Pech onderweg
Jun. 4th, 2011 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzWe met up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
muizenstaartje, erwinl, anastaszia and nachtvisser at Utrecht today and went shopping for fabrics. As it turned out, there were an amazing number of larpers there today, but this could not dissuade us from our quest! Soon enough we'd found the linens we'd been looking for and made a little detour to buy some poly-urethane for a cushion for the Captain's chair.
After a wholesome lunch at King Arthur's we also visited Subcultures andnachtvisser was kind enough to drop us off at Transferium Westraven, where we picked up Iota before driving to Houten.
When we arrived in Houten, there was a loud noise, like a freight-train going by. My mom doesn't really live near the tracks, but it's Saturday and people are working in their gardens. It could be anything, right? In any case, it wasn't one of my tires since it persisted when we stopped moving.
Except that it also stopped as I turned off the engine.
Uh-oh...
I restarted the car, as NoKey was standing by outside and yes indeed, it was my engine. Double uh-oh.
The first thing I did when we got to my mom's was call the lease company. They patched me through to the Euroservice of Toyota, who do a lovely "anywhere in Europe" service. A technician would swing by soon, somewhere between 30 to 45 minutes.
Some ten minutes later I was called by a planner. I wasn't the only one having car trouble, so it could be a while. No probs, I'm in good hands. We continued to wait, meanwhile petting the five cats mom has and telling her about the cruise.
Luc was going to pick up some food for the barbecue for us, as it took the techs until after five to drop by.
The reed-thin Jan the tech dove under the hood and confirmed my tentative analysis of "that doesn't sound good". It didn't sound good. He poked around a bit and told us that Aygo's aren't that bad when it comes to sticking your arms under the hood. It looked like an awfully tight fit to me, but he fiddled a bit with the vee belt and popped it loose. It looked good, but it had looked like the thing was slipping or otherwise not working well. He slithered his thin arm by the engine again and turned several of the knobs found down there.
There was our problem. One of the bearings had run out of sync, a problem that once it happens, only gets worse really quickly. Once the bearings are off, they start to run out of sync, slip sideways or some such. That caused the awful noise.
The verdict was merciless. Jan the mechanic asked again how many kilometers were on the car (some 86.000) and sighed, saying it wasn't supposed to slip a bearing just yet. It was easily fixed at a garage, but he didn't have the parts with him.
He'd have to tow poor Iota along. We'd get a replacement car and all.
We picked up our things with mom, and said goodbye, foregoing the promised barbecued salmon. Iota was swiftly driven up the ramp (something that apparantly, he was quite capable of for now) and the ramp was dragged onto the truck. We climbed into the cabin of the truck, which was rather larger than life, and drove with Jan to Nieuwegein.
I was a bit hesitant, since I have no idea how to go about these things (which is why it's a really good thing I'm leasing this car in stead of owning it -- most of the hassle will go by the lease company, who have far larger problems to deal with on a daily basis, no doubt) but I signed all the paperwork. Apparantly, this kind of problem, especially with a three-year-old car, fall under "inn-sewer-ants" including the replacement car. Whatever. I doubt the lease company will give me trouble over it, especially since this kind of problem is a rarity with younger cars.
We got a lovely, speedy and slick Ford Fiesta to drive home with, a luxury twice over. I'm supposed to return it by Monday in Rotterdam. The best part is that my car will also be returned to Rotterdam for me, to a garage of my choosing, where it will be fixed. I'll probably drop the rental car off at the Weena on Monday, take the train to work, and get back to Iota some other way. :)
We got all our fabrics home but I think I forgot the poly-urethane in the back seat of Iota. I think that will not present a problem as the chair is still being painted, so I can't measure it anyway.
To be sure, I hadn't expected getting stranded with a car this young, but I'm very happy this happened now, and not in seven weeks on our way to Drachenfest!
muizenstaartje, erwinl, anastaszia and nachtvisser at Utrecht today and went shopping for fabrics. As it turned out, there were an amazing number of larpers there today, but this could not dissuade us from our quest! Soon enough we'd found the linens we'd been looking for and made a little detour to buy some poly-urethane for a cushion for the Captain's chair. After a wholesome lunch at King Arthur's we also visited Subcultures and
nachtvisser was kind enough to drop us off at Transferium Westraven, where we picked up Iota before driving to Houten. When we arrived in Houten, there was a loud noise, like a freight-train going by. My mom doesn't really live near the tracks, but it's Saturday and people are working in their gardens. It could be anything, right? In any case, it wasn't one of my tires since it persisted when we stopped moving.
Except that it also stopped as I turned off the engine.
Uh-oh...
I restarted the car, as NoKey was standing by outside and yes indeed, it was my engine. Double uh-oh.
The first thing I did when we got to my mom's was call the lease company. They patched me through to the Euroservice of Toyota, who do a lovely "anywhere in Europe" service. A technician would swing by soon, somewhere between 30 to 45 minutes.
Some ten minutes later I was called by a planner. I wasn't the only one having car trouble, so it could be a while. No probs, I'm in good hands. We continued to wait, meanwhile petting the five cats mom has and telling her about the cruise.
Luc was going to pick up some food for the barbecue for us, as it took the techs until after five to drop by.
The reed-thin Jan the tech dove under the hood and confirmed my tentative analysis of "that doesn't sound good". It didn't sound good. He poked around a bit and told us that Aygo's aren't that bad when it comes to sticking your arms under the hood. It looked like an awfully tight fit to me, but he fiddled a bit with the vee belt and popped it loose. It looked good, but it had looked like the thing was slipping or otherwise not working well. He slithered his thin arm by the engine again and turned several of the knobs found down there.
There was our problem. One of the bearings had run out of sync, a problem that once it happens, only gets worse really quickly. Once the bearings are off, they start to run out of sync, slip sideways or some such. That caused the awful noise.
The verdict was merciless. Jan the mechanic asked again how many kilometers were on the car (some 86.000) and sighed, saying it wasn't supposed to slip a bearing just yet. It was easily fixed at a garage, but he didn't have the parts with him.He'd have to tow poor Iota along. We'd get a replacement car and all.
We picked up our things with mom, and said goodbye, foregoing the promised barbecued salmon. Iota was swiftly driven up the ramp (something that apparantly, he was quite capable of for now) and the ramp was dragged onto the truck. We climbed into the cabin of the truck, which was rather larger than life, and drove with Jan to Nieuwegein.
I was a bit hesitant, since I have no idea how to go about these things (which is why it's a really good thing I'm leasing this car in stead of owning it -- most of the hassle will go by the lease company, who have far larger problems to deal with on a daily basis, no doubt) but I signed all the paperwork. Apparantly, this kind of problem, especially with a three-year-old car, fall under "inn-sewer-ants" including the replacement car. Whatever. I doubt the lease company will give me trouble over it, especially since this kind of problem is a rarity with younger cars.
We got a lovely, speedy and slick Ford Fiesta to drive home with, a luxury twice over. I'm supposed to return it by Monday in Rotterdam. The best part is that my car will also be returned to Rotterdam for me, to a garage of my choosing, where it will be fixed. I'll probably drop the rental car off at the Weena on Monday, take the train to work, and get back to Iota some other way. :)
We got all our fabrics home but I think I forgot the poly-urethane in the back seat of Iota. I think that will not present a problem as the chair is still being painted, so I can't measure it anyway.
To be sure, I hadn't expected getting stranded with a car this young, but I'm very happy this happened now, and not in seven weeks on our way to Drachenfest!
