- Joined
- Mar 12, 2006
- Messages
- 2,608
- Car
- Mini Cooper S, BMW M140i
So, we've been on a bit of a mini-tour of Europe these past few days and yesterday we were in the Netherlands, s'Hertogenbosch for fans of specifics. Having been to the Noord-Brabant museum to see some Van Goghs at SWMBO's insistence (don't bother; they're rubbish), we set off heading for our planned nightly stop in Den Haag.
We drive through town, hit the A2 northbound and I accelerate to a gentle 65 mph ish, as we're in no hurry and just having filled up at €1.67 a litre I'm minded not to burn off the fuel too quickly.
As we settle in for the drive suddenly "ESP inoperative" comes up on the dash. Sh!t thinks I, that doesn't sound good. About 5 seconds later the engine light comes on. Double sh!t. While I'm considering my next move, a couple of seconds later the engine cuts out completely and the dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree. Houston, we have a problem.
The car continues to roll, and fortunately there's a slip road coming up ahead, so I bang on the indicator and hope for the best. It's a local road and I'm the only car heading for it, but the turn is 180 degrees and it's sharp, as I realise when I arrive at the junction and discover that of course, I've now got no power steering. I haul on the wheel, make it round (discovering in the mean time there's no power assistance on the brakes either, it's like pressing down on a pavement slab) and bring the car to a stop on the side of the slip road about 200m from the T junction at the bottom. Breathe a sigh of relief and put on hazards.
First things first, jump out of car and get warning triangle out of boot and deploy ~100m back so hopefully we don't get shunted from behind. Then get hi-viz jackets out for Mrs Gaz and myself (I did do some preparation before setting off) and stand away from the car while I try to think what to do next. Not a member of the AA/RAC and don't have breakdown cover - why would I, the car's never gone wrong in the 8 years I've owned it?
So I pull out the phone and look to see if there's a Mercedes dealership in town, and as luck would have it, there is - some 4 miles from where I'm currently stranded. I dial them up (thank you, Dutch people, for all speaking wonderful English) and ask if they can send a truck to pick us up. They recommend I call the Mercedes assistance number, which I do, and after confirming a few details about the car, they say they'll get us recovered and will call back to say when the truck will be there.
We hang around for 30 minutes or so, which actually isn't too much of a hardship as it's a beautiful sunny day and we're basically sat in a field full of flowers. Would have been nicer if we'd had a picnic handy, but them's the breaks. Then suddenly a guy in a bright yellow pickup truck with chevrons etc. pulls over and shoves on his roof lights. I go over and ask if he's come to recover us, but no, it turns out he's from the highways agency. He's seen the car and called for a recovery truck to move us to safety, which we won't get charged for, but they'll only move us to the filling station down the road and the proper recovery service can take it from there.
A guy with a flatbed turns up, we stick the car on and I ask how much for him to take us to the Mercedes garage rather than just leaving us down the road. Not far, he says, I'll take you there, no problem. Anyway, while we're in the truck Mercedes recovery ring back and say their truck is on its way. I told them we were sorted and to cancel it. Give the highways agency driver a bung for his trouble, and he goes away a happy camper.
So, we've arrived at the dealer with a non-functioning SLK and they're closing in an hour. I'm sure they had plenty of other things to be doing, but they get a mechanic on it straight away and come back after about 20 minutes with a report that the crank position sensor is FUBARed. This seems plausible, as it happened to my old C43 with similar symptoms, although that did it about a mile from my house, not 400 miles and 3 countries away. Unfortunately, they don't have the part in stock and tomorrow (Thursday) is a bank holiday so they won't be able to fix it until Friday at the earliest.
I agree to the cost of repair so they go off and order the sensor, and then tell me they can offer me a car so we can continue our journey. How much will that be, I ask? Oh, it's free of charge, your car has full MBSH so it's all covered. Now that's what I call service. OK, it's a Smart forfour but it's wheels and it means we haven't wasted 2 days of our holiday. I'll have also spent a fraction less on petrol so I'll offset it against the cost of the repair
All in all, I think Mercedes' response and service has been exemplary, and it'll make me think next time I bitch about a service bill. It's been a bit of a bump in the road on this holiday but it could have been so much worse. Just hope the problem really is sorted, will have my fingers crossed all the way back home on Saturday..
