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Wednesday 2 August 2017

Back on the flatbed!

Deja vu.
You'd think with everything that's gone wrong and been replace on my MINI that there couldn't be much more to fail on me. Sadly, you're wrong. 

Whilst having a leisurely drive through town (read stuck in rush hour traffic) on a regular local run with the car full of family, the clutch pedal suddenly went...  no back pressure, so it was stuck to the floor. 

Panic set in. This wasn't good, and highly embarrassing. I tried to lift it back up with my foot and see what I could do to get it going with a hope and a prayer. Traffic in front of me was moving forward and I was still stationary. 

I restarted the engine, and still no pressure. Uh oh. So I put the hazard lights on and jumped out to try and push it to the kerb. With a queue of traffic behind me, the guy in the car behind me quickly realized the situation and also jumped out to help me move the Mini.

With the car to one side, I sat back in the car and contemplated my next move. I was about a mile from home, mostly downhill. At this time (5pm) garages will be shut or shutting, and my repairers of choice - Mintech - would be closed too. As is always the case when I breakdown... it was a Friday. And you know what that means. Nothing is open for the weekend either. This always seems to happen!


I gave my pals at Mintech a call and they agreed to come and collect it on Sunday for me and lend me their Minivan so I would have a car to get the kids to school and stuff. Now that's what I call customer service!!!  Absolute legends...again!! I called StartRescue, my recovery service, and arranged collection.

Ok, so now I start planning. I'm thinking, if I'm going to be without a car all weekend I'm going to have to stock up on stuff. I figured I could walk to the shops and pick up some supplies and a McDs for the kids while I waited for the recovery truck. I also had to get my girlfriend's kids from the next town, so decided to ask the recovery driver to take us there, and I left the car outside a friendly garage until Mintech came in a couple of days.

After getting all the kids we got a taxi home and had a quiet one until the heroes turned up to fix my crisis and lend me their little motor. The kids certainly liked it.


The next day I gave Mintech a call and if you've not already guessed, it was the clutch master cylinder seals that had gone. So I had to have that replaced too. Crikey!

By Tuesday my Mini was ready to pick up - and they wanted their van back. Martin said the clutch might feel a bit spongy for a couple of days but it would return to normal. Sure enough it was quite tricky getting it into gear for the return journey back home, but by the next day it was pretty much back to normal. And I gave it some extra pumping too for good measure.

Next up around the corner is the MoT. Dun dun duuuuh!!


Thanks to 
Mintech Spares
No.1 in the UK for BMW MINI Spares
0161 761 1615
www.mintechspares.co.uk

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