My Fun in Belgium
My Fun in Belgium
I have just got back from my trip to the annual European MR2 meet in Duderstadt, Germany. I left my house at 3AM on Friday morning, drove to Dover for a 7AM ferry, and was in Dudetown by 5PM - travelling alone as everyone else had obstacles in their way which meant silly travelling times! The weather wasn't great but it was still a great weekend. But then I tried to come home...
Monday
I was convoying along quite happily with a MK1 and another blue MK2 turbo. We'd done Germany and The Netherlands and had got into Belgium. About 5 miles outside of Gent/Ghent at 5:10PM I heard a dull thud from the engine and revs started to drop. All electrics were still working indicating the engine was still running, but pressing the accelerator pedal didn't do anything. Seconds later the rev counter dropped to zero and the engine warning light came on. So I coasted to a stop on the hard shoulder, put out my warning triangle and phoned my euro breakdown people, who for this trip were The Green Insurance Company.
I chose this company for European cover because my insurance company had been unable to supply cover for a car the age of mine. They did actually sell me cover, but the small print said it was no good for cars over the age of 16 so it got sent back.
When I called the breakdown people, they were initially very helpful. I briefly spoke to my breakdown company and they transferred me to their European agents ICA. ICA ran me through what I needed to do (find kilometre markers on the road, walk back to a junction I'd just passed to get road names) so I did all that and called them back. The person I spoke to 2nd time around to give this info to was pretty useless, I kept having to repeat myself, he had very little grasp of English and at one point decided I was talking about a motorbike. Because I was sat around with nothing to do for a while I decided to prod around the engine and find out what had happened. I pretty quickly spotted a big crack in the distributor cap and decided that was game over, they weren't going to be able to fix it by the side of the road.
Unsurprisingly I got a call back about an hour later saying they couldn't find me. I explained that I had found out what was wrong with the car, and listed what would be required to fix it. I asked if I could just be recovered to the UK but they explained that it would be very expensive and they would try and fix the car in Belgium first. I repeated the info regarding the road junction and kilometre markers and the person on the phone sounded surprised as they weren't noted down on the file... pretty quickly after that I was picked up by a recovery lorry. I showed the guy the hole in the distributor cap and we loaded the car onto the lorry and took it back to the recovery depot. The driver's son met us at the depot as he spoke very good English and could translate everything that was happening (plus he was Jap car mad). It was now about 8PM.
By 9:30PM I was getting quite irate about not hearing anything, I was marooned at a closed recovery depot with no idea of what was happening. I telephoned the breakdown people again and they explained that they were waiting for authorisation from the Green Insurance mob to be able to spend money on my behalf. By 10:30 I had finally been picked up by a taxi and taken to the Ibis Hotel in Gent Centrum. I was pretty tired by then so I crashed out.
Tuesday
Next day started well, the breakfast in the hotel was great and I wandered around Gent for a little while. I called ICA who said they were now awaiting authorisation from the Green people to spend the money to have my car delivered to a garage for diagnosis. I repeated that I knew what was wrong with the car, gave details of the fault, and explained that there was a Toyota garage in Gent who would be able to arrange the parts quickly. Having got all that off my chest, I went about my day. Gent is a nice place, very traditionally Belgian in that there are lots of big old ornate buildings and lots of nice cafes. I visited a few and tried a fair share of Belgian beers (it seemed rude not to). I called ICA again at the end of the day who explained that they had not received authorisation from the Green people to spend out and move my car, so basically Tuesday had been wasted. I was pretty livid at this point so I phoned the Green mob to rant. They pushed through authorisation for work to be done the next day, and also for me to again have a hotel booked for the night (they would only book 1 day at a time!). However I found out that the order for a hotel had to go from the Green people, to ICA's main office, to ICA's Belgian office, and then to the hotel, so it took upwards of 2 hours from my breakdown insurance requesting a room booking to one actually being booked, and they would only do this once they had established that the car would not be ready that day (which meant a message being transmitted in the other direction, along the same route). It was all a bit like Chinese whispers.
