Our Bob Is An Awesome Bob!

This picture was taken last night from my office window when I finally got home. What a journey – it’s forced me to come over all tabloid for the post title!

I set off for South Mimms Services (where I was meeting Adam to pick up Bob) at just before 6pm. It had started snowing slightly but was nothing at all to bother about. I had the heaters on in the 405 and it was a very pleasant journey until I hit the M25. I can only presume that there had been an accident because the traffic quickly became stationary. I decided to jump off at Junction 26 and suing my rudimentary knowledge of Hertfordshire headed to Junction 23 via A-Road. I’d never been to Cockfosters Tube Station before! Eventually I rejoined the motorway and it was clear for the final section before South Mimms. I have no idea whether it was faster than sitting in the jam but it was more interesting and I arrived in plenty of time.

South Mimms is apparently a hot-spot for deals involving drugs and guns so I enjoyed sitting in the thickening snow looking suspicious waiting for Adam to arrive. When he did we swapped cars and we went over the things that he’d done to her over the past three weeks (I’ll write about them in another post later) and I set off home. By now it was about 8.15pm and it was still snowing.

It should take about thirty minutes to get to Birchanger Services from South Mimms. Nearly an hour and a half later I ‘phoned Helen to say I was considering booking into the hotel for the night. The snow wasn’t that deep on the M25/M11 but it was very slippy, really only possible to drive in the grooves made by other cars, and full of cars and wagons going at such speed so as to make it difficult for me to drive at the (much lower) speed I wanted to. I know that as I drive Bob more I’ll get used to the steering vagueness and body roll but at the moment we’d had possession of her for such a short time that I’m not there yet. Throw compacted snow, wind, poor visibility and massive trucks at speed into the equation and it was almost too much for me. I’ll happily admit to being scared for much of the journey, and not in the rollaphobia way mentioned before here, but in a very real way. I just didn’t want to have to drive so fast, but when you’ve got an articulated lorry inches from your back bumper that’s not easy.

I skidded around Birchanger Services and parked up (pictured right). Called Helen, bought some food and a magazine from WHSmith and went to drive around to the hotel car park. I didn’t really want to stay there but… When I got to the hotel car park a BMW was sliding backwards down the slope up into it. It was then that I decided that I’d just have to go for it and try and get home. If it meant driving at 30 all the way then so be. Another BMW was in front of me on the roundabout leaving the service station. Pulling away slowly the driver got it completely sideways at no more than 5mph. Nice.

I wish I’d had a someone else in the car as I drove along the A120 at 30mph following the rapidly snowing-over tracks of the car that had passed by ages before. The line of cars behind me seemed, from my snowed up mirrors, to go on forever but it’s says something of the conditions that in that 20 mile stretch only three of four cars risked overtaking – the outside lane was just thick snow. As I got closer to Halstead the roads became less snowy and the drizzle had turned the covering to slush. I arrived home at just before 11pm (To Helen’s surprise – the last she’d heard I was staying at the hotel!) and spoke to Dad who’d had similar issues on the A14 in Cambridgeshire.

Last time I wrote about an epic journey in Bob the reasons were all Bob but this time she was faultless. She drove beautifully, didn’t miss a beat despite the conditions or the way I had to drive her, and generally did herself proud.

Roll on better weather, and more Bob Adventures!

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.
View Larger Map

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…

I knew that it would take me a little longer to get to the Midlands than normal but…

Bob started perfectly and I was soon on my way through Essex and into Suffolk through Haverhill. The torrential rain was fine but the crosswinds were causing me all sorts of worry. Not since the Suzuki Ignis hire car we had in Hungary have |I had such a bad case of ‘rollaphobia’ where each bend or gust of wind sends shivers through me. Seeing a gap in the edge up ahead was causing anxiety as much of the road towards Duxford is high and exposed and so the winds were strong. I got onto the M11 and then A14 and decided that I’d have to stop at Cambridge Services for a break and a drink of water. On returning to Bob I considered the tyre pressures and thought it would be a good idea to check them. After helping a man find the washer bottle on his Renault Clio I set to putting the tyre pressures to 30 at the front and 46 at the back, as suggested by the sticker on the steering column. The back tyres were 22 and 29, the fronts 35 and 31. No wonder she was like driving a water bed! Tyre pressures as they should be I returned to the A14 and found, not surprisingly, that things were much better. But it was then that the roof clips came undone…

I’d mentioned to H earlier in the week that I thought the roof clips were maybe not up to the job, but thought they’d be OK… The back one kept rattling undone so when I’d stopped to do the tyres I’d had to re-clip it. Back on the A14 the wind picked up and I heard the back clip go. I decided that at the next services/garage I’d pull over and re-clip it. Then the front one came undone too. I was (thankfully) just approaching a slip road when a heard a ‘whoosh’ from behind me and looked around to see the roof had popped up. The wind had obviously caught it and thankfully I wasn’t going too fast.

