Two Go Back to France

[Boldly]

I find it difficult to believe a fiat garage doesn't stock everyday service items. A sign of the times I guess. Everyone orders on line so stock only held centrally I presume.

 

[MichaelT]

I find it difficult to believe a fiat garage doesn't stock everyday service items. A sign of the times I guess. Everyone orders on line so stock only held centrally I presume.

I guess if you're booked in for a service they will order in advance.

 

[DBK]

I find it difficult to believe a fiat garage doesn't stock everyday service items. A sign of the times I guess. Everyone orders on line so stock only held centrally I presume.

My understanding is in the UK no one keeps stock these days. Everything is Just In Time. Take your vehicle to a garage and they will work out what is needed and order it from GSF or someone like that and expect it to be delivered in a couple of hours or so.

I don't know if this is the same in France. It probably is but may not apply to main dealers who use a different supply chain.

 

[yodeli]

Maybe another option....

Cheers
View attachment 951509

Oh please for goodness sake NO !!!!! Not Pont de Rupé
Not the right place at all.
Bad area
I hope no one has gone there yet! I've just read Carolyn 's post mentioning me

 

[Grianan]

I find it difficult to believe a fiat garage doesn't stock everyday service items. A sign of the times I guess. Everyone orders on line so stock only held centrally I presume.

We couldn’t get springs or bearing over the counter in Scotland - they had to be ordered in.

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[Figaro]

Oh please for goodness sake NO !!!!! Not Pont de Rupé
Not the right place at all.
Bad area
I hope no one has gone there yet! I've just read Carolyn 's post mentioning me

Oh do tell, whats wrong with Pont de Rupe ?

 

[DBK]

Oh please for goodness sake NO !!!!! Not Pont de Rupé
Not the right place at all.
Bad area
I hope no one has gone there yet! I've just read Carolyn 's post mentioning me

Frankie, we are booked into here for 1 October. They know we are a camping car.

21 Rue Paule Raymondis · Toulouse

maps.app.goo.gl

We are now staying at Camping Toulouse le Rupé and things are fine here. I have ordered the parts we need and they should arrive next week.

Just enjoying Toulouse now.

 

[yodeli]

Frankie, we are booked into here for 1 October. They know we are a camping car.

21 Rue Paule Raymondis · Toulouse

maps.app.goo.gl

We are now staying at Camping Toulouse le Rupé and things are fine here. I have ordered the parts we need and they should arrive next week.

Just enjoying Toulouse now.

You are next to one of the biggest field for Gypsies, and quite a few robberies have taken place there. Now of course things might have changed. I'm not looking for news on a regular basis. I cross my fingers the gendarmes have cleared the area, indeed. Just be careful you 2 ok?

You are not very far away from me at the moment. Chemin de Gabardie is at about 6 or 7 minutes away from where I am at the moment.
Stade Latécoère is where I used to live, and I am helping there up to monday morning for the International Canine Exposition on the 21st and 22sd Sept

16/20 Avenue de la Plaine Balma 31130

Balma. Exposition canine internationale pour la rentrée

L’association canine territoriale 31 organisera sa prochaine exposition canine internationale en septembre à Balma, haut lieu de la cynophilie.

www.ladepeche.fr

 

[DBK]

You are next to one of the biggest field for Gypsies, and quite a few robberies have taken place there. Now of course things might have changed. I'm not looking for news on a regular basis. I cross my fingers the gendarmes have cleared the area, indeed. Just be careful you 2 ok?

You are not very far away from me at the moment. Chemin de Gabardie is at about 6 or 7 minutes away from where I am at the moment.
Stade Latécoère is where I used to live, and I am helping there up to monday morning for the International Canine Exposition on the 21st and 22sd Sept

16/20 Avenue de la Plaine Balma 31130

Balma. Exposition canine internationale pour la rentrée

L’association canine territoriale 31 organisera sa prochaine exposition canine internationale en septembre à Balma, haut lieu de la cynophilie.

www.ladepeche.fr

Frankie, thank you, we have seen the gypsy camps but we have been walking around the Parc Sesquiéres and all seems safe there. The campsite here looks very secure.

I plan to rent a car next week and we will do some exploring.

 

[DBK]

My experiments using a battery charger were successful. With the cab battery fully charged the yellow warnings vanished and only the red light about charging remains on. Actually, that's not quite true, a yellow Check Engine light came on but vanished after a couple of appearances.

Equally positive the parts I ordered arrived and I collected them from the garage this morning.

