Bit of a ■■■■ week for me.
On Monday yours truely blew a rear suspension airbag on Sheerness Docks, managed to limp to the Merc dealer, pulled the wheels off and me and my lad who was with me fitted a new bag and sensor ourselves, two hours downtime…
Thursday, a 5am start at Cherwell Vally and on firing up the engine the sound of a fan belt squealing like a pig forces me to shut it off time to break out the spanners again and the diagnosis is a siezed alternator . Managed to free it off but on start up again its rumbling and rattling like a rumbling and rattling thing only one thing for it and thats chuck another one on eventually track a reasonably priced replacement close to home, so my lad who is now back in Cheshire chaffuers it down to me and we spend 3 hours trying to undo one bolt without shearing it off, then spend another 2 hours trying to get the ■■■■■■■ polybelt back on. Eventually get to my first drop only 12 hours late
Then this morning passing Kettering on the A14 one of the trailer tyres throws in the towel , they’re twins so carried on and found somewhere safe to pull off the carriageway and swap with a spare, 30 mins later back on the road
In addition I’ve also aquired a CP Parking ticket (Woooo scarey ) and on getting back home found out that Mini dealer Blue Bell (Crewe) are trying to screw us for a wheel hub one of their monkeys damaged by cross threading a stud, they’ve picked on the wrong person to try and pull the wool over the eyes of …
I broke down at about 11h30 on Thursday and after the local fitter came out and drew a blank a man from Scania was called out with his fancy computer and decided that the engine ECU had an internal fault. We limped the unit into the yard of the farm I had just tipped at and the gaffer came out with another tractor unit to take me and the trailer home.
Came back at 08h30 the next morning, the man from Scania was back with another ECU, fitted it, and it still wouldn’t run properly.
Long story short, by mid afternoon, lots of head scratching and phone calls, it turns out it was a fault with the cooling fan sending nonsense back to the ECU which was confusing it and causing it to shut down.
Lost over a days work because of that, never mind…
We had a new bloke start on Monday, his gear linkage snapped on him on his last job about 5 miles from the yard. Broken down with a 22t machine on board taking up plenty of space on the road. Scania dealer sorted him at the roadside so he eventually back in one piece.
Tuesday he took the machine (that we’d cross hired in) to site and when they started it up it was pumping out loads of smoke so they rejected it and sent it back.
I do the same run 3 times per day, everyday, so if I thought I’d gone too fast, there’s no way I’d make that call.
So, I was told to carry on, so I did, very gingerly all the way to my destination.
Went to reverse onto the ‘pile’ to tip and something didn’t look right in the mirror…
This had broken - it holds the suspension part / axle in place…
Tuesday evening we had this beast turn up as a demo with me lined up to drive it.
10 minutes later the Merc rep is suicidal as a puddle is gathering underneath after she’d split a water pipe. There’s ad blu dripping out too. He calls it in and a van is duly despatched…
Problem sorted and I’m in til the end of this week. Here she is looking a bit healthier.
Big Joe:
Bit of a [zb] week for me.
On Monday yours truely blew a rear suspension airbag on Sheerness Docks, managed to limp to the Merc dealer, pulled the wheels off and me and my lad who was with me fitted a new bag and sensor ourselves, two hours downtime…
Thursday, a 5am start at Cherwell Vally and on firing up the engine the sound of a fan belt squealing like a pig forces me to shut it off time to break out the spanners again and the diagnosis is a siezed alternator . Managed to free it off but on start up again its rumbling and rattling like a rumbling and rattling thing only one thing for it and thats chuck another one on eventually track a reasonably priced replacement close to home, so my lad who is now back in Cheshire chaffuers it down to me and we spend 3 hours trying to undo one bolt without shearing it off, then spend another 2 hours trying to get the [zb] polybelt back on. Eventually get to my first drop only 12 hours late
Then this morning passing Kettering on the A14 one of the trailer tyres throws in the towel , they’re twins so carried on and found somewhere safe to pull off the carriageway and swap with a spare, 30 mins later back on the road
In addition I’ve also aquired a CP Parking ticket (Woooo scarey ) and on getting back home found out that Mini dealer Blue Bell (Crewe) are trying to screw us for a wheel hub one of their monkeys damaged by cross threading a stud, they’ve picked on the wrong person to try and pull the wool over the eyes of …
Not actually broken down but had to limp an Iveco 26 tonner back home from Scotland with virtually no power. Engine management light came on with a picture of an exhaust and some smoke particles on the display. Only had 2 tonne in the back but it wouldn’t do more than 50 on the flat and was down to 20mph on the hills . No idea what was up with it - it had plenty of ad-blu in it.
Rob K:
Not actually broken down but had to limp an Iveco 26 tonner back home from Scotland with virtually no power. Engine management light came on with a picture of an exhaust and some smoke particles on the display. Only had 2 tonne in the back but it wouldn’t do more than 50 on the flat and was down to 20mph on the hills . No idea what was up with it - it had plenty of ad-blu in it.
Ad-blu fault, hence the exhaust symbol - most likely anyway.
I had a brand new Merc and before it was 3mths old the Ad-blu had packed up
Luckily, it didn’t effect performance, just didn’t use any ad-blu and put a light on the dash, so I recorded it everyday in my defect book and carried on
time to break out the spanners again and the diagnosis is a siezed alternator 
. Managed to free it off but on start up again its rumbling and rattling like a rumbling and rattling thing 
only one thing for it and thats chuck another one on 
eventually track a reasonably priced replacement close to home, so my lad who is now back in Cheshire chaffuers it down to me and we spend 3 hours trying to undo one bolt without shearing it off, then spend another 2 hours trying to get the ■■■■■■■ polybelt back on. Eventually get to my first drop only 12 hours late 
…
but I do prefer my weeks to be a bit (lot) less eventful 