Wednesday
So Wednesday came and I got up late and missed breakfast. It was raining so I stayed in the hotel for a while and had some lunch and some more Leffe. After lunch I got a call to say that the Green company had authorised for my car to be moved to the garage, and that it was actually already there awaiting diagnosis. I was quite pleased with this news so I had another beer. However time passed, and when I chased I got told that my car had been taken to a Ford garage and they had diagnosed the problem as a faulty starter motor! So basically, they had fallen foul of the CAT1 alarm, which immobilises the engine after 60 seconds of inactivity. Bearing in mind that my policy states that I pay for parts and labour including diagnosis, I was pretty mad at this point. I phoned up and demanded that they gave me the contact details for the garage. However because I was dealing with a time difference between the UK and Belgium, by the time I got the details the garage was closed!! At this point a very helpful friend of mine suggested that I get the parts in via my Toyota contacts, he collect them Thursday morning and drive them over to me. This route would incurr more costs on my part but I would be home quicker than this complete shambles of a recovery solution could arrange. So, parts were ordered, Paul booked a day return ticket and I informed the Green people of my plans. They were surprisingly fine with it. Paul did some investigation before leaving, and it turned out that my car was at CIAC Gent which is a Toyota dealership, but they also do Ford car rental, hence the brand confusion. He sent me directions and I got walking. It was about a 45 minute walk to the dealer which was of course shut but at least now I knew where my car was and how to get there. I got back to the hotel by around 7 but of course I did not have a room booked because they required authorisation... 2 angry phonecalls later and by about 10PM I was back in the same room!
Thursday
Thursday morning, I woke up determined that I was going home. I checked out of the hotel and walked to the dealership. The receptionist seemed quite excited when I asked if they had any English cars and that I was here to help with the MR2. She explained that they had rediagnosed the car and that the problem was the distributor cap (or 'delco cap'). I was able to get to the car and check out the smashed parts, as well as get some bits and bobs that were still in the car. I explained that I had someone coming over with the parts who would be there today. There is no restocking charge with Toyota's central parts distribution if you order incorrectly, so they could send back the parts they had ordered. I spent all day in the dealership, Paul managed to get bumped onto an earlier train and was with me in Gent by 3:30PM. Parts were fitted and I was on my way by 4PM
Total cost for diagnosis and fitting of parts was €65. Bear in mind that in the UK, diagnosis alone would've been 1hrs labour and Toyota's standard hourly rate is £90 + VAT.I managed to get home on Thursday without any hiccups (aside from the price of an on-the-spot ferry ticket which is HORENDOUS). I actually got a call from the recovery company while I was queueing for the ferry to ask if I had heard any news from the garage!! So again another enormous breakdown of communications. I have reported to the breakdown company that somewhere along the line someone has cracked my front bumper and scraped some paint off it. I only had it rebuilt and resprayed a few months ago and it was fine when it was taken off the 1st recovery lorry and stored overnight at the depot, so it must've happened when the car was transported to Toyota on Wednesday lunchtime.
So, the lesson here is:
You get what you pay for with European Breakdown Cover. Don't skimp!
All this could have been made so much easier if the breakdown cover company had an automatic authorisation of say, €500, for their agents to spend on behalf of their customer. Requiring seperate authorisation for every repeat hotel booking, taxi, etc is just ridiculous. Imagine if I had had a young child with me, unable to book into the hotel each night until gone 10PM. This would have totally skipped the waste of time over Tuesday and I'd have been home a day earlier.
If the information I gave the breakdown guys over the phone had been recorded and passed to the garage they could've ordered the parts immediately and I'd have been home a day earlier.
Gent is a very nice place, and I'd love to visit there again as a proper tourist. It's very difficult to appreciate your time there when you don't know how long you are there for, whether you have a hotel booked (or indeed whether you will have a roof over your head!!) and what is happening with your car (or even where your car is). The uncertainty made me very nervous and uneasy.
The staff at the hotel were really nice, sorted me out with wifi access for my phone and a phone charger, UK mains adaptor etc etc. Particularly the chap who was working nights and kept having to deal with me when I was stigged off.
Toyota in Gent were great, they let me basically camp in their dealership all day while I waited for Paul to arrive. Free coffee, free biscuits, etc. :thumbup1:
Many thanks to Simon at Steven Eagell Toyota Aylesbury, who sorted me out with the required parts at no notice. If you are round this way and you need parts, Simon is your man.