I also arranged to hire a car and offered an electric Fiat 500 I took it as we had seen the campsite had EV charging points. Subsequent enquires revealed they are new and not yet working. The vehicle could be charged from a domestic socket but it takes a long time and the campsite would take a very dim view of charging an EV on our pitch I suspect. There are public charging points but I can't be bothered with using those so we will change the vehicle for a gas guzzler.

I've been considering gus-lopez 's clever suggestion to link the leisure and cab batteries with a wire. I thought I might use the existing B2B cables but I suspect if permanently connected the fuse would blow on starting the engine. By-passing the fuses with such heavy cables isn't a safe option. So I'm going to use a much thinner wire but rig it through the isolating switch for the inverter. As long as I remember to open this for starting then close it when the engine is running it should work.

All of this was going on in my head while trying to work out how much current the engine needs to run.

Initial results were the injector pump and dashboard might take 2A each. The windscreen wipers were an unknown but the fuse on the wiper circuit is only 5A so it can't draw more than 3A I think, a lot less than I expected. The big unknown is the cooling fan which might take 10A or more - but how often will it run if I stick to motorways?

I need to get the cable tomorrow, fit it and then do some experiments. But I'm still going to keep this as the Plan B if the van can't be fixed on 1 October.

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[Lenny HB]

Don't forget to disconnect it when starting the engine.

 

[Figaro]

That sounds like a very resourceful solution, well done, I confess I'd never have come up with that

 

[DBK]

Don't forget to disconnect it when starting the engine.

I will stick a notice on the steering wheel but might look at incorporating a fuse, I think I've got the bits to do that.

 

[Boldly]

Must be easier to find someone who can change a belt surely?

 

[DBK]

Must be easier to find someone who can change a belt surely?

You would think so in France's 4th biggest city but apparently not.

I'm not going to fret about it. Perhaps 20 years ago I would have spent days phoning every garage in Toulouse but now I'm happy to go with the flow.

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[Wanders from Glos]

You would think so in France's 4th biggest city but apparently not.

I'm not going to fret about it. Perhaps 20 years ago I would have spent days phoning every garage in Toulouse but now I'm happy to go with the flow.

Good for you

 

[mikebeaches]

Sorry to read about your woes.

A couple of years ago our air con packed up on the van whilst we were in France. It was baking hot and I was really keen to see if we could get it fixed asap.

We were recommended to try a branch of a garage chain called Speedy https://www.speedy.fr/ I think they are all over the place.

We just called in and they said to leave it with them to investigate and they rang 30 minutes later to say they'd found a leak, they had a suitable gasket and would then re-gas the A/C. They said give them another 45 minutes and the job would be completed. True to their word it was, and the bill was perfectly reasonable.

I mentioned it because we didn't have to book anything in advance, and I just wonder if there is a branch local to where you are if they would be worth at least a phone call? I think they do all sorts of belts. And you've got the parts.

In any case, hope you can get sorted one way or another without too much grief.

 

[DBK]

Sorry to read about your woes.

A couple of years ago our air con packed up on the van whilst we were in France. It was baking hot and I was really keen to see if we could get it fixed asap.

We were recommended to try a branch of a garage chain called Speedy https://www.speedy.fr/ I think they are all over the place.

We just called in and they said to leave it with them to investigate and they rang 30 minutes later to say they'd found a leak, they had a suitable gasket and would then re-gas the A/C. They said give them another 45 minutes and the job would be completed. True to their word it was, and the bill was perfectly reasonable.

I mentioned it because we didn't have to book anything in advance, and I just wonder if there is a branch local to where you are if they would be worth at least a phone call? I think they do all sorts of belts. And you've got the parts.

In any case, hope you can get sorted one way or another without too much grief.

Thank you, they have a branch in Toulouse.

 

[mikebeaches]

Thank you, they have a branch in Toulouse.

Not sure exactly where you are, but it looks as though there are about 8 branches scattered around Toulouse

Speedy, toulouse

www.google.co.uk

We were perhaps lucky the branch we went to could just fit us in. The one we used was on an industrial trading estate and we discovered there were other similar tyre and garage places close by (within a few hundred metres or so).

According to the Speedy website it indicates they can change timing belts, so I should have thought your job ought to be well within their capabilities.

Good luck in any case.

 

[DBK]

Not sure exactly where you are, but it looks as though there are about 8 branches scattered around Toulouse

Speedy, toulouse

www.google.co.uk

We were perhaps lucky the branch we went to could just fit us in. The one we used was on an industrial trading estate and we discovered there were other similar tyre and garage places close by (within a few hundred metres or so).

According to the Speedy website it indicates they can change timing belts, so I should have thought your job ought to be well within their capabilities.

Good luck in any case.

