Breakdown in Chartres Interrupts Our Blast North
From time to time Zagan the motorhome likes to remind us that we shouldn’t take him for granted. As we drove north across France to catch the Chunnel home, he gave us a reminder of this, by having a breakdown near Chartres. Coincidentally the last time he conked out on us we were on our way to a ferry in Morocco. Sadly this time he’s still not well and will be needing more attention from our local garage in the UK.
Capbreton was hard to leave. A beach next to the aire with surfers to watch, warm sunny days and clear blue skies. But sitting in our camping chairs in the sunshine on Saturday afternoon it dawned on me. If we left that afternoon we could spend the €10 we would pay to stay another night at Capbreton to pay the tolls on the motorway. A couple of hours would get us north of Bordeaux and ready for a long drive on Sunday – a great day for long drives in France as most lorries aren’t allowed on the roads. Less than half an hour later, which included a discussion with our new neighbours about official paperwork for their parrot (they’re not covered by the Pet Passport), we were off.
We found a parking place for the night using the Park4Night app, and we arrived just as the sun was starting to set. After quick look around the town of Cavignac (N45.10004, W0.39189), there wasn’t much to see, but I did manage to grab a cake from the patisserie just before they closed. We also raised the satellite dish and re-tuned it to pick up UK channels once again. We then settled down for a night of telly before a very peaceful sleep.
On Sunday we drove for around five hours which took us to a place we’ve visited a few time before. We figured we’d be tired after the drive, so being somewhere we know means we don’t feel guilty about not getting out of the van. As it turned out, the drive was easy due to the lack of lorries, however Zagan did start to make a worrying noise which got louder. It sounded very similar to when our wheel bearing went about a month ago, but we’d driven less than 3000 kilometres on it, so it can’t be that, can it? When we arrived after a check of the wheel temperatures (nothing unusual), we put it out of our minds for the time being. Jay went out for a run, doing some hill training in the old cobbled streets behind the chateau, and we went for a short walk around the town just as the sun was setting. The aire at Chateaudun (N48.07136, E1.32423) is just off the main non-toll run north, so we weren’t surprised that it was busy when we arrived and filled only with British vans. It looks as if the end of winter, pre-Brexit exodus is well underway.
Monday morning and we’d decided to have another long drive up to Stella Plage, another favourite aire which would give us a couple of nights there before the tunnel. As we left Chateaudun the noise returned. Was it even louder now? Reaching the city of Chartres just a few kilometres north we headed for a garage that was flagged in the ‘points of interest’ on our satnav. It turned out to be a Norauto (the French version of Halfords). Putting Jay’s French to the test we discovered that they couldn’t do anything, Zagan was too big for their garage, so it was time to ask Google for help. Being Monday the two motorhome dealers in the city were closed, so we called one we had passed about half an hour back down the road. It was open and they would have a look for us today, so we nipped to the petrol station as we were nearly on fumes. Pulling up to the pump Zagan made a grinding noise – too late, his wheel bearing had gone.
The only thing we could do now was crawl over to a parking space in the supermarket next door and phone the breakdown recovery people. We have two lots of cover on Zagan at the moment, one with our motorhome insurance and one with ADAC (the German version of the AA). We’ve been with ADAC for years and as they cover the driver and not just the vehicle, giving us cover for driving a car when at home, we chose to carry on with our membership even when we got the other cover (ADAC no longer take new UK members). Unsure of what level of cover the policy with our insurance has (we had no idea where it was in the reams of policy paperwork), we called ADAC in Germany. They transferred us to someone in France, all of whom spoke perfect English, and after giving all the details of what happened we were told someone would be there in the hour. In that hour they arrived and got Jay to drive Zagan onto the recovery truck, a nerve-wracking moment as his back end was very, very near the ground – two old pieces of wood were used to raise his back wheels a bit higher to save him from damage.
We were taken to the recovery depot they got us to roll Zagan off the truck and parked up. Then we waited not knowing what was happening. It turned out that ADAC were looking for a garage to see us, not easy in France as we’ve found out last year when trying to get a wheel bearing fixed, or the time in Narbonne where we had to wait two weeks before they could see us to repair the clutch. At 1pm the shutters to the depot went down and all the staff headed off for lunch, locking us in the compound as they left. The returned promptly at 2pm and around half an hour later we gave up, Jay was sent into the office to find out what was happening. The garage phoned ADAC and they had a Fiat dealer who would look at us, so when the recovery wagon reappeared Jay had to drive Zagan back on (I asked him after and he said it was quite nerve-wracking as he could only see sky through the windscreen).
Lesson One – Don’t break down on a Monday as a lot of places are closed, and especially avoid lunchtime as all garages shut.
