chataigner
Old Oak
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
- Messages
- 1,127
- Reaction score
- 55
When I bought my new car a while back I decided to keep the old one (1996, 225,000km) to use for fetching bags of cement and other activities that mess up the boot of a new car. There is no road tax in France, so the only cost is insurance, which at 180€/yr for minimum legal 3rd party didnt seem prohibitive. 
It is a long wheelbase ford Maverick (actually a badged Nissan Terrano) 4x4, 2.7l, turbo, built like a tank and had served me very well for 15yrs (I bought it nearly new). To thank me for my fidelity, it started showing an engine warning light from time to time, a good read in the book and a search on line revealed that this is a catch all warning light fed from 101 different diagnostic gadgets and you need a magic decoder to find out which it is.
To cut a long story short, after a huge amount of chasing around I finally found a dealer who still had the gear to decode and was told that the fault concerned the injectors, but that it was more likely to be a faulty sensor than a faulty injector, but you have to fix it because if it signals a problem for more than a few minutes, it will cut the engine - a sort of fail safe. Changed the sensor (400€) and all is well.
Now it's time for the control technique (french MOT). I knew it needed new front brakes and tyres all round, but figured that once done it would last for years since I only do a very low milage in it. While changing the discs, the garage managed to shear off a bolt, leaving the other end in a forged component - they put their hand up and said it was their fault, but the part would have to be changed and no-one had spares.
Several days of chasing around car breakers finally located one - changed by the garage at their expense - phew !!!
Now for the tyres. I wanted to put all terrain tyres on it so I can play off road from time to time. A friend is president of a 4x4 club and organises interesting outings. Search on line for tyres, but no - no-one makes a proper all terrain tyre with an T speed rating. Interesting ! How can any reasonably powerful and fast 4x4, ever be fitted with offroad tyres if they dont exist in speed rating T which is manadatory in France for vehicles spec'd for 190kph (around 115mph) as mine is ? So I talk to the techs at the local Control Technique place and they say it's OK with S rated tyres. So I order them on-line for delivery to my local garage. When they arrive the garage calls - sorry guv, but we cant fit these tyres, they are not legal for your car, you need T rated. :evil: :evil:
After quite a bit of heated discussion I finally get the Control Technique guys to call the garage direct and with much muttering and cursing the tyres are eventually fitted.
Cost so far just short of 2000€. I'm delighted to have my trusty 4x4 back but do hope it proves to be worth it ! :lol: :lol:
It is a long wheelbase ford Maverick (actually a badged Nissan Terrano) 4x4, 2.7l, turbo, built like a tank and had served me very well for 15yrs (I bought it nearly new). To thank me for my fidelity, it started showing an engine warning light from time to time, a good read in the book and a search on line revealed that this is a catch all warning light fed from 101 different diagnostic gadgets and you need a magic decoder to find out which it is.
To cut a long story short, after a huge amount of chasing around I finally found a dealer who still had the gear to decode and was told that the fault concerned the injectors, but that it was more likely to be a faulty sensor than a faulty injector, but you have to fix it because if it signals a problem for more than a few minutes, it will cut the engine - a sort of fail safe. Changed the sensor (400€) and all is well.
Now it's time for the control technique (french MOT). I knew it needed new front brakes and tyres all round, but figured that once done it would last for years since I only do a very low milage in it. While changing the discs, the garage managed to shear off a bolt, leaving the other end in a forged component - they put their hand up and said it was their fault, but the part would have to be changed and no-one had spares.
Several days of chasing around car breakers finally located one - changed by the garage at their expense - phew !!!
Now for the tyres. I wanted to put all terrain tyres on it so I can play off road from time to time. A friend is president of a 4x4 club and organises interesting outings. Search on line for tyres, but no - no-one makes a proper all terrain tyre with an T speed rating. Interesting ! How can any reasonably powerful and fast 4x4, ever be fitted with offroad tyres if they dont exist in speed rating T which is manadatory in France for vehicles spec'd for 190kph (around 115mph) as mine is ? So I talk to the techs at the local Control Technique place and they say it's OK with S rated tyres. So I order them on-line for delivery to my local garage. When they arrive the garage calls - sorry guv, but we cant fit these tyres, they are not legal for your car, you need T rated. :evil: :evil:
After quite a bit of heated discussion I finally get the Control Technique guys to call the garage direct and with much muttering and cursing the tyres are eventually fitted.
Cost so far just short of 2000€. I'm delighted to have my trusty 4x4 back but do hope it proves to be worth it ! :lol: :lol:
