Our Bob Is An Awesome Bob!

I took Bob back to The Old Volks Home today to, hopefully, sorted out at last. It may be that she needs a new petrol tank, and if that’s the case she’s going to get one. Whatever is takes. She may therefore be with Adam at The Old Volks Home for a while but when she comes back the random cutting out will have come to an end.

The rest of my journey back to Essex was completed in a Peugeot 405 lent to me by The Old Volks Home, which was great because I’d never driven a 405 before and I love driving cars for the first time. It’ll be good to get Bob back though…

After Saturday’s successful (but now seemingly rather lucky) trip from Essex to Warwickshire and the massively improved driving experience from before Christmas I have had a nightmare.

On Sunday evening she stopped on the way back to Stratford from Alcester. Ten minutes and she was off again and thankfully there wasn’t much traffic about. Dad was with me and so was able to have a look at the engine and try to diagnose the problem. Thinking that there was a fuel supply problem we removed the petrol cap for a bit to try and solve possible vacuum issues. It seemed to work.

Monday morning came and I tried to drive her to Stratford Tyres to have the whitewalls removed, the wheels balanced and the tyre pressures checked. I didn’t get very far at all and this time when she did get going the engine dies as soon as asked for enough power to move her. Bunny-hopping (I’m getting good at it!) off the busy Evesham Road I then called Dad who again tried to work out the problem. The fuel filter was dry and the fuel hose blocked, suggesting debris in the petrol tank being the problem. The fuel filter and the fuel hose were replaced by Dad to remove them from being a possible cause.

At Stratford Tyres I had the wheels balanced and the white walls removed. The staff were very helpful and didn’t charge too much either. Bob isn’t maybe quite as pretty as she was with the white walls but she’s still very good looking and has continued to earn lots of admiring looks and comments.

Tuesday was on the whole less eventful, but Bob blotted her copybook on a massive scale returning home from snooker. Popping to Tescos on the way back to Dad’s she stopped again. A day of faultless motoring from Bob was about to cancelled out.
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The map shows the route that should, according to Google Maps, take just 2 minutes but took me over half an hour as Bob cut out, refused to start, started, moved ten metres and cut out, refused to start, etc.  I aimed for Tesco car park as I knew that I could stop out of the way of any traffic and try and sort her out. At the end I was within spitting distance of the first parking bay but sat stationary in a through-fare with Bob refusing to start. To make matters worse I had been drinking Coke all night and was absolutely desperate for the loo! Eventually I jiggled Bob out of the way into a parking bay and went and bought the bottle of milk that I’d been aiming for. On my return from the shop I thought I’d have a go twice around the car park where I was out of harm’s way before attempting to get home. I managed half a ‘lap’. In despair I again called Dad who came out (at just past midnight by now) and managed to make her run enough to get home. The picture bottom-right is of Dad driving her around Tescos car park making sure she was running well enough for the short trip home. For the second time in our life with Bob I was reminded of Back To The Future, this time of the scene where the Iranians drive a VW through a car park and shoot Doc. Except for me it was a little less dramatic. Finally I must say thank you to the owners of the Lexus IS who pulled up and asked if I was OK and if they could help as I hopped my way through Stratford last night. There wasn’t anything they could do but it was nice to be asked.

This morning I ‘phoned Adam at The Old Volks Home and explained all that had happened. Following our chat it’s been agreed that I’m going to be returning Bob to him tomorrow for him to do a long-term fix on her to make sure that this particular problem is removed. A lot of our faith in Bob has been shaken. H is not happy about the thought of driving her like this, A has hardly had the opportunity to ride in her and I…I’m not at this moment prepared even to drive her into town. She’s failed on me enough times now and the ‘novelty’ is wearing off. Adam says he will sort Bob out and I do believe him – I’m looking forward to summer camping trips on the continent even though right now they still seem a long way away.

I am tired and at the end of my tether. Rationality hasn’t yet left the building but madness is knocking at the door…

The warmth of Bob was clearly displayed tonight as I went out to check on her before tomorrow’s trip to the Midlands. A banana that I had forgotten about in the glove box just over a month ago is now black, but still firm and with no mould at all. It’s official then – Bob is a fridge…

I drove over to a friend’s house in Sudbury last night. It’s almost exactly 10 miles each way. The drive over was free of any excitement. I stopped for petrol and Bob was perfect. Purring away and so enjoyable an experience I composed a lyrical waxing about the joys of older vehicles in my head to be included here today.

On arrival D asked if he could have a look around Bob and I of course obliged. We had a look around her and, because it was dark, I put the internal light on for maybe a minute or so before making a point of switching it off and going back into the house.

Three hours later I say my goodbyes, wipe clean the condensation from the windows and fire her up. Nothing. The ignition lights appeared for a split second and then nothing. The battery was dead. Infuriatingly the battery jump-start pack I bought last week to use on the Smart (which was intended to live in Bob as a backup) hadn’t made it from the kitchen at home and so I was stuck. Not wanting to encur the wrath of the RAC’s fair-use panel I made my apologies and asked D for a jump start.

Thankfully he has jump leads and thankfully Bob started straight away and was again a joy to drive on the way home. I’m still going to write that piece about the joys of older-car ownership, but my word she is certainly pushing her luck at the luck at the moment…

I picked up Bob this morning from Superbeetles and apart from a slight worry half-way home she was great.

She’ll be getting a lot of use over the next few weeks including my first longish trip in her – over to Stratford.

It’s great to have her back…

Or at least will be soon…

We haven’t seen Bob in three weeks now. Three weeks that have included Christmas & New Year and all the busyness they entail. It occured to me today that since we’ve owned Bob she’s been at the garage more than she’s been at our house. Sad really, and hopefully not a long-term situation as the RAC have informed us today that our “fair-use limit” of their service for this year is almost up. Nice.

Bob will be spending Christmas alone this year…

She’s not finished being sorted yet as Les at Superbeetles wants her to breakdown on him so he can properly diagnose the problem. So we’ve agreed that she should stay in Colchester for the holidays. 

Merry Christmas Bob, see you in the 2009…

Bob is now with Superbeetles in Colchester for as long as it takes…