Daughters fiesta broke down in France...

[Oldman2]

Got ten minutes or maybe more...
I want to tell you a story about a Ford fiesta 1.4 that I bought for my daughter in 2017. It was a 2010 mk7 5 door so not a bad car, it was my next door neighbours daughters car for a few years before that so I felt comfortable with the purchase.
My daughter lives in a modern world where everything is done last minute or not at all. For her birthday she decided to treat me and the wife to a day trip to France via DFDS Dover Calais, a car and up to 4 people for £39.

She quite regularly goes over to visit friends there and speaks French well.

We enjoyed breakfast on the ferry and toured a few small villages, our first toll road arrived and as I tried to reach the toll ticket, there was a loud noise not unlike a fog horn accompanied by what my daughter said was smoke venting from the bonnet. She quickly drove onward a few yards then pulled over. I opened the bonnet to see the coolant header tank looking very angry and mayonnaise doing its best to vomit down the inner wing.

While we waited for things to tool enough to investigate she called the RAC to arrange a breakdown truck, as we had entered the French motorway system even by 10yrds we had to abide by the rules and await their own guys who responded quite quickly in 2 trucks to place 6 traffic cones around our car and upon looking under the bonnet said in French just one word "mayonnaise" .....

Daughter has some news, RAC says she didn't renew the Europe relay cover this year so they cannot assist us. Always read the new policy !!

So a French recovery comes to get us, he's based the opposite way to Calais so we end up even deeper into France with a dead car on a recovery truck.
The garage we ended up at was a breakers yard so with an old car things were not looking good for Fiesta.

I had while we waited on recovery done my best to diagnose the fault, firstly I gave the driver the 3rd degree on when the bonnet was last opened and it transpires that she probably hadn't checked levels even for a month and she didn't know how much water should be in the header as its old and brown so hard to see into. She did say it needed lots of oil when they did check it.

So lots of oil used and no sign of mayo in the engine rocker cover or dipstick tube. Coolant system absolutely solid with mayo. So my thoughts were oil cooler pin hole putting hi pressure oil into the coolant system. Or head gasket, but doubtful.
I had the same thing happen on this same car in 2019, pinhole in cooler but it didn't get anywhere near this bad on that occasion.
So its gone lunchtime now and after having negotiated with the RAC to meet the ferry at Dover to recover her car off the ferry, we try to get the garage to recover us and the car to the evening ferry at Calais. They refused point blank unless they had a letter from the port authorities to state the recovery truck could pass all the port controls, drive on the ferry, unload us then drive off again.
My daughter with her full fledged French skills tried to get DSDF to provide the assurances via email, It got to 4:30pm and the garage said they wouldn't be able to do anything now today as its too late, after hours talking to DSDF this was just too much for my daughter who burst into tears. The Port manager emailed about now with the confirmation that all was ok for the recovery truck. The lady in the recovery office talked the reluctant driver into taking us to Calais

Are limited options were to get a taxi to the port £140 and pay £30 each as foot passengers to get back to Dover and abandoning the car to the breakers yard. So we really needed the recovery back even at £450.

The trip back was smooth, all the port controls seemed to know about us and we were on the ferry first and off loaded into a corner. At Dover the RAC were waiting, loaded the car and us on the ferry and we were dropped with a dead car some time later at home.

What a day trip that was!

As a coincidence my next door neighbour (that I bought this car from) goes to the South of France several times a year for family holidays. He went to France the same week we did. His car broke down with a faulty ad blue sensor and he needed recovery to a French main dealer to get the sensor replaced. When they checked their RAC cover to arrange recovery, they too had no Euro cover. This error cost them £800.
I couldn't believe it when he got back and told me, spooky or what!
are the RAC underselling, both he and my daughter usually have Euro cover, yet both didn't get it on renewal this year. Bothe didn't check the policy either.

So I expect if you managed to read this far (wake up at the back) you might be interested in the plight of poor Fiesta.

As it couldn't be moved far without a recovery truck I was limited as to which garages I could get it to. Lots of cap lifting and sucking through teeth estimates of £550 at least were mentioned, then one chap quite close said he would fit the cooler if I got it and flush the mayo for £100 ish. That's my sort of bargain so I got the cooler from the same company that supplied the one I fitted in 2019 and got the car to the chap. He came to my door same day muttering that I had bought the wrong cooler
I had been very careful to buy exactly the same part as last fitted so couldn't believe it. He had at least cleaned most of the mayo from the system but returned the car with the old cooler refitted for now.

I then purchased another cooler from a different company who assured me it was the correct part but once I got it the Chap was up to his ears in work and couldn't fit it for a week at least.

So dad to the rescue I thought, it cant be that hard and wont take long. I dusted off my jack and axle stands and put the car up enough to limbo under. I am a lot plumper than when I used to crawl under cars many years ago and I wont see 75 again anytime soon either, so it was more of a struggle than I thought it would be.

So I now had 3 oil coolers in my hands, the faulty 2019 version and 2 new ones, one is so thin it will not fit but has the exact same part number etched on it as the 2019 one and another new one which is fatter than the other 2.
After a measure I fitted the fattest new one, new oil and filter and filled the cooling system with plain water.
Started the engine and it sounds fine, has oil pressure and no oil leaks visible. BUT the radiator is dripping water from the core, it doesn't rain but it pours sometimes

I'm not sure how the radiator became a casualty, I think It may have something to do with getting rid of the mayo and a pressure washer...

So anyway, the car stayed up on stands and now its time to remove the radiator, of course its got a cooling fan and has AC so there is a condenser radiator attached to the other one too.
I can vouch for the fact that laying on damp block paving under a car in winter removing that lot is no fun at all.
I now have the new radiator and antifreeze but the weather has turned on me and I refuse to lay under it in zero degrees.

