careful now......

OK I've finally plucked up the courage to Big Her Up. Its the beautiful Sofia, my replacement for the dread Christine. She has been in my ownership for 2 months and so far without a hitch. She has an odd creak when its wet in the morning. She wallows a bit on corners (but not MUCH!) and she is a bit dinged and a touch bubbly. She has a less than perfect interior.

But like me, she is a mature and flighty piece with a personality.

And damn she is a looker!

another week.....

.... still on the road. I'm so nervous of even speaking about it in case we open another series of christine-like events, but I have to say the sportwagon is still running absolutely fine! Its getting perilously close to the stage when I start a) personalising her and b) thinking of a name.
Names have been put forward -
Roxy (too racy)
Vera (dearie me)
Stephanie (nope - thats taken)
Pauline (again - dear me)
I will mull it over. I did pass Andy the local breakdown guy on the road today and detected something of a weariness in his wave to me...... he should by rights be booking his next foreign trip on the back of my business. Seeing me in another Alfa should have him salivating with greed.

Trying to remain stoical

.... is really tricky when reading the posts on the AlfaOwner site. Mostly these relate to crises folk are having with their electrics, steering, gearbox etc etc... all familiar territory. I think that unless one is prepared to learn as much about engines as one can, get frequently greasy and cold, and lavish heaps of attention on maintaining them, one might not view Alfa ownership in the rosy manner one has previously...........

the drain explained and the End

I collect Christine on Friday morning, and am half delighted, half furious to discover that the battery drain was down to (drum roll....)

THE WINDOW MECHANISM

(see post 1)

I am so cross but decide to be stoical and just be pleased I have a conclusion to the issue, a car that runs, a fixed belt and sleek dent free panels. My sister and I cruise home and have a fun night out together. The next day I continue my journey to London to visit my daughter and the car is running fine..... apart from a sudden thirst for oil.

Now this is not unusual, I am accustomed to regularly checking the oil level as is the way with Alfas. However, this was sort of extreme. Things came to a head when the high pitched wailing of an error message punctuated a slow crawl to Whitechapel along the A13. Oil Pressure Warning. Oh dear. I had never had this one before..........

It took a while but I managed to find a parking spot and topped up the very empty oil. I phoned my Alfa guy and told him to expect me later on, delivered my daughter to her destination and set off up the M11 northwards. I had 36 hours before I was due back at my desk and things were not looking good.

Birchanger services M11 where I needed a loo stop: returned to the car to find she was refusing to start. There was power, but no fuel seemed to be getting in. I called Alfa Genius and we tried the fuel cut off possibility - no avail. I called the RAC, who helpfully informed me this was my final free call out of the year..........

RAC guy came. He pondered. He turned the ignition. The BITCH STARTED!!!!

We drove to the nearest dealer where he did the diagnostics and located a sensor failure. It was rectified and I drove north again to get my Genius to fix it (starting to trust few other people....)

By the time I reached the East Midlands smoke was issuing forth from the oil burn and I was frankly in a state of extreme distress. It was time to call it a day.

Christine and I parted company in not very sad terms. I needed to get home- I knew she couldn't take me. The belt breaking had clearly damaged much more than we had first thought and she was in need of a new engine.

I have another Alfa courtesy of my Genius. Will I never learn?????

Watch this space!

Ok that was (relatively) painless....

I collect the vehicle from the dealer having flown in to Inverness and am amazed to have to part with less that £200 (believe me that is good for this car) The belt has been replaced. The parts were under warranty so no charge for those although I am still smarting about having to pay for labour for work that was only done 6 months before.

I set out for Edinburgh light of heart. I attend my meetings. I collect my Other Half from Edinburgh airport for our planned easter weekend in the capital and Christine is going OK. We park at the posh hotel and proceed to the jollity.

Edinburgh is a walking city and we do not use the car at all all weekend, so when we come to check out on Monday morning and put our bags in the car, she fails to start. Luckily I am driving around with a charged spare battery and jump leads (no luck involved actually - I learned!) so we jump her, run her and deliver him back to the airport so that I can proceed south to the Genius Alfa Guy.

I drive south in a state of fear and trepidation, and to cut a way-too-long story short I make it. I book her in with him. I have a few days with my sister.

The final straw?

You would think that by now I would be pretty bombproof as far as this car was concerned but no.......

7.30am....another jump start, another frosty morning.... I whizz her to the bottom end of the island to charge the battery before picking up my son and going to work.... on my return I take the curve at my customary 60mph and the steering fails. I slide scarily near the edge of the cliff and manage to right myself in the nick of time. I am VERY shaken but have to get back to some sort of civilisation to be safe. As I crawl along, one by one the system is shutting down.... ABS, lights, steering, selespeed.... we grind to a halt at the roadside. I open the bonnet and the belt is in tatters. The belt replaced by the Birmingham dealer. Oil is seeping out from underneath. I am near to tears and late for work not to mention in shock after nearly losing her over the edge.

RAC

Local guy

Inverness

I agree to fly to Inverness for the start of my trip south and hopefully pick her up once the belt is repaired..... maybe, just MAYBE the belt -battery-power issues are all connected.....?

Things crank up a notch.....

Time passes and I drive her every day, so the battery does not have the chance to give out. I pretend that this demonstrates that she is well, but in my heart I am not so sure.

The body shop calls and say the parts have arrived and can I bring her to be repaired and resprayed. I say yes, when? They mumble that they will phone me.

A week passes. I call again. Not yet.

Another week passes and I call again. Nope, not yet.

I am nearing my next trip south and I want to take her to my trusted Alfa guy for a look over, so I am keen to get this work done. I call the body shop and this time I am stroppy. They agree to take her and I am given the bosses truck to use meantime.

A week in the truck and I cannot wait to get my baby back..... even with her problems she does not use a weeks wages in petrol to do 10 miles.

The call comes and I go to retrieve her.... and she looks BEAUTIFUL. Shiny.... gleaming, sexy, perfect..... Except he tells me that during her stay, the battery went flat and they had to remove it to re-charge it. Ah. Now I know the computer will be all shot and full of errors, but I console myself that in a little under a week I will be taking her south to be looked at by an expert.

I drive her away and as predicted a few weirdnesses occur, mostly low level light warnings that prove to be nothing. And a strange graunching noise from the belt region (again, hers not mine) I was perturbed at this but kept reminding myself a trip to a genius was imminent so all would be well. Funny how deluded you can be..............