My Bad Weekend...

[Guest]

Let me share my tale of wow (well really a tale of expense, frustration and annoyance)

On Saturday, at some point in time between about 11:00am and 1:30pm some *insert expletive of your choice* idiot drove into the driver side of my car denting the rear wheel arch and scraping down the drivers door. Of course, no note, no apology, no nothing.

While I have a " fully protected" full no claims bonus, I actually only get to make two claims before the protection disappears (read the fine print). I made one claim just over a year ago when somebody drove into the passenger side (they managed to hit every LH panel and damage the bonnet and rip the wheel off my neighbour' s car - and still drive away!). I have also had people drive into the car a further two times in the last 2.5 years but I have just paid for these to be fixed myself. In four separate incidents not a single note or apology. Sometimes I really love the people in this country (don' t worry, that is the end of my antipodean moaning).

Should I make a claim? Probably not. Is it worth reporting this to the police? I have no witness, no evidence, no nothing. I guess I better get ready to empty my wallet (again).

On Sunday, my cars perfect reliability record was soiled. Without hint or warning, the immobiliser decided to immobilise the car for good. No matter what I did, I couldn' t start it. The mobile assistance van came and tried to tell me that it was the starter motor. Seems unlikely as it was perfect just a couple of hours before. Also, I thought the starter motors lasted for ever. So the car got returned home on a flatbed truck. No problems there other than a slight front spoiler scraping moment.

Luckily it is booked into JAZ on Wednesday. Unfortunately this episode took nearly 3 hours on Sunday evening forcing us to cancel dinner plans with friends. Just picture how popular this made me with SWMBO. The car' s failure was, of course, my fault. Can' t claim credit for this idea, but I did put my wife in a taxi home so she didn' t have to wait for the whole time.

When the car was home I had to push it into the car park. Got the wife to steer and asked her to remove the handbrake but the car was unbelievably hard to move. After 5 minutes of straining and cursing it was parked. I retrieved my coat and locked up the car - and sure enough, the handbrake was on! Not the best way to end a very trying evening.

Anybody want to hazard a guess as to what is wrong with the immobiliser (its a standard Porsche POS)? Both immobiliser keys make the proper beeping noises when inserted, but when I turn the key to " Start" , it just goes click. Remove the key and it makes two beeps and the light in the centre console flashes. I have about as much understanding of electrics as I have of sorcery.

Hope your weekend was better than mine.

Richard[]

 

[Guest]

Richard,

Truly gutting to read! That is indeed a vary bad weekend. I would guess, it may be worth claiming on the insurance for this one? How much is it going to cost?

Unfortunately I have no idea about the immobiliser, so can offer no help except words of sympathy.

regards

Hugh

 

[Guest]

It is possbile for start motors to fail, but they usually get weaker first, rather than just stopping. However, if one of the brushes has actually just disintegrated or worn away then it may not do anything anymore.

If the ignition goes click, then I would think this shows the relay is working. I thought that when immobilised you get no click since the circuit is dead.
I guess you have checked all the fuses and looked for any loose wires?

The only other thing I can think of is if the battery is almost flat. It will make the relay click but will not have enough juice to turn the engine. Were the lights left on or is the battery old? I would' ve thought the recovery guy would have checked this though.

I too have suffered from careless other drivers and know well the no apology, no note routine.. Although having seen some of the god-awful driving on some TV shows, I suppose I ought to be glad it doesn' t happen more often.

Rgds, Stuart.

 

[Richard Pottle]

Rich

How unlucky were you!! That sounds terrible. A few months back I went out to get some petrol. I tried to start the car but it only just about fired and then died. I continued to try and start it but to no avail. I pushed the car out of the way and decided to call the roadside recovery team. Obviously in the meantime it started to rain and it was cold and I descended into a state of miserableness. The well known roadside recovery team finally came after a couple of hours and trawled all over the vehicle. They took the injectors out and decided that fuel was getting through. He tried to start it but the engine kept turning but would not fire. He eventually came to the conclusion that I had compression problems (after a conversation with their technical dept). After another hour the flat bed truck arrived and I got a lift home. Luckily my folks were staying for the weekend and I let my Dad loose on the car to see if he could spot the problem. Within 30 seconds he had it sorted. A loose fuel pump fuse - no fuel was getting through!!!! Ultimately I should have realised but for the pros to miss that one is a bit disappointing to say the least!!![&o]

 

[Guest]

Well the last repair cost over £2,000 but it was a lot worse. Unless this is significantly more than my excess I will just suck it up.

We checked the battery - fine. Starter motor was strong as an Ox so the assistance gays analysis just didn' t seem right. Could have had something disintegrate internally though. The click comes from the area of the starter and so is a definite clue. The immobiliser is certainly not behaving as normal though.

I hate this stuff[] But I appreciate the sympathy[]

Richard