The garage we were taken to was an Iveco garage and when we arrived we all piled into the office to be met by a very confused (and grumpy) looking Frenchman. I don’t know much French, but I picked up the words quinze jours – 15 days. Checking with Jay, yes he was saying they couldn’t see us for 15 days (which sounds about right based on our experiences of main dealers in France)! The recovery guy suggested we ring ADAC back and explain the situation. A few minutes later another chap appeared from the back office on the phone closely followed by another. Along with the recovery man we now had four people staring at our carte gris – our V5C. Figuring they were looking for the VIN number to see if the could get the part, I offered them the receipt from when our local garage swapped the bearing on the other side as it had the part number on it. More phone calls and eventually we were allowed to drop Zagan off the truck. I have no idea why the recovery man didn’t use the wooden blocks this time, but there was a very unpleasant sound as he waved Jay back and Zagan’s backside hit the ground. We’ve since had a look and can’t see any obvious damage.
Lesson Two – Have someone watching the back end to make sure it’s not going to hit the ground (sadly I was too busy filming!)
We were told that the part would cost €160 which was more than double what it cost in the UK, but we didn’t have much choice (and we wanted a quality part to be fitted). We then had to leave and come back the next day at 4.30pm. We tried to get across that there must be another problem as this would be the third bearing replacement in a year on the same wheel (a bent stub axle, misaligned wheel, damaged hub, or missing bearing spacer have all been suggested to us), and there’s heavy wear on the inside of the affected-side’s tyre, but they clearly weren’t interested and just wanted us gone as soon as possible. Inside the garage I quickly shoved stuff into carrier bags to take with us as Zagan was jacked up into the air with us inside. Jay asked if we could leave the fridge on and got a suitable Gallic shrug from Mr Grumpy, so we did. ADAC rang us back to tell us the part had been ordered and that we had €85 each to cover our overnight costs, but we were on an industrial estate a couple of miles from the centre of Chartres with carrier bags full of our stuff. So we made our way to the nearby budget hotel on the estate and booked ourselves in for the night.
Lesson Three – Get the garage to call you a taxi or give you the number, and find a nice hotel near somewhere, otherwise you will be bored!
After a night in a room over-looking a car parts shop and a skip, we now had a day to kill while Zagan was being repaired. First thing in the morning I called ADAC having realised during a sleepless night of worry, that no one had actually looked at the wheel, they had just ordered the part based on us thinking that is what we thought was wrong with it. I was assured that if it wasn’t the right part then they would try something else – hmmm, not a great thing to hear as we were now just a couple of days from our tunnel crossing. Checking out of the hotel at noon we left a couple of bags there and walked into Chartres. The last time we were here we ran in along the river, but with my knee still swollen from my fall last month the walk was a struggle enough.
We walked around the cathedral for a while, impressed by the restoration work that has taken place since we were last here in 2015. One side of the church carvings are now look like new, gleaming white compared to the dark dirt on the other side which is yet to be done.
After a while in the church we were cold, as we hadn’t packed our coats in the big rush to leave the van. My knee was hurting, so we wandered outside and found ourselves a sunny step to sit on and pass the time. My phone rang around 3.30pm to say the van was ready, so we headed over to the tourist office and booked a taxi back as I wasn’t up to walking back. However if I had known that the taxi was going to be €13 for a couple of mile trip, I would have accepted a piggy back from Jay!
Back at the garage Mr Grumpy was almost smiling, or was it a smirk, as the bill was handed over. I gulped as the cost of the taxi paled into insignificance. It was over €550, the reason being 5 hours of labour. Our local garage charged only 3.5 hours to fit a new bearing and new brakes on all wheels, so I can only assume we were on time and a half due to being stuck there. There was nothing we could do, so we paid up and left, a tad fed up at the high cost and the fact we knew the underlying issue remains. Wanting to put as much space between ourselves and the whole experience as possible, and to get back on target for catching the tunnel, we drove north for five hours arriving at another aire we’ve visited a few times at Stella Plage (N50.474385, E1.577494) around 9.30pm. We both decided we won’t be driving in the dark again, unless we really, really have to as it’s no fun, which is probably what we said when we had to leave Stella Plage in the dark earlier on this trip because we ran out of LPG .
This morning Jay ran a half marathon on the beach while I started writing this tome. After a late breakfast we drove north to the Auchan supermarket at Coquelles near the tunnel entrance. I got everything washed and dried in the car park laundry while we did a final French food shop for a few things (the laundry is here: N50.94387, E1.81048). France seems more expensive than the UK these days, and certainly more than Spain was so not much was bought.
After filling up with diesel (€1.439l) and LPG (€0.79l) we made our way to the parking at Sangatte (N50.94064, E1.74140). It’s a nice quiet spot we discovered in October last year, with views out over the channel, so we can watch the ferries going forward and back. Sadly it’s too misty to see England just yet, but we’ll have a face full of it tomorrow.
So that’s it, another trip done. We’re both feeling a bit down at the moment, we always do at the end of a tour, but we’re looking forward to seeing our friends and family again, oh and some fish and chips!