And those of you who were wondering... this is what came off the car:
![[Image: 224440_10150255064836644_689086643_79807...0548_n.jpg]](https://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/224440_10150255064836644_689086643_7980737_6430548_n.jpg)
(meant to look like this)
![[Image: 007.jpg]](http://www.jap-spec-performance.co.uk/fitting-guides/00007/007.jpg)
![[Image: 224508_10150255064716644_689086643_79807...3358_n.jpg]](https://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/224508_10150255064716644_689086643_7980734_2513358_n.jpg)
![[Image: 262975_10150255064531644_689086643_79807...2435_n.jpg]](https://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/262975_10150255064531644_689086643_7980732_3642435_n.jpg)
We think that one of the screws holding the rotor arm on came loose and jammed the distributor. It's unclear though, as the garage had both screws still, so if one had come loose, it didn't make it out onto the road when the cap split.
Sorry this is a bit of an essay. I needed to write it all down to sort out in my head what happened when, so I can properly complain to the people involved!
I have just got back from my trip to the annual European MR2 meet in Duderstadt, Germany. I left my house at 3AM on Friday morning, drove to Dover for a 7AM ferry, and was in Dudetown by 5PM - travelling alone as everyone else had obstacles in their way which meant silly travelling times! The weather wasn't great but it was still a great weekend. But then I tried to come home...
Monday
I was convoying along quite happily with a MK1 and another blue MK2 turbo. We'd done Germany and The Netherlands and had got into Belgium. About 5 miles outside of Gent/Ghent at 5:10PM I heard a dull thud from the engine and revs started to drop. All electrics were still working indicating the engine was still running, but pressing the accelerator pedal didn't do anything. Seconds later the rev counter dropped to zero and the engine warning light came on. So I coasted to a stop on the hard shoulder, put out my warning triangle and phoned my euro breakdown people, who for this trip were The Green Insurance Company.
I chose this company for European cover because my insurance company had been unable to supply cover for a car the age of mine. They did actually sell me cover, but the small print said it was no good for cars over the age of 16 so it got sent back.
When I called the breakdown people, they were initially very helpful. I briefly spoke to my breakdown company and they transferred me to their European agents ICA. ICA ran me through what I needed to do (find kilometre markers on the road, walk back to a junction I'd just passed to get road names) so I did all that and called them back. The person I spoke to 2nd time around to give this info to was pretty useless, I kept having to repeat myself, he had very little grasp of English and at one point decided I was talking about a motorbike. Because I was sat around with nothing to do for a while I decided to prod around the engine and find out what had happened. I pretty quickly spotted a big crack in the distributor cap and decided that was game over, they weren't going to be able to fix it by the side of the road.
Unsurprisingly I got a call back about an hour later saying they couldn't find me. I explained that I had found out what was wrong with the car, and listed what would be required to fix it. I asked if I could just be recovered to the UK but they explained that it would be very expensive and they would try and fix the car in Belgium first. I repeated the info regarding the road junction and kilometre markers and the person on the phone sounded surprised as they weren't noted down on the file... pretty quickly after that I was picked up by a recovery lorry. I showed the guy the hole in the distributor cap and we loaded the car onto the lorry and took it back to the recovery depot. The driver's son met us at the depot as he spoke very good English and could translate everything that was happening (plus he was Jap car mad). It was now about 8PM.
By 9:30PM I was getting quite irate about not hearing anything, I was marooned at a closed recovery depot with no idea of what was happening. I telephoned the breakdown people again and they explained that they were waiting for authorisation from the Green Insurance mob to be able to spend money on my behalf. By 10:30 I had finally been picked up by a taxi and taken to the Ibis Hotel in Gent Centrum. I was pretty tired by then so I crashed out.
Tuesday
Next day started well, the breakfast in the hotel was great and I wandered around Gent for a little while. I called ICA who said they were now awaiting authorisation from the Green people to spend the money to have my car delivered to a garage for diagnosis. I repeated that I knew what was wrong with the car, gave details of the fault, and explained that there was a Toyota garage in Gent who would be able to arrange the parts quickly. Having got all that off my chest, I went about my day. Gent is a nice place, very traditionally Belgian in that there are lots of big old ornate buildings and lots of nice cafes. I visited a few and tried a fair share of Belgian beers (it seemed rude not to). I called ICA again at the end of the day who explained that they had not received authorisation from the Green people to spend out and move my car, so basically Tuesday had been wasted. I was pretty livid at this point so I phoned the Green mob to rant. They pushed through authorisation for work to be done the next day, and also for me to again have a hotel booked for the night (they would only book 1 day at a time!). However I found out that the order for a hotel had to go from the Green people, to ICA's main office, to ICA's Belgian office, and then to the hotel, so it took upwards of 2 hours from my breakdown insurance requesting a room booking to one actually being booked, and they would only do this once they had established that the car would not be ready that day (which meant a message being transmitted in the other direction, along the same route). It was all a bit like Chinese whispers.
