - seems that it
has come with a new clutch as well. Excellent. So they
are hoping to get it fixed by the end of the week. |
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11th
April 2008 - Buckingham Ford - Anne collects the car
- It's great to have STango back
home and Skunk is a lot happier
- A new complete engine, flywheel and clutch were fitted
and apparently it started on the first attempt.
- It seems the garage were quite happy to look after
this 'issue' as it gave them something to really get
their teeth into. Must admit that we are really happy
with the results. The engine's still tight and so will
need a bit of running in, but hopefully will be back in
top form, ready for the Spain run in June.
- Needless to say, we have now taken out the top cover
that the AA provides and will be taking out the annual
European cover a couple of weeks before we go in June -
just to be sure!
Oh, we had our question
for help published in this week's AutoExpress, just a
shame that the facts were a bit out and Anne says that
it should have mentioned that it was her car that I
broke!
Next is the chasing of
the Tesco query - seems that they are still miss-selling
the European cover and we were due a response by last
Tuesday, but nothing yet so I sense a few letters are
about to start winging their way out! Will keep you
posted. |
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engine from front offside wheel apparently all the values should sit flat
the small ali item to the top left of the picture is the offending item which is part of the bracket that holds the cam belt tensioner in place. It seems that this part has broken off, jammed the aux belt and generally guffed the rest of the engine. the shoe lace type item is the aux belt try to spot any that haven't actually been guffed...
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