Today I ripped the undertray on my car on a gate stay on my dad's driveway. The undertray newly bought and fitted only a week ago.
This is, somehow, very good news.
The reason I say this is that had this not happened, I would not have suddenly realised that I have a gearbox oil leak. Seems to be from the passenger side driveshaft seal.
I would have been driving to Devon in it tomorrow, and would undoubtedly have therefore had a catastrophic gearbox failure due to lack of oil. It's still showing oil on the gearbox dipstick, but it's well below minimum.
The bad point of all this (apart from the new load of work which will need doing) is that I had to spend hours ringing around car hire places to eventually find someone who could lend me a car big enough to replace the GTA and it's roofbox in terms of luggage space - since both would have been filled to the rafters. So I've had to spend £260 for the privilege of driving a dull as dishwater Avensis estate instead of my GTA for the next week. Mind you, I'll probably make £100 of that back in petrol costs.
There were also a couple of clicks from that area of the car on pulling away this morning before we realised the cause. At the time I wondered about CV joint, but now I'm thinking it was the low oil, and hoping nervously that it has done no damage.
All this happened too late to be able to find a garage to take the GTA to now and have them work on it while I'm away - so I can also look forward to being without a car for a week or so once I'm back. Still, I was already going to have to take it somewhere for the air con issue that's also occurring currently.
Bloody car.
This is, somehow, very good news.
The reason I say this is that had this not happened, I would not have suddenly realised that I have a gearbox oil leak. Seems to be from the passenger side driveshaft seal.
I would have been driving to Devon in it tomorrow, and would undoubtedly have therefore had a catastrophic gearbox failure due to lack of oil. It's still showing oil on the gearbox dipstick, but it's well below minimum.
The bad point of all this (apart from the new load of work which will need doing) is that I had to spend hours ringing around car hire places to eventually find someone who could lend me a car big enough to replace the GTA and it's roofbox in terms of luggage space - since both would have been filled to the rafters. So I've had to spend £260 for the privilege of driving a dull as dishwater Avensis estate instead of my GTA for the next week. Mind you, I'll probably make £100 of that back in petrol costs.
There were also a couple of clicks from that area of the car on pulling away this morning before we realised the cause. At the time I wondered about CV joint, but now I'm thinking it was the low oil, and hoping nervously that it has done no damage.
All this happened too late to be able to find a garage to take the GTA to now and have them work on it while I'm away - so I can also look forward to being without a car for a week or so once I'm back. Still, I was already going to have to take it somewhere for the air con issue that's also occurring currently.
Bloody car.