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Post by racingteatray on Sept 2, 2024 15:59:58 GMT
Just to show that rogue potholes are not exclusively a UK problem - my wife rang from Italy at lunchtime to tell me she was stuck having picked up a flat on the Mini...these things obviously falling into the category of "husband to solve" even when you are thousands of miles apart...
She didn't see a large pothole in an underpass until it was too late, resulting in an awful bang and a rapidly deflating tyre. We now gather that it's an infamous pothole locally but she was unaware of it.
I was sure that the Goodyear Eagle F1s on the car are runflats but to my surprise it seems they in fact aren't (I am still not convinced about this but hard to tell from London...). Thankfully she was less than 10 mins away from the local tyre place we use for the winter/summer tyre swaps, so we rang them and one of the tyre fitters kindly drove over to where she was, fitted an emergency wheel and got her back to the tyre place (for which there was no charge - helps that the owner is my father-in-law's neighbour!).
They couldn't get another Goodyear F1 immediately and my wife is flying back to London on Wednesday so, thinking on my feet, I asked them to stick the winter tyres on now and then they can source another F1 at their leisure in time for next April! We won't be needing the car again until at least the end of next month and winter tyres are obligatory in our parts between 15 Nov and 15 Apr, so frankly it's just one task out of the way early.
Damn annoying though.
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Post by bryan on Sept 3, 2024 14:12:37 GMT
Good thinking! And great service from them
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Post by alf on Sept 3, 2024 15:44:55 GMT
Good option indeed - winter tyres are fine all year round these days if you don't drive like a plonker (so not for me then...).
The curse of potholes has become like a new form of driving taxation, and spotting them in the dark and under puddles is next to impossible.... On a bike, it can be life threatening.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 3, 2024 16:13:31 GMT
Hitherto (and crossing fingers and clutching wood), we haven't suffered too many punctures in recent years. So I guess it was overdue.
My wife had one on the Fiat once but I should think it was at least 7 or 8 yrs ago. And I had one on the M135i, but since I parted with that in 2016, that was a while ago too.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 4, 2024 10:06:07 GMT
It is not my wife's or the Mini's lucky week.
Last night, in a moment of distraction, my wife misjudged her approach and managed to reverse the car into the frame of the garage door, rather than into the garage...
Fortunately she wasn't going very fast so the vertical crease in the back bumper isn't major (but will annoy me forever), but a large aluminium cladding piece has come detached from the garage door frame...
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 4, 2024 10:08:38 GMT
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Sept 4, 2024 14:48:38 GMT
I absolutely twatted a pigeon yesterday morning on the way to work - it flew down onto the road and landed about 10 yards in front of me, giving me no chance to react. A thump, a cloud of feathers, and a dusty smudge on the bumper later, it rolled off into the gutter. It has broken a bit of the lower black plastic grille, between the splitter and the numberplate. Not very noticeable, thankfully, as it looks like the whole bumper would have to come off to replace it. RIP Funky Pigeon.
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Post by Boxer6 on Sept 4, 2024 15:51:19 GMT
I absolutely twatted a pigeon yesterday morning on the way to work - it flew down onto the road and landed about 10 yards in front of me, giving me no chance to react. A thump, a cloud of feathers, and a dusty smudge on the bumper later, it rolled off into the gutter. It has broken a bit of the lower black plastic grille, between the splitter and the numberplate. Not very noticeable, thankfully, as it looks like the whole bumper would have to come off to replace it. RIP Funky Pigeon. Reminds me of when my dad hit a pheasant on the A1 coming back from Newcastle in his Volvo 740. Completely destroyed the grille, and the bird itself was well cooked by the time he got home some 4 hours later! |
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Post by alf on Sept 4, 2024 15:55:40 GMT
Oops, Racing! You might want to keep your head down for a few days and say little. Keep the keys to the Porsche close also.
I had a patridge smash itself through the plastic grille of a Jag XF loaner once when the first XFR was being serviced. Luckily I collected all the bits from within the engine bay and glued it back together such that the garage didn't notice (the grille that is - the partridge was brown bread)
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Post by Tim on Sept 4, 2024 16:13:51 GMT
I had a pheasant fly out of a hedge into the side of my 2nd Stilo, it left a scuff on the wing, removed the mirror housing and smashed the mirror glass.
I went back and picked the bits of car up.
It happened out of my sight behind the A pillar so I got a massive fright when the mirror smacked against the side glass.
When your wife scrapes the car there appears to be absolutely no correct reaction.
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Post by Roadrunner on Sept 4, 2024 16:15:23 GMT
I once ran over a pigeon on a farm drive about 30 years ago. It was so intent on pecking at the spilt grain on the ground that it either didn't notice or couldn't be bothered about my approaching company Astra 1.7 TD (feel the power...) and I thought I felt a dull thud through the steering. Sure enough, when I returned up the drive, there it was, thoroughly squashed into the gravel.
