Well, what an entertaining evening!
driving home, having a blast, car going fantastically. I was 300 yards from home, just about to nip into sainsburys to grab some beers and wine before Big Al came up for the evening, when the coolant low warning came on.
Strange!
As I slowed down, I noticed steam comming from the bonnet and the temp guage started climbing, I dived into the carpark and killed the engine.
At this point there were clouds of steam, so I popped the bonnet to take a look:
As the steam subsided, I could see everything was soaked, it had dropped ALL it's coolant.
The cause was pretty obvious!
The cause is pretty horrid:
Somehow, the clip that holds the sensor in has literally rusted away!
I'll admit I've never touched them, as the car has always been 100% reliable on that front and never needed new sensors at all. Looking back, all the hose clips on the coolant system are really scabby, so they'll all be up for replacement now to avoid anything like this happening again!
I abandoned the car and walked home to get some water and some emergancy bits to bodge it back together, came back to the car, and who should appear but James, Sportstractor of ASN fame!
Pretty mad considering he lives 200 miles away in Devon! And even more bizzarely, he had a clip in his van which fitted the sensor perfectly! So I popped that in, and job done
I was on my way again.
What a legend.
I jumped in the fiesta, to drive that home then walk back for the A3, and of all the things that could happen, I dropped my key, and it managed to find its way down a tiny gap behind the handbrake and vanished into the centre console!
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!
So I'm in sainsburys, with a car full of bikes, laptops, and tools, and unable to lock it.
James being the hero he is offered to wait, so I drove the A3 home, parked it up, grabbed the spare key for the fiesta, and a handy tool to try and get my key back!
Only to get this text message as I'm running back!
You really could not make this stuff up! What a mad evening.
Massive thanks to James, awesome to see you again chap, and thanks for helping out!