In Praise of The AA and the older car....

[kvwloon 0]

In Praise of The AA and the older car....

 

...decided to take the 'rado to work today.....

 

trundling along nicely, when......radio starts to play up and dies......then wipers get sluggish.......demist fan dies .....lights seem dim, even the fuel gauge dies on me......then engine goes lumpy. Turn round to head for home, engine dies,...... and we coast to halt on the side of the A11. No warning lights in any of this, but voltmeter way down.

 

Luckily the guy I lift share with has a Golf that did the same thing last year, plus he's an aircraft electrician so understands wiggly amps.....'I reckon the alternator has died on you and discharged the battery with it'.

 

Bugger me, he's right, give it ten minutes for the battery to recover, start the engine and pull off to somewhere safer and that sells coffee before the battery fuully discharges again, and await the AA.

 

All the time I'm thinking 'sh#t, that'll be tow back home and £150 for an alternator then'.

 

AA turns up 'I reckon it's the brushes on the alternator worn'. Unscrews brush pack from alternator, two screws, two minutes later, and confirms they are worn out - VERY! 'I think I've got a new brushpack in the van stock'., says Mr. AA Sure enough, he has , ten minutes and £20 for the AA later, new brushes fitted, and I'm on the road again, all fixed.

 

In the words of the nice AA man, it's nice to work on a car you can actualy fix, not like the modern stuff. Damn right says I!

[dinkus 10]

Champion result! 8)

[Alexander 0]

I'm a member of the RAC and I've only got good things to say about them too. GTI died a couple of times, they were with me within 15mins and sorted the problem both times. Legends! Plus one of the guys actually had a Rallye at home so we spent about half an hour chatting!

[12 DEG BEN 0]

Not big on the AA. My audi A2 spat all its oil out. Told the AA its unfixable at the road side. Bloke turns up and agrees. "dont worry mate, I will sort a tow truck for you". Then leaves and marks the job as fixed at the roadside. Tow truck cancelled. Good job. Got audi to collect me.

 

On another occasion I ran over a rock in the road and split a fuel hose on a polo gti out in the country. Sent a third party to agree with me again about being unfixable. This guy sat there having a fag stood in a pool of my petrol. Not happy risking torching my 3 month old car. Now keep the rock in the garden. Still smells of petrol and cannot hurt any other vws.

[craigowl 0]

When I first got the C in 2002, I started to have difficulty selecting gears, this got worse until reverse became unavailable and I got trapped against a wall in a nearby village! With the help of a few guys I found in the local sports centre I was pushed out and able to get home using a couple or 3 gears.

 

Called the AA. The mechanic (ex VAG), went straight to the fault in less than a minute. 8) A plastic "carrier" in the gear change linkage near the engine had baked, become brittle and was hanging by a thread. His repair with a couple of plastic ties and superglue would have lasted for years.

 

I did have replacement installed for a few quid. I advise anyone with a VR6 to get this done. The component seems to suffer from the engine heat just as does the coilpack, etc.

[lauraJ 0]

The RAC has been really good with my boyfriends car, Volvo 480 turbo. The alternator went on the car when he was at mine. He called them out, obv the bloke couldn't fix it there and then. So he said if we arranged to get the part for the next day he would come back and fix it. Now that what I call service. They've also towed him places various times. Although I think it is getting to the point where if he calls again they might black list him lol. As he really is getting his money's worth :D