Manky Monkey Motors

The day started just as well as any other normal day, Manky and I doing our normal jobs then at around 2.30pm I got a call from Manky in a bit of a distressed state. He had only gone and put petrol in his new Diesel car  :o, (only had it a week today), so not knowing what to do he called me. I contacted the garage where he bought it and it was going to be over 2 hours before someone could pick him up and he didn't have break down recovery yet for his car but I do. Luckily my boss and his wife had gone to London so I jumped into my car to drive over to Basingstoke to use my RAC cover to rescue him, but that didn't quite go to plan either. As I flew down the sliproad to get off the A31 to get on to the A331 I applied the brakes for the roundabout at the end and there was a very loud crunch and my foot went to the floor, Aaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhh NO brakes, s**t! says I and managed to get around without causing a major accident. With perfect timing PD returned my call, (one of many to various people), and we agreed as I did kind of have brakes that I was to get over to Lunatic's workshop and he would sort it out after work. Meanwhile poor Manky is still sitting in his car freezing and understandibly slightly panicky about me not having brakes. So there we are, both cars broken but at least mine was limping. The looks I was getting along the motorway driving at 50mph in a flash car. Bit embarrassing, but I wasn't going to push my luck as I couldn't stop very quickly and I put the car in Manual mode to use the engine to help with stopping. So many frantic calls were made in that journey. Marcus managed to very kindly get out of his sick bed and he collected a very cold and lonely Manky, (the car could wait till later when we could use my RAC), so I could stay on dual carriageway, rather than having to negotiate the town centre to reach him. I went straight to the workshop. Marcus took off the OS front wheel as that's where the noise was and the inner pad had totally vanished. Just the back plate left  :o So gave PD the instructions on what to get. A few hours later PD turned up and was not happy as the supplier never delivered the pads so off to Halfords we went and found some pads that kind of fit, (off a 5 series), just to give us a car that we can use and so Manky can get into work today, (carefully). Now my car was kinda fixed we had to sort out Manky's, so we spoke to the guy, (Gary) who took the Sherpa body away for Manky a while back. He came to the rescue for £30 and the little car is now sat outside Marcus' workshop ready for PD to sort out the fuel glitch. Also at some point he will give my brakes a full overhaul which I know is not going to be cheap. At work there are all sorts of vehicles about so I've borrowed one of those till we can get our cars sorted out. I dread to think what my phone bill will be next month and the tax is due on my car at the end of this month so looks like Christmas is going to be very tight this year.
A very huge thank you to Marcus, (Lunatic) and PD for all your help. We owe you both such a huge favour for all this. x

 :o :o :o :o :o :o teach you both for driving modern cars :P :P :P :P glad you are both OK, I've lost brakes on 2 cars in the past, last time was when the master cylinder in the Land Rover went kaput, but as the LR's brakes are so crap it took me a week to realize (not really) scared the crap out of me as I was hitting around 55mph on a down hill stretch of country (singleLane) road with a car coming towards me, missed him but soiled me undies  :P :P

Yeah you do!!!
i'll post my crimbo list lata!!
 ;) ;D

Remote controle Helicopter wasn't it  ;D

Seems like we have all had minor and not so minor problems over the passed few weeks let's hope the new year is better for all.

Glad your both ok.

Tell me about it. Took weeks to get the computers going with one problem after the other. Now the cars. When's it going to end. Just as we get one thing sorted something else breaks  :( But yes we are both fine just a bit poorer and a bit miffed by it all.

At least you two are ok, motors can be fixed

Glad you're both ok, take care :)
K

Thanks for the kind words chaps -& for not calling me a muppet for filling my car with the wrong fuel, (I'm sure someone will now I've said that). PD reckons every 4 seconds someone somewhere misfills their car. bet they're getting fed up with it by now. ;D Fortunately it's fairly easily rectified & hasn't caused any damage. For those that don't know, last week I bought a sensible commuting car for the 35 mile trip to work from Taz's cottage. Got a 2 year old 1.4 diesel Fiesta. I realised what I'd done staight away. As I was stood there thinking "Hang on, that pump hose should be black, not green", I still had my finger on the trigger, filling the tank. Poo! Had the thing less than a week & on it's first fill up I've buggered it up already. I put 20 quid's worth of unleaded in, on top of about a quarter of a tank of diesel, so at least it was dilluted a bit. I drove it off the forcourt & parked up in an industrial area 100 yards away. Most annoying bit was having to queue up to pay for the fuel I didn't want.
Then it was time to call up the MMMotors International Rescue team.
It's at times like that, that you realise just how lucky you are to have good friends. On my own Id've been completely stuffed. No way of moving the car, no breakdown cover, no way of getting home, no way of getting to work the next day & God knows how much it would've cost to fix or how long it would've taken.
I rang Taz. She dropped everything at work, went straight home & rang the garage I bought the car from. They said it'd be a couple of hours before their recovery truck could pick the car up. So she rang Lunatic. He's been at home ill for the past week, but within 10 minutes he was there to collect me.
More phone calls followed after Taz's brake problems & PD gave up his evening to help, ordering replacement pads from his supplier &, when they failed to arrive, running us to the local Halfords to buy some. Then I knocked on the door of a breakdown/recovery driver I'd met only once or twice before & asked for help. He grabbed his coat & within 10 minutes the car was loaded up & heading for Lunatic's workshop.
Tomorrow afternoon Loony's going to drain my fuel tank & flush the system through & I'll, (hopefully), be back on the road. This afternoon he drove to Bagshot in Surrey to buy new pads & front discs for the Beemer, (the discs were cracked & the pads worn right down). When he got back we found they'd given him the wrong pads so he's got to go all the way back to return them. Then he set to & stripped the front end, replacing the discs & putting the Halfords pads back on, (they're for a different model but will do the job). Total cost, 87 quid in parts.
So Taz's car is fixed & mine will be tomorrow.
A huge, heartfelt thanks guys. You're all stars. I'm very, very lucky to count you as mates.
Oh, & PD ran out of petrol just as he arrived home last night!  ;D
 

