Tarn Gorges, April 19 - We are beginning to wonder if we offended a witch sometime. Janet was driving the interesting A75 that has replaced the torturous N9 from Clermont to Millau. She drives well which is good as motorway or not this is a killer road. 3,000 feet up, constantly climbing or diving and winding endlessly. And since it is a free A Road it is packed with traffic and a multitude of connections.
Which is why losing power in mid overtake is pretty unnerving. Effectively we were doing 70 passing a labouring old Hymer (yes old and Hymer do go together) when the turbo apparently cut out and Janet was coasting in fifth. She got us back onside and the Hymer was so slow we had passed it but it was soon our turn. A 1.9 Turbo Diesel sans turbo is a lot less than a 1.9 diesel. More like a 1 litre and this had 1,500 lbs of caravan on its back. At times we were down to second, 2000 revs and 30 mph. Which would be fine on an N road but this is an Autoroute. It reminded me of our first run this way 18 years ago in a 1.8 Nissan Bluebird auto with a 1200 lb Lynton van on the hook. The N 9 was a two way country road through the mountains. Lovely. But we were only 50ish and loved it!
I decided Janet had done her bit and we switched and laboured our way on, deciding to stop short of Millau and use the ACSI site at Severac le Chateau. Good decision as well after we later saw our choice in Millau – very Butlins!
So once again our day was spent hunting down a VAG dealer to check out the car. BUT, and this is odd, it started a dream on the Tuesday and was running fine. No hint of the problem. My theory of a failed catalytic converter looked unsound and a failed turbo it was not. Well, so far. Millau has a VAG dealership and they took a look. What no warning lights. So not the cat and not the turbo as such. And now running fine. Intermittent? Booked for Friday as I write for diagnostics and report - or fix if we are lucky.
Now comes the problem – do we trust the car or our luck any more? We are deep into France now which is OK since we have enough lingo and knowledge to cope and home is only one country away. But in two weeks we shall be crossing Spain midway down; then Portugal. Do we go on? Friday may decide the fate of this venture. Fix and forget and we go on. No significant finding and we have to be cautious. Major work and we are stuffed for cash anyway in the short term. It will be home and recoup while sorting the insurance claim. Oh yes that is still out there!
Janet took a glass of wine tonight. No surprise there – I took a feast!
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