Had a ride on the big Yellow Taxi yesterday as broke down on the Peage. Got a 1977 2lit T4 with Progressive Carb. Was running fine then judderd, happened a couple of times then conked out. Pulled over checked for lose wires etc. all ok. Started after a couple of tries, happened again twice more then conked out on a nasty narrow bit of mountain motorway & didn't restart so gave up and called for help before I killed the family! Annoyingly restarted 1st try to drive onto the tow truck, 1 odd think was some liquid/water came out from underneath when the van was at a steep angle going onto the taxi. AA now has Cyril till Monday when the garage reopens. Any ideas; I was thinking a blocked fuel line or dirty fuel?
Sounds incredibly familiar! Have a look at this thread which describes our problems and solutions. Your symptoms are exactly the same as ours were (fuel starvation). Must be something to do with Tiagra busses this year. Good luck and keep posting! http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/broken-down-in-france-again-was.53769/
sounds like fuel ro me,where did the liquid come from? can't really be water unless it's been raining can it? did you check the oil level/smell to see if fuel had got into the oil.
Don’t know where you are but we had some rain here (just west of Lyon), yesterday for the first time in months but it was still hot. Your problem does sound like fuel related and the first thing to check would be the filter but something quick and easy to look for is condensation inside the distributor cap. If you’re in the mountains the altitude will affect the mixture and with a progressive carb on a type 4 engine it might even be icing in the humid atmosphere. I’ll be in Saint-Étienne later today, where are you?
Left the van near Grenoble and went on with hire car to Largentiere as that was the AA' s preferred solution. Plus I already had accommodation booked. Will have to wait for the Garage Monday but wanted some other input.
Blimey that's familiar! I will pass on to the garage, when the AA gets me to one tomorrow! Can't change it now myself as Cyril is 170km away in a compound on the edge of the Peage.
Don't know if AA use the same call centre in Lyons as the RAC, but if they do you might as well be talking to a room full of monkeys (French ones at that). Get the name of everyone you speak to and keep a log of what they said! Fingers crossed for a quick solution.
Ta, will keep a note. To be fair the AA has been spot on, took some time 4 jours from breakdown to in hire car, but they are paying €220 for the tow off the Peage, sorted a €110 taxi ride to Grenoble for nearest Hertz hire car and paid for the car until Cyril's fixed or the 17th and getting Cyril to a garage Monday while we get on with our holiday. Not bad for a £140 insurance policy!
Fair does, glad they are on the case for you. We worked out its better to breakdown on a peage (rather than an A or B road) where you have to get picked up by the local peage rescue service rather than RAC send the truck 300km in the wrong direction (as they did for us, hence the five hour wait!). Hope you get back on track tomorrow.
Have to agree, we got collected from one yesterday and delivered to a garage within the hour. Wasn't much help so we cut our holiday short and got the insurance to get us home.
Yes, I was following your escapades too ( do you know the French have no word for escapade?). Glad you made it back so quickly (the RAC were telling us it would take up to 3 weeks to get ours back if they couldn't fix it). As a matter of interest who were you insured with?
My recovery came with Peter James insurance, (it's somehow linked to the AA) it has limitations but worked for us yesterday. As my bus would drive I got them to drop me at the terminal check in drove through onto the train, drove off into the shell garage at Folkstone where a flat bed was waiting to take me home. Eurotunnel have on site recovery but only if you can drive through the check in. At the moment I'm so disillusioned with it I was looking for a can of petrol and a match last night. Still need to convince myself not to get rid of it. My wife and kids now hate the thing and nolonger want anything to do with it.
Thanks for the tip re Peter James, I'll give them a look. Bus breaking down in foreign country with wife/family is up there with divorce and moving house. Getting back on the horse is the key thing to regain lost confidence and emotional attachment!