Cheers,
Gaz
We drive through town, hit the A2 northbound and I accelerate to a gentle 65 mph ish, as we're in no hurry and just having filled up at €1.67 a litre I'm minded not to burn off the fuel too quickly.
As we settle in for the drive suddenly "ESP inoperative" comes up on the dash. Sh!t thinks I, that doesn't sound good. About 5 seconds later the engine light comes on. Double sh!t. While I'm considering my next move, a couple of seconds later the engine cuts out completely and the dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree. Houston, we have a problem.
The car continues to roll, and fortunately there's a slip road coming up ahead, so I bang on the indicator and hope for the best. It's a local road and I'm the only car heading for it, but the turn is 180 degrees and it's sharp, as I realise when I arrive at the junction and discover that of course, I've now got no power steering. I haul on the wheel, make it round (discovering in the mean time there's no power assistance on the brakes either, it's like pressing down on a pavement slab) and bring the car to a stop on the side of the slip road about 200m from the T junction at the bottom. Breathe a sigh of relief and put on hazards.
First things first, jump out of car and get warning triangle out of boot and deploy ~100m back so hopefully we don't get shunted from behind. Then get hi-viz jackets out for Mrs Gaz and myself (I did do some preparation before setting off) and stand away from the car while I try to think what to do next. Not a member of the AA/RAC and don't have breakdown cover - why would I, the car's never gone wrong in the 8 years I've owned it?
So I pull out the phone and look to see if there's a Mercedes dealership in town, and as luck would have it, there is - some 4 miles from where I'm currently stranded. I dial them up (thank you, Dutch people, for all speaking wonderful English) and ask if they can send a truck to pick us up. They recommend I call the Mercedes assistance number, which I do, and after confirming a few details about the car, they say they'll get us recovered and will call back to say when the truck will be there.
We hang around for 30 minutes or so, which actually isn't too much of a hardship as it's a beautiful sunny day and we're basically sat in a field full of flowers. Would have been nicer if we'd had a picnic handy, but them's the breaks. Then suddenly a guy in a bright yellow pickup truck with chevrons etc. pulls over and shoves on his roof lights. I go over and ask if he's come to recover us, but no, it turns out he's from the highways agency. He's seen the car and called for a recovery truck to move us to safety, which we won't get charged for, but they'll only move us to the filling station down the road and the proper recovery service can take it from there.
A guy with a flatbed turns up, we stick the car on and I ask how much for him to take us to the Mercedes garage rather than just leaving us down the road. Not far, he says, I'll take you there, no problem. Anyway, while we're in the truck Mercedes recovery ring back and say their truck is on its way. I told them we were sorted and to cancel it. Give the highways agency driver a bung for his trouble, and he goes away a happy camper.
So, we've arrived at the dealer with a non-functioning SLK and they're closing in an hour. I'm sure they had plenty of other things to be doing, but they get a mechanic on it straight away and come back after about 20 minutes with a report that the crank position sensor is FUBARed. This seems plausible, as it happened to my old C43 with similar symptoms, although that did it about a mile from my house, not 400 miles and 3 countries away. Unfortunately, they don't have the part in stock and tomorrow (Thursday) is a bank holiday so they won't be able to fix it until Friday at the earliest.
I agree to the cost of repair so they go off and order the sensor, and then tell me they can offer me a car so we can continue our journey. How much will that be, I ask? Oh, it's free of charge, your car has full MBSH so it's all covered. Now that's what I call service. OK, it's a Smart forfour but it's wheels and it means we haven't wasted 2 days of our holiday. I'll have also spent a fraction less on petrol so I'll offset it against the cost of the repair
All in all, I think Mercedes' response and service has been exemplary, and it'll make me think next time I bitch about a service bill. It's been a bit of a bump in the road on this holiday but it could have been so much worse. Just hope the problem really is sorted, will have my fingers crossed all the way back home on Saturday..
Cheers,
Gaz
