What happened on Holiday this year !!!

[KennyW]

Hi Folks,

I thought I would post this on here,

Went to France for 2 weeks in the middle of July to a small town called Verfeil near Toulouse.

As usual we drove down with the C5 x 7 great for this sort of thing, temperature ridiculous 30 to 35 in the north then 35 to 45 c.

Have been down here regularly for 27 years so expect temps of 27 - 33 c.

Didn't do much because it was too hot but granddaughter and myself disappeared to see the Tour which passed nearby GREAT.

But our return journey is where the fun started.

Car broke down just on the outskirts of Paris, couldn't see anything obvious at first then noticed aux belt had partially shredded no other signs apart from set of christmas tree lights on the dash.

Called out breakdown cover and vehicle towed away to be assessed.
Fortunately we were booked into Premier Classe Hotel in ST Cyr l'ecole for 2 nights with the bonus of the final stage of the Tour coming right past the hotel.

Breakdown cover was provided by RAC Europe as my own policy didn't cover my car outside GB too old.

Informed a initial assessment would not happen until at least Tuesday so booked hotel for another 2 nights.

Contacted RAC Europe inform them I must return home on Wednesday no matter what.

No initial assessment was provided so I booked Train travel from Paris to Edinburgh ( Eurostar was great, luckily I managed to book the last train to Edinburgh the strikes and all that).

I received a phone call On Thursday re the car initial report cost of repair 1200 euro's.

So told them to repatriate the car to home address and I would repair the car myself..

Car was return at the beginning of September and was damaged whilst being removed from the trailer !!!!!!!!

The report stated the water pump was seeping the wiring harness to crankshaft was damaged along with fault camshaft sensor and flat battery.
Basically fitted new timing belt kit with water pump fitted new camshaft and crankshaft sensors and recharged battery spliced in new wiring for crankshaft sensor.
Body work new FNS wing new plastic top and bottom new FNS headlight unit and repaired minor scratching to bumper.

The towing company paid for all the body parts which came to £620. The mechanical parts came to £200.

Since then I have repaired both mechanical and bodywork myself.

Car is back on the road.

Kenny

[KennyW]

Forgot to say what had happened.

The problem was the aux belt had partially unthreaded and created a lassoo which rapped around the crankshaft wiring and ripped wiring out and pulled crackshaft out, thus causing the non starter issue.

Kenny

[Sloppysod]

Thanks for the info, I do check the belts regularly but will now be more thorough than just a glance and quick touch.
This sort of information is valuable.

[Ross_K]

Forgot to say what had happened.

The problem was the aux belt had partially unthreaded and created a lassoo which rapped around the crankshaft wiring and ripped wiring out and pulled crackshaft out, thus causing the non starter issue.

Kenny

You've just reminded me that my aux belt is pretty threadbare, and needs replacing before something like this happens

[CitroJim]

Gosh Kenny

That turned into a bit of an adventure... Pleased it all resolved and had a good, satisfactory conclusion...

I take it the crankshaft position sensor was pulled out, rather than the crankshaft itself or other parts thereof...

Had that happened on a Xantia or an XM you may have been looking at a busted camshaft so in that respect the X7 is a big improvement...

An an ex-Xantia owner and given the experiences of the above, I always check mine even though on my cars nowadays they only drive the alternator..

[KennyW]

Yes Jim, I've experienced an Aux belt completely unraveling whilst traveling form Morecombe to Newton Aycliffe. All caused by the tensioner. That was on my Xantia

Before I left for France I checked the belt, it had rubbing marks on it but it was not frayed. But I never checked the belt in France, so lesson learned.

Kenny