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 4, 2024 16:47:49 GMT
When your wife scrapes the car there appears to be absolutely no correct reaction. One has to take it on the chin. I was not amused but elected not to make a big fuss about it. Not least since she will not have forgotten that I once inflicted similar damage to the back of the 440i by misjudging where the corner of the house was... So I think we call it a draw. On the plus side, in a causal loop that I am not totally sure I understand, this incident has convinced her that, when we get the frame fixed, we should have the garage door converted to open electrically notwithstanding that this will cost north of EUR1k. This is the sort of thing that, had I suggested it, would not have flown. I am trying not to agree too eagerly for fear of making her re-consider.... |
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 4, 2024 17:02:02 GMT
I absolutely twatted a pigeon yesterday morning on the way to work - it flew down onto the road and landed about 10 yards in front of me, giving me no chance to react. A thump, a cloud of feathers, and a dusty smudge on the bumper later, it rolled off into the gutter. It has broken a bit of the lower black plastic grille, between the splitter and the numberplate. Not very noticeable, thankfully, as it looks like the whole bumper would have to come off to replace it. RIP Funky Pigeon. This reminds me of a track day I did at Bedford Autodrome nearly 20yrs ago in the 2002 Audi S3 I owned at the time. A pair of wood pigeon suddenly got up from the side of the track as I was going down the back straight at well over 100mph and with a certain grim inevitability, one duly flew smack bang into the middle of my windscreen. Given my speed, how the windscreen didn't shatter or even crack, I will never know, but the pigeon basically disintegrated, leaving a massive smear of blood, fleshy pink fragments and weird white dust coating the glass. Thankfully I was doing tuition at the time and had an instructor next to me. He immediately made sure I did not turn on the wipers and instead relied on the small clear sliver of glass between the mess and the wipers to slow down and see my way back to the pits with the hazards on. |
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Post by Martin on Sept 4, 2024 17:22:27 GMT
Ouch….annoying, but could have been worse and fairly easily fixed if it annoys you. I’d have to get it fixed.
Hopefully that’s the end of it.
Lindsay would be really upset if she damaged her car and is very good at parking (driving in general to be fair, although is sometimes quicker than I’d like..), the Golf wheels were completely unmarked after 6 years. I hope she never damages mine, more for her sake (as she’d be devastated) than anything else.
I can’t believe you really need permission to spend 1k euros, especially as it could be classified as a ‘home improvement’!
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Post by racingteatray on Sept 4, 2024 17:35:36 GMT
I don’t need permission - it had never really struck me as something essential so never bothered suggesting it. Particularly since discussions on electrifying our back gate in London (admittedly a rather pricier proposition) have always got short shrift. But since she’s had the idea, it’s definitely one I’m not going to dissuade!
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Post by Martin on Sept 4, 2024 18:24:39 GMT
It was money well spent getting new electric garage doors, but I do regret not spending more and getting the pillar removed and one large door instead as not everything will fit comfortably through the single door. There’s always next time.
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Post by Tim on Sept 5, 2024 7:22:07 GMT
When your wife scrapes the car there appears to be absolutely no correct reaction. One has to take it on the chin. I was not amused but elected not to make a big fuss about it. Not least since she will not have forgotten that I once inflicted similar damage to the back of the 440i by misjudging where the corner of the house was... So I think we call it a draw. On the plus side, in a causal loop that I am not totally sure I understand, this incident has convinced her that, when we get the frame fixed, we should have the garage door converted to open electrically notwithstanding that this will cost north of EUR1k. This is the sort of thing that, had I suggested it, would not have flown. I am trying not to agree too eagerly for fear of making her re-consider.... I tried the 'not make a big fuss about it' route when Mrs Tim scraped our original Stilo down a skip at the local dump (the scrape was the offside rear door and wing so quite significant). Because I chose not to say anything - I'd actually accepted it as 'one of those things' - she lost her temper and shouted at me for giving her the silent treatment and insisted I drove the rest of the journey during which she never spoke to me  |
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Sept 5, 2024 7:56:56 GMT
It was money well spent getting new electric garage doors, but I do regret not spending more and getting the pillar removed and one large door instead as not everything will fit comfortably through the single door. There’s always next time. Our garage door was the original cheap one-piece, up and over type supplied by the builders and had been converted to electric by the previous residents. I was never particularly happy with it and then one night I pressed the button to close it and walked away without realising one of my footballs had rolled into the opening. The door tried to close on it and managed to bend itself so out of shape it never closed properly again. So now we have one of the nice sectional, insulated ones - that cost about £1k. Oh and the right thing to do when your missus bumps the car is to sympathise and shut up. Any deviation from this and you're in a World of hurt.. |
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Post by PG on Sept 5, 2024 13:18:46 GMT
Oh and the right thing to do when your missus bumps the car is to sympathise and shut up. Any deviation from this and you're in a World of hurt.. Agreed. And make sure the first question is "are you alright", or "thank goodness you are alright". Never "is the car alright".....  It was not the garage door in our case, but it is certainly true that suggestions your wife (or even friends) make are far more likely to get done than things you suggest. In our case it was a raised paving area in front of our front door, over some of the gravel that was there. I suggested we did one - not a priority. Some friends stayed with us and said how hard it was walk on the gravel. We now have a paving area. |
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