Prob diag as injector/s. Est cost for one (citroen) here is 450 est cost for jag one is 1500. Not a viable repair even if diag is correct.

Cost to repatriate car est 1500, not viable. Spoke to my UK Indy, not viable repair, time to throw car away.

Spoke to UK breakdown, suggested they save themselves lots of money, just repatriate me.

Any thoughts, please? Anybody know how to scrap a UK car in France? I have v5 etc here with me.

Thanks

Some of us have vicariously got rather fond of your valiant old Jaguar: there a bit of that hopes that it's nothing too expensive.

But if it really is curtains, and you need something smaller and newer, I suspect you'd find a newish Fiesta more fun to drive than a new Dacia - it depends of course on your priorities, and your budget.

Thanks for the comment - I bought her 4 years ago sight unseen on a totally unwise whim for £2700 - but the 40,000 miles I've done since have worked out, I think, well. Thanks to my sensible indy.

If it's not viable to repair I'd be best to gor for something like an Avensis, but I;m a bit reluctant.

In 4 years I collect my state pension. That's worth about 400 a month after tax and I could afford to spend all or most of that on a car, but I wouldn't want to. I can't think of a car I'd want that much.

Dacia appeals because it'sbrand new, anti-badge, a bit basic (but not as basic as some of the cars I've owned, by a long way) and trouble-free motoring. After the HJ review on the 1.2 turbo Duster (he said he'd give it 6 stars if he could) I'm considering one of those!

I did also look at the discount dealers and saw a Suzuki Baleno basic 1.2 at about 8.800 which appealed.

PS. Looking at the Dacia Sandero, I think it's a better car on the spec. More rooom, DAB radio and phone thingy, a/c, and the package for about £7500.

Edited by joegrundy on 24/08/2017 at 22:11

I would be interested to know what the diesel experts think about my suggestion above of welding the duff injector closed and driving carefully home on three cylinders. What,if any, collateral damage might one expect?

Making it a b****** of a job to get it out after...

Instead of welding the injector shut it may be easier to simply diconnect the connector plug for that injector, and if the injector had jammed or bunged up partially or fully open then to seal off the injector pipe if it can be got at.

The fuel pressures involved i'd definately want the bonnet closed when test running the engine after interfering in any way.

A bit of an update on this. Apologies if the thread's getting a bit long.

Still waiting for car to be brought home from its extended holiday - could be another couple of weeks. In the meantime I am enjoying(?) the experience of not having a car, walking to shops, using bus pass, etc.. Helps to put life in perspective and increases empathy fot those in our society who don't have a car and for whom a visit to the supermarket - or anywhere else - is more complicated. No point eyeing up those 'multipack bargains' if you can't physically carry them home.

As seems to often happen, when one experiences something one becomes aware of others with the same experience. And so it has been. I have encountered people who despite preventive measures (e.g. servicing and getting problems fixed) have had breakdowns but were covered by rescue policies, people who seemed to treat rescue policies as an alternative to servicing, etc., and one poor dap who had 'chanced it' and whose car now sits somewhere in France 'needing a new engine'.

Had a chat to my indy - prepared him for Jag being delivered there (he knows it well) - and described symptoms. Initial (hypothetical) diagnosis was turbo pipes or something related, a couple of hundred quid job max. If it is injector(s) - sounded unlikely - recon for £100 or so (as previously helpfully noted in this thread). In any case, the plan is to diagnose current problem, cost a repair, check car over as fully as possible to try to establish whether its worth fixing and keeping. I feel a bit better for that.

In the meantime, I've been eyeing the scrappage schemes and contemplating alternatives. Swayed as I was by HJ review of the new Picanto (£7500) and his reference to 60s Coopers, a Dacia (no scrappage sceme so far) looks favourite if needs must.

As someone once said - 'if you have been, thanks for listening'.

Thanks for the John Ebdon reference - will follow that up.

"I must make a point of asking what breakdown company was the client, my nephew used to drive a 7/8 car transporter over to France and neighbouring countries recovering and repatriating damaged and broken down UK cars, so no waiting for weeks for Claude to do the Gallic version of sucking his teeth and pronouncing expensive doom."

Turns out NARPO use call-assist, which as I understand it, are used by premium marques for their breakdown assistance. Can't fault them for their excellent service (just sent an email and scans today and waiting for reimbursement of cost of recovery off autoroute)..

They in turn use IMA (Internationalle Mutuelle Assistance) for breakdowns on the continent, and any problems I had were down to them, or more accurately, miscommunications with them (e.g. I had allegedly authorised Pierre to carry out repairs, or the Portsmouth International Ferry Terminal v. IOW Ferry Terminal issues).

But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, as someone else once said, or at least gives us a laugh in retrospect.

A happy end to an interesrting story. Glad you got it fixed.

I re-read this thread and see that you had already guessed it was the same fault as you had previously.

Your car fights on to live on. Good luck.

And so, even in la belle France we have mechanics who are either totally incompetent or prepared to fleece customers, or both. Incapable of doing a simple visual inspection......

Maybe Pierre saw the opporunity to pick up a "scrapped" jag for centimes....

I wonder how many other cars are scrapped over a silly little thing like a pipe fallen off.

Or how many millions are screwed out of desperate customers who trust a mechanic.

Edited by brum on 08/09/2017 at 17:56

Not all french mechanics are blessed with the diagnostic skills of Clouseau. A few years ago a family friend had driven with us to the Alps on a ski holiday. His Jeep had started to play up with engine check light on etc. Off to the nearest dealer in Cluses which diagnosed a damaged turbo pipe and threw in a software update for good measure. One very relieved friend.

I am sure focussed can comment, try isiting a french scrapyard..

It did sound like a problem with the air supply so a check might have been less stressful.

Car is running as well as ever. I was pleased to note that nothing was missing when it got home, even down to the extra-strong mints in the cup holder.

Once i collected my car from the "official meet and greet" at gatwick and the driver had left his debit card and shopping in the car. I wasn't going to drive to gatwick after i got home, so card went into the bank, which was the same as mine, and shopping into the fridge.

Sorry, I had promised that my posts on this saga were over....

But - I was just filing away my paperwork on the episode and came across the 'diagnostic report' from Pirate Pierre the mechanique for which I paid 81.60 euros.

It's headed Bosch ESI (tronic) version 2016/2.2.00.002

It found no recorded faults.

Sadly, the car is shown as a 2.2 diesel (and all sorts of numbers) 09/2005 -11/2009.

Mine is a 2004 2.0d.

It could have been worse.