La France...

[Stay Frosty]

St Malo today and sunny but with that same Icelandic breeze we had back home.
Anyway our trip here is starting to look like we weren't supposed to get away as we now have an orange engine light on the dash.
I'm of the opinion to carry on and say fork kit as we have recovery cover but I made the mistake of spotting the light and telling the wife, she's waiting for the third thing to go wrong now as she checks exactly what recovery service we have... could be the third thing.
We drove back the 30 Kms from St Malo back to Pontorson and didn't miss a beat so I'm guessing it's going to be an EGR issue?

 

[Ayjay]

@Stay Frosty. Probably a silly question but have you got a Carista dongle with you? Even if you haven't got a current subscription, it might still give you a fault code which might serve as a clue to what's going on.

 

[kipperman]

Had the same angst last year outside of Bordeaux - not sure whether the light meant some minor irritation or a « put your tin hat on » style of cataclysmic failure. Thus the investment in a Carista. Also keeps me amused when not driving monitoring all sorts of mostly useless information..

 

[Stay Frosty]

Cheers gents and sadly no Carista dongle plus I wouldn't know where to start with that or VCDS but I'm thinking it's probably going to be EGR or DPF clogged related and I'm going to soldier bravely on while the missus panics for both of us.
To that end would an amber engine light go to red just before the engine exploded?
Given that we've booked as far down as Lourdes and Biarritz the wife's amber light is also illuminated.
@kipperman what did your amber light turn out to be?

 

[kipperman]

Harmless PO20EE nitrous oxide fault. Bought cheapo reader from Amazon in France ( hooray for Amazon lockers) and cleared it. Not returned 2000 miles later. So you might well all be good

 

[Ayjay]

@Stay Frosty. If an idiot like me can plug in a Carista, get a fault code and then google it anybody can. You never know, it might even have
been able to reassure you that nothing catastrophic was on the horizon and maybe even placate 'er indoors for a while. Of course, it could indicate that something catastrophic was a possibility as well but that's a whole other thing!

 

[Salty Spuds]

Cheers gents and sadly no Carista dongle plus I wouldn't know where to start with that or VCDS but I'm thinking it's probably going to be EGR or DPF clogged related and I'm going to soldier bravely on while the missus panics for both of us.
To that end would an amber engine light go to red just before the engine exploded?
Given that we've booked as far down as Lourdes and Biarritz the wife's amber light is also illuminated.
@kipperman what did your amber light turn out to be?

Get it on the A83 between Nantes & Bordeaux & give it an “Italian TuneUp” IIRC, the A83 is a free stretch of Autoroute.

 

[Stay Frosty]

I reckon you might have an idea there, what could possibly go wrong...?

Yes, Busfest last year!

 

[Stay Frosty]

Didn't include a piccie today from St Malo so here's a couple...
Engraved beneath the statue a plaque informing "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries"

 

[kipperman]

@Salty Spuds Not sure if it was you that gave the same Italian tune up reply to my post re this fault last year, but fairly sure I triggered a speed camera on the Bordeaux ring road doing my « tune up”. Never heard anything more though..

 

[Salty Spuds]

@Salty Spuds Not sure if it was you that gave the same Italian tune up reply to my post re this fault last year, but fairly sure I triggered a speed camera on the Bordeaux ring road doing my « tune up”. Never heard anything more though..

We’ve been flashed a few times in France, but since Brexit, the European governments don’t have access to the DVLA database, so nothing happens. We also used the new “flux libre” autoroute & we were unable to pay as our reg wasn’t recognised.

 

[kipperman]

We’ve been flashed a few times in France, but since Brexit, the European governments don’t have access to the DVLA database, so nothing happens. We also used the new “flux libre” autoroute & we were unable to pay as our reg wasn’t recognised.

