Off the road for 11 years( Snow go)

[electrospanner]

Hi all

How did everyone fair in the recent diabolical weather? (vehicle wise i mean)

Here is our story so far and it doesn't make good reading. We have 7 vehicles in our fleet so you would expect problems with one or two of them but read this

Our first problem came when our moronic neighbour decided he was going to clear his drive and the road in front of his house My wife parks her car a little Hyundai atoz opposite his drive. He thought it would be a good idea to pile all the cleared snow behind her car in a mountain the height of which would have shamed Ben Nevis. By the time we had got to it it had frozen in one solid lump that was going nowhere and is still trapping the car now even though all other remnants of snow have gone so that was one car out of service, still not to worry we have a few others to fall back on.

Bring on number two a Rover mini cooper this one is my daughters car and would be ideal for the snow or so we thought. In typically girlie fashion :-Xshe rammed the key into the frozen door lock gave it a good hard twist and promplty snapped it in the lock, oh great and these keys are hard to come by too.

At this point car no 3 a Ford Ka which doesn't really belong to anyone in the family and no-one really likes came into play, however although we did eventually manage to get inside it, it just flatly refused to play and would not start and still hasn't started yet.One to look at when the weather gets a bit better i think.

Getting fed up now I didn't want to use the Suzuki Carry van as it is so light at the back traction in the snow is almost non existant. However after freeing the locks and doors from almost an inch of solid ice and turning the key she fired up beautifully, it just wouldn't move from it's parking place though. 25 mins later having dug a path in the snow for it to move on i could smell an overly hot and bothered engine i climbed in the cab which was still freezing cold, thats odd no heat coming from the heater, i switched off quickly and took the cap off the expansion tank to find a lump of solid blue ice sitting there. How can antifreeze freeze i thought. It should be good to minus 26 its nowhere near that so why has it frozen. It looks as if someone (possibly me may have used screen wash instead of antifreeze) I just don't believe this i only want to get to work.

Car no 5 A Toyota Prius surely this was ok it's a Toyota they don't go wrong do they? Well ours did. Full of hope i pressed the remote locking fob but nothing absolutely nothing no Beep, no indicators flashing nothing. MMM must have frozen locks i guessed. So another 20 mins was spent getting in and using the emergency key to get it open. Ah at last were in. So in goes the fob i press the standby button expecting to pull away and what happens? BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEP Getting louder and louder and a big red triangle on the display with a flashing exclamation mark inside. Hmph where the hell do you start with one of these i have absolutely no idea.

Two cars left my daughters £100 Nissan Micra and the Bambi. The Bambi is in a storage field over 13 miles away from home and hasn't run for over 2 months now so i hadn't pinned much hope on that starting up or even if it did i doubted i could get it out of the field anyway. I said to Abbey my daugther that there was not much chance for the Nissan either as we had never checked Antifreeze of anything for that matter on it. Still she had a go again battling into the thing took a while but it started up and seemed ok WAHOO we still had a vehicle in the family.

What about the Bambi i thought what was the hope for her languishing in field exposed and uncovered. We set off armed with shovels to see if she would start and could be dug out of her resting place. We couldnt get the Nissan into the field the snow was too deep and this was a blow because i "knew" we'd need to jump start her.

We trudged down to where she was looking a sorry state (bambi not us) half buried in the snow. No hope i thought. Getting in involved a trick with a lighter and some screen defrost in went the key and i left the ignition on whilst the fuel pumped ticked and ticked for what seemed like ever priming itself. I turned the key and she fired up first little flick no flat battery (no electronics working away in the background to drain it i suppose) no issues whatsoever. We warmed it through dug away the snow from the wheels as best we could and drove it right across the field without it bogging down once. What a vehicle it saved the day. Just goes to show how much real progress has been made in car reliability by adding electronics to just about every feature you can. ;D

Keep on trucking

Andy

[duncanamps]

Sounds like you are having a terrible time there! Hope the carry makes a recovery and the frozen coolant doesn't have too many repercussions...

ps: I love the lack of electronics. It's great to move the Bambi round the garden without it going beep-beep-beep because I haven't put the seatbelt on.

[rascalvan]

Hi everyone, have to agree with Andy, we have 2 old vehicles.
one is our trusty reliable 1994 M reg ford maverick 2.7 turbo diesel 4x4.( same as a Nissan Terrano )
simply put -- brilliant, engage 4 wheel drive and life proceeds as normal, snow, what snow ?.
mind you it cost us £65 this year for a new water pump. ( hows that for low running costs ?)
my vehicle is a 1996 vw transporter van, again diesel, but this one does up 42mpg, and starts first time every time, apart from a couple of occasions over the last 10 years where the battery has failed, but replacement is only around £65, so again not moaning. with fuel prices so high now this is our main vehicle in normal weather, as the maverick only does up to about 38mpg.

We also own a 1993 vauxhall astra 1.7 diesel, now this one has 200,000 on the clock, but last year cost nothing to get through an mot, but I did do a refurbishment on it the year before as it was needing either some money spent on it or scrap it.
I decided because it has simply technology and does over 60 mpg that is was worth saving and we keep it as a spare vehicle come free loan car for customers.
I am not surprised that the older vehicles are better in poor weather really because it is just so simple to keep them running.
I don't think too many electronics are a good thing once the weather gets very cold.
I have to add that we always maintain these vehicles and check them over as and when we think it is needed.
The VW needed glow plugs this winter and a new thermostat, but this only amounted to about £80 odd, so not bad for a years motoring.
The astra hasn't needed a thing. ( need a back exhaust box once, cost me £15+vat for a new one !!)
My niece has a nice approx 5 year old Range Rover Sport, guess what, it is off the road at the moment, needs some suspension work, now this must have cost over £30,000 to buy and I would be very very sad if I had spent that much and it ever failed me !!.
So , I am in favour of the older simpler vehicles too !!.

I also have a 1987 Talbot auto sleeper camper, but this one has a flat battery at the mo, but it is in hibernation anyway.
Regards Tim..

[chris (zaphod)]

Doreen and I enjoyed reading your trials and tribulations!

Here's ours. None to speak of, really.

We have 5 vehicles in the fleet: Saab 9000V6, Saab 9000 2.3t Anniversary, Saab 96, the Bambi, and a Suzuki Bandit 1200 motorbike.

The anni has been SORN since the beginning of August. It made sense, since we only needed one car between the both of us - working different shifts - and there was always the Bambi as back up, therefore the V6 became the workhorse. The anni went for her MOT at the beginning of August and sailed through, but remained SORN.

The V6 has started on the button throughout the freezing weather and snow. It got down to around -10 on quite a few nights. The Traction Control came in handy, too, and performed faultlessly. She needs some work on her now, though. Heater, Oil Breathers, and a water leak from the washer bottle (this ones a bugger of a job to do). As the tax ran out last month, I decided to put the anniversary back on the road. It was my fault that she hadn't been turned over since coming back from her MoT. Battery charged up for a day last week, installed, and she started first time on the button, as if it were just yesterday. A short drive, and everything is fine. Now taxed, and the V6 shall be SORN.

The Bambi hasn't been really used since all the snow. While sorting out the anni, ensuring the tyres were pumped up as they should be, I jumped in, let the fuel pump prime, and again, away we go, first time.

The 96 hasn't been out on the road for a while. She only comes out to play in dry weather, and on special occassions. She started first time on the button last week, but gets regularly turned over.

Chuffed to say the least!