Wednesday
So Wednesday came and I got up late and missed breakfast. It was raining so I stayed in the hotel for a while and had some lunch and some more Leffe. After lunch I got a call to say that the Green company had authorised for my car to be moved to the garage, and that it was actually already there awaiting diagnosis. I was quite pleased with this news so I had another beer. However time passed, and when I chased I got told that my car had been taken to a Ford garage and they had diagnosed the problem as a faulty starter motor! So basically, they had fallen foul of the CAT1 alarm, which immobilises the engine after 60 seconds of inactivity. Bearing in mind that my policy states that I pay for parts and labour including diagnosis, I was pretty mad at this point. I phoned up and demanded that they gave me the contact details for the garage. However because I was dealing with a time difference between the UK and Belgium, by the time I got the details the garage was closed!! At this point a very helpful friend of mine suggested that I get the parts in via my Toyota contacts, he collect them Thursday morning and drive them over to me. This route would incurr more costs on my part but I would be home quicker than this complete shambles of a recovery solution could arrange. So, parts were ordered, Paul booked a day return ticket and I informed the Green people of my plans. They were surprisingly fine with it. Paul did some investigation before leaving, and it turned out that my car was at CIAC Gent which is a Toyota dealership, but they also do Ford car rental, hence the brand confusion. He sent me directions and I got walking. It was about a 45 minute walk to the dealer which was of course shut but at least now I knew where my car was and how to get there. I got back to the hotel by around 7 but of course I did not have a room booked because they required authorisation... 2 angry phonecalls later and by about 10PM I was back in the same room!
Thursday
Thursday morning, I woke up determined that I was going home. I checked out of the hotel and walked to the dealership. The receptionist seemed quite excited when I asked if they had any English cars and that I was here to help with the MR2. She explained that they had rediagnosed the car and that the problem was the distributor cap (or 'delco cap'). I was able to get to the car and check out the smashed parts, as well as get some bits and bobs that were still in the car. I explained that I had someone coming over with the parts who would be there today. There is no restocking charge with Toyota's central parts distribution if you order incorrectly, so they could send back the parts they had ordered. I spent all day in the dealership, Paul managed to get bumped onto an earlier train and was with me in Gent by 3:30PM. Parts were fitted and I was on my way by 4PM Total cost for diagnosis and fitting of parts was €65. Bear in mind that in the UK, diagnosis alone would've been 1hrs labour and Toyota's standard hourly rate is £90 + VAT.
I managed to get home on Thursday without any hiccups (aside from the price of an on-the-spot ferry ticket which is HORENDOUS). I actually got a call from the recovery company while I was queueing for the ferry to ask if I had heard any news from the garage!! So again another enormous breakdown of communications. I have reported to the breakdown company that somewhere along the line someone has cracked my front bumper and scraped some paint off it. I only had it rebuilt and resprayed a few months ago and it was fine when it was taken off the 1st recovery lorry and stored overnight at the depot, so it must've happened when the car was transported to Toyota on Wednesday lunchtime.
So, the lesson here is:
You get what you pay for with European Breakdown Cover. Don't skimp!
All this could have been made so much easier if the breakdown cover company had an automatic authorisation of say, €500, for their agents to spend on behalf of their customer. Requiring seperate authorisation for every repeat hotel booking, taxi, etc is just ridiculous. Imagine if I had had a young child with me, unable to book into the hotel each night until gone 10PM. This would have totally skipped the waste of time over Tuesday and I'd have been home a day earlier.
If the information I gave the breakdown guys over the phone had been recorded and passed to the garage they could've ordered the parts immediately and I'd have been home a day earlier.
Gent is a very nice place, and I'd love to visit there again as a proper tourist. It's very difficult to appreciate your time there when you don't know how long you are there for, whether you have a hotel booked (or indeed whether you will have a roof over your head!!) and what is happening with your car (or even where your car is). The uncertainty made me very nervous and uneasy.
