Blog2019 ≫ 21 hours to get to the funeral

As I alluded to the other day we had an epicly disastrous journey to the funeral. We set out at 2pm, having taken the boys out of school a bit early. We planned to get a cheeky Nandos on the way and be there in plenty of time, ideally before the snow. The car went a bit funny around the top of the M20, a little hiccup and the engine warning light came on. Not sure what to do we kept going, and then on the M26, jut before joining the M25 (no more road numbers after this I promise) it cut out completely! Broken down, on the motorway, in bad weather, on our way to a funeral!

We called the AA and got everyone out of the car to wait. It was very cold and the boys did not understand why we had to wait out of the car. It took an hour for anyone to come - supposedly we were a priority having children stood on the hard shoulder. I'd hate to be low priority. Eventually a local partner came to tow us to the nearest point of safety, which was unfortunately the nearby Clacket Lane. This breakdown truck driver did let the boys operate the remote control to lift and lower the back of the breakdown truck, cool! Fairly miserable services, don't think we have stopped on this side before. It was quiet and gloomy there really, though we got coffee for us and hot chocolate for the boys and were at least indoors. If we'd been a bit further on it would have been the better services... The AA came quite quickly after that, he suspected immediately it would be frozen fuel, and plugging in the computer confirmed this. The cold weather and the bad design of the Peugeot 207 means the fuel gets waxy in some part of the system and can clog up the fuel filter.

Here's my AA breakdown report:

Patrol found the following fault codes:System : Engine control 1 - 1FB / Diesel EDC 16C34 CAN Status :P0087 - Fuel delivery control. Error Message : Less than minimum. Error sporadic. Status :P0093 - Fuel delivery control. Error Message : Less than minimum. Error sporadic.fuel icing/waxing ok now warm recovered off for rss to check , advise member to run prior to driving as fuel level max

So hopefully letting it run for a while and then driving on would sort it, so I sat in the car with the engine running while my traitorous family ate a Mcdonalds. A very rare event for them! So they tell me.

Spoke to Mum and Dad who said they'd rather we headed home than risking it as snow was on the way and we wouldn't want to break down in that with the children. I thought it better to try and make it, so they brought me out a Pret A Manger wrap and we set off again. The same thing happened almost instantly, the car lost a bit of power and the engine light came on again. We pulled off at the next junction thinking we'd be better off heading towards home, but then the car cut out completely on the roundabout of the motorway junction. AA said phone 999 immediately as we were blocking traffic and then call them back, so Clare did. While speaking to them I tried the engine again, and it started, so we moved the car and reassessed. The police were very good, didn't need to come out though. We rerouted home via country lanes, the car cutting out every twenty minutes, but turning-it-off-and-on-again got us going for another twenty minutes. Very stressful drive back, I don't like driving in the dark at the best of times, but on an unfamiliar route in bad weather and knowing we were heading away from the funeral we had to be at was an actual nightmare.

Got home about nine, so seven hours on the road to go absolutely nowhere. Just early enough for the kids to get enough sleep and then go into school the next day, which they were pleased about... I rearranged all the packing, set my alarm for 5am and booked a taxi to try the journey again the next day.

This was technically the last day of Dry January but I had a glass of wine and watched Death In Paradise. I seriously thought about not coming back the next day, but glad I did. A taxi, three trains and a lift from Dad, and in to Portchester in plenty of time.

Funeral went well. I should have more to say about that than the journey shouldn't I? We had cars in a procession from Nan's house to the crematorium, then the commital and everything all went nicely. I was absolutely fine until the point I tried to actually say goodbye to Nan as we left and then cracked a bit. On to the Seagull for the wake and some chips and onion rings which Nan had especially requested! Nice to see so many family together, shame it takes a funeral for this to happen.

Here's a picture of Nan. We are missing you!

dryanuary: Not drinking for the month of January.

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Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe in Kent. Wed and dad to 2, I'm a full stack web engineer, + I do mostly javascript / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubs, running, eating, home-automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.