French Woes ..but Mobilio to the rescue.

[crockers]

Well one day into our trip - driving along the autoroute and suddenly no pull up the hill....Sacre Blue I'm being pazzed by zee little renault and I can do nozing abut it..mon dieu.

Hmmm - changing down gears manually doesn't help - so I pull into a service area. Engine Management light comes on so I call Mobiio. Now here's a lesson I didn't know. If you break down on a French Autoroute do not expect any paid for rescue package to come to your aid. Apparently each autoroute has a contract with a firm to tow you off and remove €90 - €120 from your wallet. So I thought zuts alhor and drove on to the next exit. Called Mobilio back and now I discovered what a great service it is. A low loader was despatched and he dropped us off at a hotel paid for by Mercedes as they took our car away. (it was 8 pm)

Next day - mixed messages from the garage - zee electric computer that drives the other computer needs replacing..€600. I said go ahead...at 2 pm phoned to check -- no idea what each other is saying. My broken French is met by the garage's insistence on speaking fast French which I have no idea of understanding. I get the guy at the hotel to call - they are waiting for a fax from me to say go ahead. Jeez more Bureaucracy.. so I get them to send me the quote which I sign and return.

At 5pm I grab a taxi and we are off to get the car...MB took the taxi fare off the bill.

So away we go - me with a new ECU (or so I thought) wondering has the Angel done it in??

Get back to UK - start to process my Warranty Direct claim and looked at the invoice and one from last year ..

Decided to ask a Q and Jay answers - hmmm I think this is not a ECU but the same as last year (same as *** had before his trip)..

So I go into MB Swindon and they said yes it is the same part - but they don't know how to make a claim without a job card from the French garage.

I go home - call MB MK and he says send him the invoice and he will sort it out. I have today send him a copy of the french invoice and the one from last year - so now sit back and await my cheque???

 

[jaymanek]

Well as its a franchised dealer that did the work, i should think so yes!

 

[MJH]

I had a double take when I read the thread title, I could have sworn it said "French Whores".... must be one of those Freudian things





..........I'll get me coat

Mike

 

[crockers]

Perhaps I should have tarted it up a bit.

 

[st4]

Graham, sorry to here of your woes.

The issue sounds like mine. The car probably was drivable in the state of the failure, you just have no turbo. Slow, but drivable and will still do 80mph.

The oil leaks from the turbo onto the inlet shut off motor. Did you have this happen before. A modified seal should be fitted to prevent it re-occurring. Apparently it should be done under recall.

I'll be interested to here the outcome and hope you get your cheque.

 

[crockers]

Just had a phone call from my local dealer. There was some problem over the mileage of the car as MB France had taken the km reading and used it as miles. Now sorted and I should be getting a cheque sometime towards the end of next week. So alls well that ends well.