We’ve been flashed a few times as well, although I was definitely within the speed limit. Cynic in me says a policy to generally slow down traffic. And don’t get me started on just how many speed limits there are and the 110 if it’s raining rule on autoroutes. What constitutes rain? /rant off

 

[Stay Frosty]

I'll be honest I'm starting to get used to cars being rammed up my ar... hang on, I'll rephrase that, I'm starting to ignore cars driving far too closely behind and automatically swerving into the left lane as we approach a merging lane on our right.
The wide open spaces and driving on what feels like velvet are taking a bit of getting used to and these have all been N routes so far.
While I'm rambling civic pride seems to be a thing here and fly tipping not, maybe that will change as we get further down, currently on our way to Isle de Re by La Rochelle and we're just outside Nantes in an Aire, 19C and dull!

 

[Stay Frosty]

St Malo today and sunny but with that same Icelandic breeze we had back home.
Anyway our trip here is starting to look like we weren't supposed to get away as we now have an orange engine light on the dash.
I'm of the opinion to carry on and say fork kit as we have recovery cover but I made the mistake of spotting the light and telling the wife, she's waiting for the third thing to go wrong now as she checks exactly what recovery service we have... could be the third thing.
We drove back the 30 Kms from St Malo back to Pontorson and didn't miss a beat so I'm guessing it's going to be an EGR issue?

Well that third thing the wife was whittling about has chimed in now with the Adblu 650 miles remaining countdown of doom and amber spanner despite leaving Northampton with 2,500 miles range remaining indicated.
I'll drive around here tomorrow after just topping up with 7 litres of fresh Intermarche pigs wee but at the moment the amber spanner is still staring back at me.
I'll be honest it's even getting to me now, if the Adblu does reset then we're back in the game... again ... but with 600 miles of will it won't it (go into start defeat) we'll probably cut our losses and turn around after our stay here at Isle de Rey.

 

[DXX]

I'll drive around here tomorrow after just topping up with 7 litres of fresh Intermarche pigs wee but at the moment the amber spanner is still staring back at me.

It’s the emission control system, too worried to drive it too far so less emissions. VW engineers are geniuses.

 

[Ayjay]

How much adblue did the MFD recommend? I ask as I was down to 600 miles earlier in the week so topped it up at the pump in a garage near home. IIRC, mine said a minimum of 1.25 and a maximum of 2.25 gallons (ie. roughly 5.68 to 10.23 Litres). I put 9 Litres in, paid at the till and when I switched back on it was telling me that I had 5500 miles in there (I expected more though) - that should easily do for a month on the road starting Sunday. I purposely didn't fill to the max recommendation as I'm conscious of reports about people overdoing it and the system not resetting.

 

[Stay Frosty]

It's almost like they build vans for masochists.
Could be worse though, at least it's not rain... oh bugger, now it's started raining! Right now if it wasn't another VW product I reckon I'd use the smouldering wreckage of our camper as a deposit on an Id Buzz.
@Ayjay I got exactly that message but no precursor white message telling me to top up just straight into 650 miles from the previous 2,500 miles then to 600 miles warning literally 15 Kms later so that peed me off a bit more.
We had the same thing last summer but got a main dealer in Glasgow to sort it and they said it didn't have enough Adblu in despite me adding 1.5 gallon before heading north.

 

[Drive Wayne]

It's almost like they build vans for masochists.
Could be worse though, at least it's not rain... oh bugger, now it's started raining! Right now if it wasn't another VW product I reckon I'd use the smouldering wreckage of our camper as a deposit on an Id Buzz.

This thread had the potential of a classic!

 

[DXX]

It's almost like they build vans for masochists.
Could be worse though, at least it's not rain... oh bugger, now it's started raining! Right now if it wasn't another VW product I reckon I'd use the smouldering wreckage of our camper as a deposit on an Id Buzz.
@Ayjay I got exactly that message but no precursor white message telling me to top up just straight into 650 miles from the previous 2,500 miles then to 600 miles warning literally 15 Kms later so that peed me off a bit more.
We had the same thing last summer but got a main dealer in Glasgow to sort it and they said it didn't have enough Adblu in despite me adding 1.5 gallon before heading north.

Is it at this level yet?

 

[Stay Frosty]

So close, even my non potty mouthed wife has said "she's being a bit of a biatch!"
Will have a short drive around the local area to see if swilling the Adblu around in the tank dissolves any urea crystals from the sensor but if there's no reset we... ok, the wife, will see if we can fast forward to our last site back up at Bayeux so we're at least back near Cherbourg and home.