So its going to have to wait until at least Friday or maybe Sunday next as its 15 degrees on Sunday before The saga hopefully is ended.

This thread just kept growing, I hope someone gets this far

[Steve509926]

And here's me moaning about having to brush snow off the truck this morning!

Good luck Oldman2 hope it goes well for you over the weekend.

[Fenlander]

Well I did read all the way through and with some interest as one of my hats for 15+ years was somewhat connected to ensuring vehicle faults were properly diagnosed and repaired... and often having my ear bent with breakdown tales.

As you know the engine oil cooler issue is a common fault, similarly with some autobox arrangements the oil cooler is within the main rad and that failure can trash a gearbox.

Good luck with completing the job. I looked after my own cars in every respect from my first car at 18 until about 5yrs ago when I started putting the jobs that involved discomfort out to others. I still complete the yearly service and don't mind discs/pads or an easy suspension bush but anything that involves laying on the ground or twisting about too much goes to the garage.

Re the RAC we've been with them about 15yrs I guess. Not so much out of loyalty more being lazy at renewal. They so far haven't reduced cover at renewal but they try it on big time with the cost. This year the renewal was £213 and a phone call got it down to £108. I mean if they can do it at the lower figure then the higher one is really an attempt to fleece the unwary.

[spartacus]

Interesting read. I too have a daughter that refuses to look under the bonnet. Recovered her Fiat 500 on a rented car trailer to local garage who diagnosed coil packs.

She’s now got a Mk9 Volkswagen Polo. I used to have a diesel version. Good cars, but they eat wheel bearings.

Back to your predicament. RAC, AA, they are all the same and constantly incentivise new customers, but the devil is in the detail at renewal. I complained as have been with AA for 30+ years, primarily as I haul trailers and new customers were getting a better deal than I was. Anyway I now have relay added for the life of the policy. No idea about European cover, but I will check if I’m taking it abroad.

Luxury is having a fully heated workshop, lighting, and tea on tap. I know all about lying under cars in the pouring rain or making exhaust repairs with an empty can of Del Monte peach slices!

[Fenlander]

Ahh those tin cans made a great repair with a wad of Gun Gum and a couple of jubilee clips. If sound would pass an MOT too.

Unlike my inventive repair of my first car's chassis when strapped for cash filling some holes with mud and smoothing it over as if I'd scraped over a verge.

Nice try the tester said, but not quite up to the required strength of a welded plate.

[jonp]

It's not just your side of the pond that has these dodgy breakdown policy scams. I had breakdown insurance which Ive been paying for almost 30yrs but found that in my small print it only covered me if I broke down within a certain range of a major city. So breaking down on a slightly more remote road over here in Australia, just 5km outside the range ended up costing me all up over $4000 to get back to the town for repairs.

These companies have so many little clauses they can pull out of their 1000 pages of small print trickory.

[Oldman2]

I old man'd up today and with scarf and woolly hat limbo'ed under it and fitted the new radiator, put the rest of the car back that needed removing to get the old rad out, filled it with plain hot water with dishwasher tabs dissolved in and got it hot.
Sadly the heater radiator seems to be blocked with mayo, so I need several flushes and some pipes off I guess to clear the majority.
The local Ford Agents have a pump system for clearing it and they said £133 and that includes refilling with antifreeze. In this weather I snapped his hand off, then he said they were fully booked in the workshop until 2nd Jan 2025....
Fingers crossed for tonight as its got no antifreeze currently.

[Fenlander]

>>>the heater radiator seems to be blocked with mayo, so I need several flushes and some pipes off I guess to clear the majority.

To get the worse out of the heater matrix I'd remove inlet/outlet hoses and flush with the garden hose... but taking extreme care with the pressure as blowing an old matrix is a possibility. Then it's the dash out on many models.

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

Ahh those tin cans made a great repair with a wad of Gun Gum and a couple of jubilee clips. If sound would pass an MOT too.

Unlike my inventive repair of my first car's chassis when strapped for cash filling some holes with mud and smoothing it over as if I'd scraped over a verge.

Nice try the tester said, but not quite up to the required strength of a welded plate.

Haha probably around the same era I remember a Hillman hunter coming in for some welding to a chassis outrigger before the days of mig welding the usual starting point was heat the surrounding good metal with the oxy acetylene torch & scrape/ burn off the under seal to reveal the good metal underneath only when I scraped the under seal what looked like a previous welded in chassis section was actualy a piece of wood fashioned to look like the chassis section & grafted in with filler & underseal , must have taken as long to do as it would have taken to repair it properly. some folk went to great lengths to beat the mot tester

[Oldman2]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

>>>the heater radiator seems to be blocked with mayo, so I need several flushes and some pipes off I guess to clear the majority.

To get the worse out of the heater matrix I'd remove inlet/outlet hoses and flush with the garden hose... but taking extreme care with the pressure as blowing an old matrix is a possibility. Then it's the dash out on many models.

Yes dash out is something I will not be doing. I'm hoping its the valve controlling the feed to the matrix thats mayo'd. Hoses are put on before they install the engine I'm sure

[Fenlander]

Oh for the under bonnet access of a 1962 Ford Cortina 1500.

[Oldman2]

Just to put this to bed (I hope) I spent several hours today with 1ltr containers of concentrated truck cleaner and water filling the header and scooping the mayo off the top while the water tries to boil. This worked well for the main but didnt clear the heater pipes of mayo so a very nice man over the road at a garage took the car and removed the hoses and the mayo.
He dropped the car back nice and toasty inside, I then drained the coolant and added antifreeze. I dont want to see the car again daughter, its your turn to look under the bonnet & not just once a year!