Kangaroo diesel.

Today was the day we were heading to David and Wendy.  The day started strangely at 9am when we were suddenly surrounded by about 30 French middle aged people who blocked our van in by parking their cars around us.  Then the congregated in the nearby shelter and got out bread, croissants and drinks. It all seemed quite amicable.  They hung around chatting for an hour and then started drifting away.  We still aren't too sure what it was all about.  We wondered if they were a walking group assembling before a walk but to look at the shape of some of them I don't think they had much walking in them!  I considered that they might be a troglodyte reunion group as none were very tall!  We may never know.

We intended to get to David and Wendy mid afternoon so there was no rush.  We popped into a supermarket to find some lunch and we refuelled.  I know you have read the title and I know what you might be thinking.....that I put in the wrong fuel.  Well I didn't.

We set off from Saumur and on the outskirts I saw a warning light on the dashboard that told me that there was a problem with the diesel pump system and the engine started stuttering.  Oh dear!  I looked in my vehicle handbook for a list of French Fiat dealers and saw one listed in Saumur.  However, the sat nav didn't recognise the address and as it happened the dealer listed no longer existed.  We didn't have any internet to check our other options but we went to a Toyota dealer to ask if they knew where the Fiat dealer was now.  Of course, it was lunchtime and all garages were shut for lunch.  We now had to wait for 2pm before anywhere reopened.  About 1.40pm an elderly man pulled up in his car and I thought I would ask him. He looked horrified when I asked him if he could speak English but I asked in 'pigeon French' where the Fiat dealer was and he confidently told me to turn 'a droit, une kilometre'.  It took us two attempts to find it and we doubted his advice but he turned out to be correct because it was an Iveco truck dealer but it also had the Fiat contract too and it was just where he said.

It is a well known fact that French mechanics never speak any English either but we managed conveying the problem and to our relief the boss started to check the van straight away.  It took a while before he could get his diagnostic computer connecting to the van but when he did he realised that the problem was an electrical connection to the diesel injectors and they took it apart, squirted it with, WD40 and put it back together and 'hey presto' it was working perfectly.  Fantastic.  That was the most expensive squirt of WD40 in history, it cost us 146 euros!!  It sounds a lot but it was the price for 1 hours work with the diagnostics and tax!

We managed to get to David and Wendy by 7pm and it was lovely to see them.  We had a lovely meal and a drink or two!  Sorry no photos today.  We were preoccupied with the van breakdown.