Once we are back I will write up a full cost breakdown for the trip (you can find previous trip costs in our Money section), but we have done some quick maths this morning to work out the cost of driving across France, so we can compare it to getting the ferry straight to Spain for another time. In case you are interested, it cost us around €250 to drive north (Fuel €209, Tolls €42) , mainly on free roads, but paying a few tolls to speed things up. It took us about a week to get across and put around 1000 kilometres on Zagan’s clock, as well as the associated wear and tear. I think I may be stocking up on sea-sickness tablets for next time we go to Spain so we can get the ferry straight to Santander. Either that or we’ll revert to more leisurely driving across France.
Ju x
Yikes! Hopefully your local garage can get to the bottom of the problem :-(
What would a trip be without a bit of drama? Although you do seem to have plenty of habits to mitigate the drama, not driving in the dark, and you mentioned before about not changing lanes in a hurry even if it means going the wrong way, better than an accident.
Overnight boat to Spain, no thanks. Have you ever though about leaving Zagan in Spain and flying back…going to the cheapest way. I found online very cheap secure parking in Spain. I always saw a blog with caravans that go for the summer and then the site store the caravan and they drive back take it to a new site next time they visit.
People think camper holidays are cheap, they are for you guys, lots of nights and slow travel. But if you steam down to Biarritz or further for your two week holiday the diesel and ferries alone make it a pricey way to holiday. Not knocking doing it because it is a lifestyle choice as much as anything.
Get well soon Zagan and enjoy the chips and ale.
Hi Simon
Wise words my friend. In answer to your question: yes, we have thought about flying home. We haven’t n done it yet as we tend to stay ‘out’ or ‘home’ for a few months at a time. That said, it could still make sense in future.
On your point about costs, I completely agree. In purely financial terms, motorhomes are (in general) investment disasters unless you can use them for significant lengths of time. I wrote a full post about it here a while back:
https://ourtour.co.uk/home/motorhomes-investment-disasters/
Cheers, Jay
Just re-read that article Jason. Thanks.
What a disappointment to such a lovely trip ..Im a great believer in the ferry from Spain .. and a packet of Stugeron ..
No plans for somewhere else in the world?
Where though Kevin? Where? We’ve seen it all mate. **tongue-in-cheek**! Honest answer: we have no ‘fixed’ plans beyond this summer. After that we’re aiming to mix up Europe and non-Europe. I want to see Sub Saharan Africa. Ju is keen to travel North America. We have friends in Australia we’d like to visit. South America is tempting. Tough life… Hope the last few days in Mexico go well, congratulations on an impressive group leading job. Jay
Ireland! IRELAND!! We’d love to show you around
Many thanks for helping me through winter again!
When we looked at the ferry to Spain it was so expensive we realized we could have driven to Spain and back a couple of times on the money it cost. The ferry operators know why you book it!! Do as you usually do and drive slowly down through France, much nicer ( and much more pleasant for the reader ;-) eh !)
Could be a bent Wishbone Track Control Arm or ball joint, think the stub axle is at the back. £50.00 on the web, doubt it is the ball joint as it would have been noticed before. You ever hit a rock on the left hand side, off roading morocco maybe. Definitely worth further investigation almost begs the question how many miles per bearing are you getting, hope this helps, Chris
Re wheel bearing the central wheelbearing spacer needs checking.This can cause exessive pressure on the bearing if it was damaged on the first bearing failure. Love the blog.
Very sorry to read this, there is a specific problem connected to but not the wheel bearing. If you want an opinion just ask.
Being financially secure i’m sure you can afford 550 euro’s
You’re quite right Sean, we can afford it. We try to write an honest account of how we get on travelling around and “a tad fed up at the high cost and the fact we knew the underlying issue remains” sums it up. It’s not made us broke, we’d recommend anyone have an emergency fund for stuff breaking on a road trip, but it didn’t make us delighted either. Cheers, Jay
Fantastic blog, really enjoy it particularly in the winter when we plan our trips. We head off for Europe in for 6-8 weeks, but this year are having to postpone until September due
to daughter moving house….
We are using this trip to revisit favourite places….many inspired by your descriptions. We are not as brave as you, however, generally using out of season ACSI.
Our disaster was 2 years ago when we left wallet with ALL cards in a wine shop in St Emillion…..we discovered that the banks boast of getting replacement cards anywhere in 24 hours is a bad joke….hey how.
Keep moving…atb
Steve
PS you’re right about investment, but it’s all about freedom and fun….how do you put a price on that?!
What a rotten end to the trip. I feel your frustration, worry, damage to the wallet and Ju’s pain in the knee!
I’m sure that in time (!) you’ll laugh about the experience…
Really sorry to read about your breakdown, I guess these things happen.
Enjoy your time catching up with friends and family in the UK and planning the next trip!
Thanks guys. We had a breakdown yesterday and because I had read your blog I knew to be careful when they tried to get it onto the lorry. In our case our overhang was too long and they couldn’t get it on, but I think without us paying attention they would have damaged the back end in the attempt.