So just a little story to alleviate your boredom. Keep it brief.
Went down south to see the folks on Sunday gone. Heading down the A34 Soton-bound, doing - let's say - 70ish, hit a big puddle just on the side of the central reservation; massive horrible noise - spray hitting the underside of the car - very nearly went into a spin/slide and I just let my hands go soft on the wheel to avoid sharp movements. Not sure if I did that right but, hey, I didn't slide or spin. It was about 7.30 pm so pretty much pitch black and I was following some chap as the weather was nasty enough to be one of those "if I don't follow the guy in front fairly closely, I'm not going to see where the road is" moments. No enjoyment really; wipers were alternating between medium, fast and stupidly fast; more a case of just trying to get there in one piece.
So, one change of trousers later, I arrived at the destination. Folks were out, of course. As I waited patiently, I decided to check under the car because I'd heard a few other "spray under the car" noises in places where there wasn't really any water. Heat shield - the ones that sort of hug the contours of the exhaust as it meanders down the car front to back - was hanging off - in fact two of them were! They were pretty much under the driver's seat. Anyway, left it until the morning.
Next day, having discussed with the old man, we decided to go see the BMW man just down the road from him - a mile away - Partridge BMW near Eastleigh. I had stuck my arm under the car before we went and pushed the heat shield up enough so that it didn't scrape on the ground any more - I thnk they're aluminium but don't know really. Saw the lady at reception - I swear there were 50 bods swanning around, only some of whom were customers; helped myself to a coffee, gorped at the new M4 convertible etc. Went to the parts dept/desk thinking I'd buy the bolt that appeared to be missing (I could see a thread hanging down from the underside of the car which I'd guessed the heat shields were attached to). The robot that served me, once I started making noises along the lines of "can I have a look myself using your ramp", directed me back to the reception lady who, in turn, suggested I see a customer services chap. Saw the lad once he called me over. Fully expected "Matthew" (they're all fakes names, you know that, right?) to pull my pants down for what I considered to be the second time in two days. :telloff:
BUT NO.
Matthew asked for the keys, I told him it was "a Z4" parked out the front and I left him to it. Took a good half hour but, hey, he comes back out and says it's all sorted, have a nice day and come see us again (please) when you're interested in something newer. Gratis, free, no charge whatsoever.
So, heat shield firmly screwed back in/on, wallet fine and I'd taken new underwear in any event just in case. All in all, it restored a little faith in the stealers. I'd like to think they took the car round the back, thought: "wow, we don't see many of these" and thought they'd do us all a favour. Please don't tell me what they really did with the motor; I kinda think I'd rather not know and just sleep easy knowing it's been fixed.
Cheers all.
Stevo
Went down south to see the folks on Sunday gone. Heading down the A34 Soton-bound, doing - let's say - 70ish, hit a big puddle just on the side of the central reservation; massive horrible noise - spray hitting the underside of the car - very nearly went into a spin/slide and I just let my hands go soft on the wheel to avoid sharp movements. Not sure if I did that right but, hey, I didn't slide or spin. It was about 7.30 pm so pretty much pitch black and I was following some chap as the weather was nasty enough to be one of those "if I don't follow the guy in front fairly closely, I'm not going to see where the road is" moments. No enjoyment really; wipers were alternating between medium, fast and stupidly fast; more a case of just trying to get there in one piece.
So, one change of trousers later, I arrived at the destination. Folks were out, of course. As I waited patiently, I decided to check under the car because I'd heard a few other "spray under the car" noises in places where there wasn't really any water. Heat shield - the ones that sort of hug the contours of the exhaust as it meanders down the car front to back - was hanging off - in fact two of them were! They were pretty much under the driver's seat. Anyway, left it until the morning.
Next day, having discussed with the old man, we decided to go see the BMW man just down the road from him - a mile away - Partridge BMW near Eastleigh. I had stuck my arm under the car before we went and pushed the heat shield up enough so that it didn't scrape on the ground any more - I thnk they're aluminium but don't know really. Saw the lady at reception - I swear there were 50 bods swanning around, only some of whom were customers; helped myself to a coffee, gorped at the new M4 convertible etc. Went to the parts dept/desk thinking I'd buy the bolt that appeared to be missing (I could see a thread hanging down from the underside of the car which I'd guessed the heat shields were attached to). The robot that served me, once I started making noises along the lines of "can I have a look myself using your ramp", directed me back to the reception lady who, in turn, suggested I see a customer services chap. Saw the lad once he called me over. Fully expected "Matthew" (they're all fakes names, you know that, right?) to pull my pants down for what I considered to be the second time in two days. :telloff:
BUT NO.
Matthew asked for the keys, I told him it was "a Z4" parked out the front and I left him to it. Took a good half hour but, hey, he comes back out and says it's all sorted, have a nice day and come see us again (please) when you're interested in something newer. Gratis, free, no charge whatsoever.
So, heat shield firmly screwed back in/on, wallet fine and I'd taken new underwear in any event just in case. All in all, it restored a little faith in the stealers. I'd like to think they took the car round the back, thought: "wow, we don't see many of these" and thought they'd do us all a favour. Please don't tell me what they really did with the motor; I kinda think I'd rather not know and just sleep easy knowing it's been fixed.
Cheers all.
Stevo