 ;Domg this sounds like a chapter in my life s**t always goes wrong for me lol
im glad you got it all sorted out in the end it was a lucky that taz managed to stop her car i bet she was frit lol no brakes ain't funny.My step dad bought a brand new Volvo top of the range it was petrol he filled it to the top £50 odd quids worth of diesel  :oand like a Muppet realise what he had done and carried on driving it for 20 miles smoke everywhere nobody on the roads could see where they were going  :o he knacked a lot of sensors on the engine it cost a bloody fortune to sort it all out.If he had done what you did and don't drive it would have been a simple drain off and re fill.

I had a total brake failure in VW Passat some years ago - at a T junction onto a main road, bloody frightening!

I wasn't far from home so I limped back using the handbrake, got home shaking like a leaf, and that was when I learnt to appreciate liqueur brandy!

Yes not an experience I wish to repeat any time soon. I did have a small amount of brakes left so they didn't totally vanish and was also lucky it was not rush hour. I was surprisingly calm about it when it happened though. Just muttered words to the effect of "oh poo" and got on with it. I panic at the simplest of things normally but in emergencies I'm normally quite calm.   

Hey MM you'me not a muppett!!!! Years ago I was very tired after a very very long week, put diesel in the tank of my MG roadster :-[ :-[ :-[ I realised before I started the engine,or put in too much. called a mate who's a mechanic he came down and drained the tank, the drain plug was fortunately real easy to get to. Topped up with petrol and all was well. Yep I reckon theres loads of us do it, real easy mistake to make, so I'm not calling anyone anything.
Someone said to me last week,"make your words soft and tender because one day you may have to eat them" How true is that.
Just glad that you're both ok.

Thought this might make Manky feel better about the petrol/diesel thing...see it can happen to anyone.  ::)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=501548&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

Nice one LM, love it!!!!
Bet he was  :-[

Thanks guys.
Picked up my Fiesta from Lunatic's workshop this evening, (thanks yet again guys), then Taz & I drove home to Guildford.
Stopped off at the 24 hour Tescos to buy all the food & drink she needs to cater for a shooting party on the estate tomorrow. Proffered my debit card at the check out. Refused. Whadya mean refused! The profit from my house sale's in that account & I definitely haven't blown that much of it!
Still refused. The chief cashier told us that since the Abbey National ceased to be a building society & became a bank, owned by a Swiss conglomerate, 100s of customers all over the country have been refused accesss to their accounts. We had no other way of paying for it all & Taz needs it for first thing tomorrow morning. So another SOS phone call to another friend & 20 minutes later a very nice lady arrived with her cheque book to bail us out. Thank you Chrissy.
Taz is convinced she's a bad luck Bunny cos nothing's gone right since I moved in with her. Just coincidence, but thank God there's been someone to rescue us each time. Imagine if we'd been 100 miles from home & filled the car up then had the card refused. So I'll be having a few words in the Abbey National tomorrow & opening a new account somewhere else. 

lol m8 if i was to write all the all the bad luck i have had the last few months i would be here all night your lucky you have friends i dont have any

Very true and you do have friends. You have us lot. Sorry.  ;D

doubt it they keep pressing smite its going down all the time  :'(

Its good to have mates, but even better to have good mates ;D ;D

We're your friends,
we're your friends,
we're your friends.
We're your friends to the bitter end.
(Jungle Book, the singing Vultures.)
Cheer up m8, we like you :-* :-* ( in a manly way!!!)

The vultures with the Beatles-esque Liverpudlian accents & haircuts.  :)
A fabulous fillum.

 ;D ;D ;D

They used to have it playing on loop in my dentists waiting room. Not got good associations with me!! :o

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh :'(