Picture the scene...
It's a stunning day, the sun is shining, the car is gleaming, the birds are singing, Gruff and myself are grinning aware that in less than a couple of days we are off to the Euro drive of our lives. Last minute checks are underway and I've unlocked the door of Juliette to do something. Now I know a lot of you that are likely to be reading this are new but a few months ago we had an electric issue. The alarms and immobiliser locked the car down.
With a day or so to go, the problem has returned. Alarms wailing and no ignition control lights. Last time we found a quick fix (after a few days head scratching) and simply reset the alarms. Unfortunately, that fix wasn't working today. We have no time to lose and need to get the car started. After an hour of (admittedly angry) discussion and suggestions I put a cry out for help on Facebook whilst Gruff jumped on the phone (to O2 about his contract - Grrrrrrrrrr I was not happy). I phoned a few alarm and immobiliser specialists in the area (all of which wanted us to take the car to them - not happening) and we got to a dead end. Time is desperately running out. With my tetchy-ness reaching new levels Gruff buggered off to see a mate of a mate who doesn't deal with car electrics but "knows a bit". After 20 minutes or so he came back holding a piece of paper with the phone number of someone else. The someone else is an auto electrician and with a job title like that you know his time isn't going to be cheap.
Before we phoned him, we had a try at a suggestion made by his original friend of a friend. Instead of using the black "slave" key to lock/unlock in the drivers side, we tried locking and unlocking in the passenger side with the red "master" key. This worked. Levels of anger went back to normal and I was happy.
By this time I had received a detailled breakdown of the problem most likely to be a relay issue (get back to that in a few updates) from an interesting source. A few months back in a bored moment, I added every person with the same name as me (male and female) and became friendly with a few of them - great people. Anyway, one of my females (who is due to give birth any day now - good luck) has a partner called Danny. Now as luck woulld have it, Danny is well into his cars. As even stranger luck would have it, Danny has an Escort Cab an seems to know it's workings very well. So he sent me his number and said he would talk me through the problem over the phone. As it happens, we didn't need the advise (although gratefully received) but nice to know strangers do help folk out.
So with just a few hours to go, all things were looking good. Bags packed, car clean and working, myself and Gruff both sporting new "tough stickers" (I love that phrase - courtesy of Hill - you will meet him in a few updates) and ready to roll. The mother in law has been collected, the wife and kids have been kissed and the cat is in hiding.
With the exception of meeting my wife, and having kids, the greatest few days of my life were about to unfold and I'm going to be sharing these days with you over the next few weeks.
For those of you that want a better insight into my warped life or see more images from the rally, feel free to add me on facebook by email address - chrissavage5@msn.com
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