The staff at the hotel were really nice, sorted me out with wifi access for my phone and a phone charger, UK mains adaptor etc etc. Particularly the chap who was working nights and kept having to deal with me when I was stigged off.
Toyota in Gent were great, they let me basically camp in their dealership all day while I waited for Paul to arrive. Free coffee, free biscuits, etc. :thumbup1:
Many thanks to Simon at Steven Eagell Toyota Aylesbury, who sorted me out with the required parts at no notice. If you are round this way and you need parts, Simon is your man.
And those of you who were wondering... this is what came off the car:
(meant to look like this)
We think that one of the screws holding the rotor arm on came loose and jammed the distributor. It's unclear though, as the garage had both screws still, so if one had come loose, it didn't make it out onto the road when the cap split.
toxo Sorry this is a bit of an essay.
An essay it was.
Sounds like a stressful couple of days, but you seemed to manage to deal with it very well, and still found plenty of time for beer! I have recently been stuck abroad a couple of times, with things out of my hands, uncertain plans, and not knowing where, if anywhere, you will sleep that night, so can empathise somewhat with the situation.
You have to look for the positives in these situations, at least you made it back ok, and, almost as important, the car is ok!
![[Image: tempsig2.jpg]](http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o227/84stoney/tempsig2.jpg)
ad: It was a tough call to make, but the Supercharged IS200 is being retired. ad:toxo Sorry this is a bit of an essay.
An essay it was.
Sounds like a stressful couple of days, but you seemed to manage to deal with it very well, and still found plenty of time for beer! I have recently been stuck abroad a couple of times, with things out of my hands, uncertain plans, and not knowing where, if anywhere, you will sleep that night, so can empathise somewhat with the situation.
You have to look for the positives in these situations, at least you made it back ok, and, almost as important, the car is ok!
ad: It was a tough call to make, but the Supercharged IS200 is being retired. ad:Your car was telling you it didnt want to be sold and wanted to come to Duderstadt with you again lol.. Hope this only delayed your sale not affected it
[/COLOR]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]That symbol on the side of my door.. Definition by FirebirdPhil 'Translated it means -
"try to overtake - go on give it a go I dare you......." [/COLOR]
I'm not an Outlaw; I'm a Poutlaw! Purple Supras are the bestest! I love purple .. a lot lot lot
purplewitch
24-06-2018, 07:14 AM #3[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]Terrible couple of days .. glad you're back safe and sound (well as sound as you ever were :p) .. They had an easier time with you than they would have with me, there is no way in stig I'd have lost sight of my car for a moment in a strange country!
Your car was telling you it didnt want to be sold and wanted to come to Duderstadt with you again lol.. Hope this only delayed your sale not affected it [/COLOR]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]That symbol on the side of my door.. Definition by FirebirdPhil 'Translated it means -
"try to overtake - go on give it a go I dare you......." [/COLOR]
I'm not an Outlaw; I'm a Poutlaw! Purple Supras are the bestest! I love purple .. a lot lot lot
I have never seen a Dizzy come apart like that - that will teach you to buy genuine Toyota parts!!
But so long as your safe and sound thats all that counts. Gent is a wonderful place, lived there for a while, if I had been in the UK and not here being 8 (well 9 hours because of time in Europe) hours behind and missing the start, and middle of this adventure, I would have got you put up with family, my uncle has a truck/bus dealership (Scania) and would have done all the running about/repairing for you - not to mention a guaranteed bed for the night with wicked food!!!
"Life's goal is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well preserved body. But, rather to skid in sideways........
totally worn out and broken, shouting 'Holy ****, WHAT A RIDE!'"
FirebirdPhil
24-06-2018, 08:43 AM #4Wow what a tale of woe!!
I have never seen a Dizzy come apart like that - that will teach you to buy genuine Toyota parts!!
But so long as your safe and sound thats all that counts. Gent is a wonderful place, lived there for a while, if I had been in the UK and not here being 8 (well 9 hours because of time in Europe) hours behind and missing the start, and middle of this adventure, I would have got you put up with family, my uncle has a truck/bus dealership (Scania) and would have done all the running about/repairing for you - not to mention a guaranteed bed for the night with wicked food!!!
"Life's goal is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well preserved body. But, rather to skid in sideways........
totally worn out and broken, shouting 'Holy ****, WHAT A RIDE!'"
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