It could have ripped the roof off or pulled me into the outside lane.  I pulled over onto the slip road and pulled the roof down. I had to stop this happening so I pulled the laces out of one of my astro-turf trainers and tied the roof down as tight as I could. The outside clips were clipped back down but I couldn’t find anything to hold them in place.

With the roof tied there was little chance of the roof popping back up but nevertheless it was a very tentative drive to the next garage where I stopped to look for something I could use as a fastening pin. It was an Esso garage in the middle of nowhere, and I wonder what the lady behind the counter thought of the man with no hair who came in and bought only a card of hair grips… Still, they did the job and stopped the clips coming off again – there may need to be a more permanent solution though!

The rest of the journey was uneventful and I arrived in good time to play nine holes of golf with my brother on his birthday. An eventful journey but a successful one overall. Well done Bob!

When I was first at university I owned a 10-year-old Vauxhall Nova 1.2 which wasn’t old or tired, but I was young and inexperienced on the motorway and each trip to and from home was preceded with enormous amounts of preparation. Lists were made. Blankets were packed. Sandwiches were made. Tyres and washer bottles were checked. The petrol tanks was filled. I was going to be travelling over 200 miles and I needed to be sure that I was ready for every eventuality. As time went on though my preparations became fewer and fewer until each journey was greeted with the nonchalance of someone popping out for the weekly shop. 

This process was aided by the newer and better cars I found myself driving. A Toyota Corolla estate that never went wrong was the epitome of this, to the extent that it made me want to drive something a little less perfect and a little more characterful. 

Bob is, I think, the oldest vehicle I have ever owned. She can even trace her direct lineage back further (1950) than the other old timer I owned, a Mini Moke (1959) called Emma. (Funnily enough the Moke is the only other car I’ve given a human name to – ‘The Fridge’ for the Corolla doesn’t count.) There’s something about an old car’s imperfections that makes it feel almost human. Driving Bob isn’t at all like going for a spin in the Citroen, Nissan or Smart. Even the edgy Smart Roadster is simply being operated in comparison to the VW. You have to think about driving an old car, no matter how used to it you get. Emma drove like a dodgem-car but you had to make sure that all the controls that you normally take for granted (lights, indicators, brakes, gearbox, windscreen wipers, handbrake, starter motor, tyres etc.) were OK on virtually every journey, and each of their functions had quirks unique to the particular vehicle. I have often been reminded of Biff Tannen in Back to the Future, who knew he was the only one who knew how to start his car. It had a way that only he knew, just as if it were a human friend.

Driving around in Bob is of course going to get easier for me, but tonight I’m getting myself prepared for the first long(ish) journey I’ve had to make in her in the same kind of way I did on those early visits home from university. Considering her recent reliability issues this is perhaps not surprising, but if the summer trip to Italy is going to happen I need to start making these journeys now, and it needs to become second nature. I’m still going to have to check all those things each trip though even after countless drives, and Bob needs to give me a little more faith in her ability to take me to my destination. I’m looking forward to it, wish me luck…

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…

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

I’ve waited a while before posting this entry in order to let time create a sense of perspective that was sadly lacking on Tuesday.

Some of the texts I sent to H whilst sat by the side of the road waiting for the RAC seemed to suggest regret at our purchase of Bob, and indeed at times even called into question the parentage of our VW Camper…

This was the view that I enjoyed for over three hours on Tuesday as Bob decided not to work again. I’d picked her up the day before from Colchester and she’d been fine. I took her to show off at badminton the night before and she’d not missed a beat. Even though she is booked in at Superbeetles next week to be finally sorted out I thought a quick trip over to Braintree would be well within her capabilities. It was only going to be a short trip out so I didn’t bother putting a jumper on under my coat…