Just got back after visiting 2 branches and sadly neither could do the job. It wasn't a case of not having time, rather the job was beyond their capabilities. I had also seen on their website they could change belts but it must only be certain branches.

There is a way of making an appointment on their website but it wouldn't work with a UK registered vehicle. Perhaps on Monday I might try and contact their head office.

However, it was far from a wasted trip as I discovered 45 minutes of driving reduced the battery from 100% to about 60% after measuring the voltage as 12.27 after it had been resting for 15 minutes after we got back. So if I connect the leisure batteries we should be good for at least 2 hours of driving without running them below 50%.

But thank you for the suggestion even if we drew a blank today and also a thank you to MichaelT who also suggested finding a place like Halfords. I'll give this option some more thought over the weekend.

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[ALI G]

As you have the belt I would try a smaller out of town garage. Less likely to be busy and probably more accommodating good luck

 

[DBK]

As you have the belt I would try a smaller out of town garage. Less likely to be busy and probably more accommodating good luck

Good suggestion, thank you.

 

[Mikey RV]

Good luck in getting it fixed.

 

[varaizian]

My introduction to Pastis was at the age of 15 when I first went on the French exchange with school.
My parents didn't drink, apart from the obligatory bottles of sherry and port, opened at Christmas only.
My French pen friend's father used to come home for lunch, from the cement factory where he worked, and the family always took Pastis as an aperétif. It was neat, unchilled, but over ice cubes.
He then took red wine and beer, before returning to work in the afternoon.
I've always assumed that this was the way to drink Pastis, but I don’t really know because I've never known anyone else who drank it.

I think your friend's father had a bit of a problem! Bearing in mind that Ricard is 45%, and the recommended dilution on the bottle is "5 to 7 parts water plus ice cubes", drinking it virtually neat is very brave. I've drunk it virtually daily for 30 years and would never try it like that.

 

[bellabee]

I think your friend's father had a bit of a problem! Bearing in mind that Ricard is 45%, and the recommended dilution on the bottle is "5 to 7 parts water plus ice cubes", drinking it virtually neat is very brave. I've drunk it virtually daily for 30 years and would never try it like that.

You're probably right! He did live into his mid-80's though

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[Landy Andy]

DBK is there enough room so can you spin the tensioner, and alternator by hand?

Just in case either of them has bad bearings and caused the belt failure.

 

[DBK]

DBK is there enough room so can you spin the tensioner, and alternator by hand?

Just in case either of them has bad bearings and caused the belt failure.

Sadly no, the alternator is way out of reach. I did wonder if the alternator might have seized but no way to check. However, I have a replacement tensioner if that's gone. I didn't smell anything melting though whether we would driving on the autoroute is possibly doubtful.

 

[DBK]

I hired a car yesterday morning and after a short shopping trip to the local Lidl we visited the Musée Aeroscopia in the afternoon on the outskirts of Toulouse close to the airport and right next to the Airbus factory, or factories, as there were numerous buildings.

The first challenge was finding the entrance. Google Maps hadn't a clue. We eventually found it by using satellite view and finding a car park! We had driven right past it but the signs were extraordinarily discrete. Perhaps there are rules about the size of signs so close to an airfield?

Entrance for wrinklies was €12 each, normally €15 for those younger.

On the passage to the exhibition hall were various images of early flight. The labels have a sheet of plastic over them on which the description is also written in Braille.

The first flight in 1783.

First Channel crossing in 1785.

And the first hydrogen balloon.

Bleriot first flew in 1907. The aircraft on display is a replica, although with a original engine, of the design Bleriot used to cross the Channel in 1909.

They have two Concordes, one on the tarmac and one in the hall.

Tiny windows, they must be no bigger than 9" high.

The one outside.

They have a collection of jet fighters from different countries.

US F104 Starfighter on the left, SAAB Drake from Sweden on the right. The Starfighter was only used by the USAF for a short time but it was used in Europe for much longer. It had a poor accident record

French Mirage.

Anglo/French Jaguar.

Russian MIG 15 which first flew in 1947.

Airbus A380 which the description said is the largest airliner ever built.

It was an interesting visit.

 

[Shrimp]

Must be frustrating to be waiting for a fairly simple job to be done but at least you are getting about and seeing things!

 

[varaizian]

I enjoyed looking at these photographs; particularly the juxtaposition of Concorde, the MIG, a Super Guppy and the Bleriot aircraft in the same space. I was especially interested in the latter because my father worked on aircraft like that during WW1. After joining-up with his brother in 1914 (when he was a 20 year old coach builder), he was posted to Vickers and worked on the early programme to develop a synchroniser or interrupter gear to permit firing through the propellor. In 1915 he was deployed with the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force as an Airframe Fitter.

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