Bank Holiday Madness

I’m usually one for everyone having a Bank Holiday weekend off, except when it comes to me needing something, then everyone except me should be working! I’m nice like that! I’ll tell you why……

Saturday morning was nice and peaceful. My parents had gone away in the early hours for a few days down in Lymington and Exbury Gardens so there was no one running around banging doors, shouting outside my bedroom door and demanding that I be up for when they get back from shopping. Bliss. I’d planned to visit my grandparents Saturday afternoon so I made the most of a lazy morning and early afternoon.

I headed down to my grandparents via the motorway, as I’d got a bit too comfortable in front of the telly so needed to make up some time. Unfortunately there were road works and a 50mph speed limit all the way which prevented me from making too much time. The added addition of average-speed speed cameras did nothing to help. It was at this stage I was cursing the company I work for, as they’re responsible for the said road works! Eventually I made it down there taking off roughly 15 minutes had I decided to take the scenic route. I promptly pulled in the wrong entrance to their road which meant I couldn’t park properly so had to turn around at the turning circle half way up and come back round. As I pulled up in front of my grandparents drive my aunt appeared and offered to move her car. Now I’m grateful she didn’t. It was at this point I glanced down and noticed a bright orange warning light on my display. Thinking it’d probably be just water or something easily sorted I tried not to let it bother me. Who was I kidding?! It was niggling at me something awful, so eventually we got my aunt’s manual out of her car and came to the conclusion that it was the engine management warning light. The blurb underneath said that the car shouldn’t be driven and should be taken immediately to an approved dealer for investigation. Wanting further clarification that my baby was about to die on me I rang the breakdown people for advice. I should also add in here that there were a few stressed out texts sent to a couple of people, so I apologise for being such a woman, and a blonde woman at that!

The breakdown people confirmed that it wasn’t a great idea to drive it home, but as I wasn’t ready to go home yet I could ring back later and they’d come and recover me. So I tried to enjoy the rest of the day. It was great to see everyone, especially as it was my Nan’s birthday and I hadn’t seen my aunt since her wedding reception last year. My granddad wasn’t too perky when I got there; he’s looking a bit frailer these days and is worried about his operation tomorrow (10th).

We decided that I’d call the breakdown people just before 8 so that I stood a chance of getting home before dark. I wasn’t expecting them to be there within an hour seeing as where my grandparents live is on the borders of London. Nevertheless half an hour later we see a big low-loader pull up half way down the road. Watching out of the living room window I was horrified to see a damn fine looking man walking up towards the house. My aunt answered the door to him, after a swift reminder from her mother that she’s a married woman! He had a look around the car, started it up, revved it, turned it off, turned it back on again, had a look under the bonnet and said that he could see nothing immediately wrong. His suggestion was that it could possibly be one of the sensors malfunctioning. Anyway he said it was wise not to drive, even though it did feel ok, you never know what damage you’re doing.

Turns out his name’s Colin. Long old shift he was doing too, from 7pm till 7am the next morning. We had a nice chat on the way back home. He started telling me how he’d split with his missus a little while back and it had been messy as they’d bought a place together. He offered me some good advice about what I should do next with the car. I didn’t want to bother my parents whilst they were on holiday so I was extremely grateful for the help he gave. Apparently I needed to get it hooked up to a diagnostics machine so they could tell where the problem was and sort it. After he off loaded my baby from the back of his truck he joined me at the front door and gave me a number of a friend who runs a garage. He said I should tell them that he gave me their number and that I’d be “looked after”. He said it’s all too easy to get screwed over these days with mechanics.

Anyway, on Sunday I tried the Toyota garage again after being told Saturday that my message would be passed on. No one was answering any phone in the place so I gave up and tried again Monday. Again nothing. I sent my boss a text message so that he was aware I had issues and might not be in work the following morning. Luckily he’s pretty understanding and just said to give him a call when I knew what was happening. It was Tuesday morning before I finally got though to anyone properly. I’d decided that my best bet was going to be Toyota with diagnosing the problem so called them first. There was a very helpful man on the other end saying that technically he had nothing till next week appointment wise, but if I wanted to bring it in that morning before 10 I could leave it there for the day and they’d call when it was ready to be picked up. He also said that if the car felt ok to drive and wasn’t juddering or misfiring it would be ok to drive it down to the garage.

So I headed off and arrived about 9.20. It’s a new dealership which is pretty much just a sales garage and they farm their mechanics off to a site about 3 quarters of a mile away. I was dealt with by a young chap, full of snot and a stinking cold but he was pleasant. I decided to try it on a bit and say that I had been invited to wait if it wasn’t going to take too long, but also added that I could go away again if it was necessary. He went away and came back again and informed me that my car would be taken down about 10.30 and I could wait the couple of hours it would take. I got installed with a magazine and was made a cup of tea. You have to love Toyota garages and their new initiative of having “hostesses”. They run around after you, stopping short of plumping your cushions…..mainly because they don’t have cushions on their chairs!

Ten minutes later I was rudely disturbed by the young chap telling me that they were taking my car down now to be “diagnosed” and it would be about half an hour. I settled back down again to await the bad new. Eventually he came back, sat down (it must be serious!) and said that it was a problem with one of the sensors in the exhaust malfunctioning. To replace it would cost £185. I think I either had a coronary or went into shock at this stage as I agreed to pay it! He assured me that had I gone on driving it and they’d just reset the light eventually the catalytic converter would have gone then I’d be in even more expensive trouble. He said they had the part in stock but it’d take another hour or so before they could fit it.

As a point of reference this is what the replaced sensor should look like.

http://www.germes-online.com/direct/dbimage/50333433/Oxygen_Sensor.jpg

And this is what mine looked like when they took it out.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/Cath4G4/Photo-0011.jpg

The end is totally black when it shouldn't be. It should be the metallic colour still. It's covered thick in carbon and this was causing it to malfunction. Colin was right! The sensor couldn't get up to the temperature that it needed to, to operate properly

Around 11.40 I finally left! They’d replaced the sensor and completed a safety check, noting that I needed two new front tyres as they were a bit too close to the legal limit. I declined his offer to have them replaced there and then!

I was in no rush to get to work so I headed home for a while and made some lunch. I eventually rolled into work just before 2pm. No point rushing in!

My car has more go in it now. He was more than happy to speed away from the junction outside the office yesterday evening. I just have to start taking better care of him. All hail Colin and his low-loader!

Better paid job, here I come!