I guessed something was up by the time I’d driven to the end of the road, for although I’d sat and let her warm up for a time on the drive, and although she’d been great the day before, there was a slight loss of power when in mid-revs. The road to Braintree is twisty and with many a blind bend, and it was just before one of these bends that Bob’s engine died for the first time. It was about 11.30am at this time. I tried to restart her but there was nothing. I waited a few minutes and tried again. The engine fired and I quickly got her moving again, aiming for the layby in the distance where I could settle the engine and if need be return home to try a different car. The engine lasted about 20 metres. With the layby tantalisingly close I now found myself actually on the blind bend and thankful that although I was in a dangerous position at least I was big and orange and likely to be seen. Again I tried to get the engine going with no success. I decided to again wait a while before trying, and when eventually she did get going again I slammed her into first gear and headed for the layby. It was a good job that no one was coming the other way – I wasn’t going to stop for them!

And so I sat admiring the view for further while seeing if I could get the engine going again. When I managed it I sat and let it run. For almost two minutes it ticked iver nicely and then. Gone. I was further than two minutes from home and the road is not a good one to be broken down on, so for the third time in a fortnight I called the RAC and gave the registration number JAT 910V. It was 12.30pm. The Scottish woman was very pleasant and apologetic when she informed me that due to an accident that morning the waiting time was around two and a half hours, but that she would try and get someone from another area in less than an hour. The trip to Braintree seemed to be cancelled. I used the opportunity to make some ‘phone calls, check my e-mail and take photos of just how cold it was. For some reason there’s a thermometer stuck to the underside of the sun visor. It stated 15 degrees celcius (Warning!) when I first stopped. By the time I’d been there three hours it was somewhat lower. I did get Bob going on three occasions whilst I was waiting, and each time she ticked over beautifully – for about two minutes each time before cutting out…

At 2.30pm I was called by the RAC to apologise for the wait and to inform me that there wouldn’t be anyone there for at least another 45 minutes. It was then that I called Adam from The Old Volks Home to update him on the situation and he reminded me that there was a gas cooker in the back! Having only owned Bob for a fortnight and never having cooked in her I had forgotten this, and swiftly retired to the rear to crack open the gas bottle and warm myself up a bit. From a low of 9, I managed to get the temperature back up to 15 degrees before the RAC man eventually arrived at the by now misted up Bob just past 3.30pm. Over four hours since I’d left the house. My feet were like ice.

The engine wouldn’t start for the RAC man until he’d linked up the battery to his van to give the starter a bit of extra oomph, but then proceded to run like clockwork for about ten minutes… He’d checked all the easily removable parts and they were, as is known, all A1. We decided to give it a go getting home, and so I shut the engine bay. Immediately the engine started to splutter and fail. I felt very confident that I had diagnosed the problem as the engine cover but the RAC man said that that was unlikely. He quickly opened the engine bay again and got her ticking over properly, and we made our way back home. The engine ran well and made it without any problems. I was followed home by the RAC who gave diagnosis number umpteen – he thought it was air getting into the engine through a gasket or possibly a crack in the manifold. We’ll see…

Bob has since been sat on the drive and tomorrow I’ll be taking her back over to Superbeetles to be completely sorted. The Old Volks Home has again agreed to have Bob put right for us, even to the extent of replacing the carb if need be. Although our first few weeks of VW ownership have been a little less than ideal I do have faith in Superbeetles and The Old Volks Home to put Bob right. Italy is not as far as way as it seemed on Tuesday afternoon.

Alfie & I went and picked up Bob from Superbeetles (rather than Bulli Barn, which is actually a different part of the same company that I’ve never been to…) and found that she is running much better now the choke has been reduced and the mixture from the carb increased, particularly when driving around town. Les from Superbeetles got out his infrared temperature sensor and showed me how the carb was quickly freezing as the fan pulled cold air through the air-cooled engine before the heat inlets had time to warm it up. He suggested that the heat inlets were coked up and/or needed the gaskets changing.

Driving her home from Colchester saw a much smoother drive but the same sort of problem occuring : cutting out at junctions until the carb reached a decent temperature but great after a decent run stopped it from freezing. I ‘phoned Adam from The Old Volks Home who immediately told me to get the heat inlets sorted by Superbeetles under warranty. We have had our problems with Bob since we’ve owned her but The Old Volks Home has been only too happy to make sure that they’re sorted and we’re happy Camper owners.

Bob will be back at Superbeetles next Monday and I shall be driving her around until then showing her off!