[sjp63]

Here is the short tale of my recent journey

My 411 had been resting in my garage unattended for 3 months whilst I was away, so I left a day in my schedule to get it ready for the journey from Somerset to Turin, via Folkestone and the tunnel. Hotels overnight in Folkestone and again in Dole, France were booked so nothing needed to go wrong. I arrived at my house at 10 am Sunday aiming to start the journey to Folkestone around 4pm.

I couldn’t remember exactly what I had left in the garage to help with preparations but it turned out I should have left the jump leads as the portable battery pack didn’t have enough charge to jumpstart the car. Halfords supplied an excellent set of leads in a plastic case and once hooked up she started first crank.

I quick look around the car showed that mice had been using the car bodywork as their toilet and the de humidifiers in the car had collected an impressive amount of water that had got in when previously driving in the winter rain

I had brought with me a couple of items for the car to suit the long journey, like a carb/manifold spacer of the right depth to enhance torque and lower the carb temperature and the original air box which is quieter than the chrome one that had been fitted previously.

Next all fluid levels were checked, tyres kicked and the loading of the remaining garage items began. The car was packed full of parts, tools, etc and sat down quite a bit at the back. My 12 year old daughter and I set off at 4pm for the 3.5 hours to Folkestone, so far so good, past longleat, over Salisbury plain, down the M3 and onto the M25.
Cruising along at 70 mph, a faint knocking sound quickly became a very loud knocking sound from the rear. I pulled over thinking this is not good – had a quick look around but could see nothing amiss. Hoping for a miracle, I gently drove along the hard shoulder looking for an exit but the noise sounded terminal – differential? Drive shaft? Propshaft UJ’s?

I stopped again and began to work through the options – my daughter need to be back at school in Italy in 2 days time, not stuck on the M25.

I had another look around and this time I saw the problem. All 5 wheel nuts on the nearside rear were undone allowing the wheel to wobble. How the hell could that happen I wondered? In fact to some degree all 4 wheels had loose nuts, brought about by me having the (Ex Britannia) alloy wheels refurbished recently and the tapered seats were painted as part of that refurbishment. Under pressure the paint gives way and the nuts release their grip and its down hill from there.

Huge relief, nuts tight and off we went to Folkestone.

Next morning we set off at 0700 for the train and we were in Calais by 0900 and on our way.
The French motorways are some of the best in the world and we were on a tight schedule so it was worrying when we picked up a very bad vibration above 70 mph. My first thought was wheel balance but it was so violent and went through the seat base forward to the bonnet. I wondered if the weight at the rear of the car was having an adverse effect on the drive train – more irrational thoughts about propshaft UJ’s…

So we were restricted to a sedate 60 mph for the afternoon trip to Dole and a well earned rest after 400 miles in France that day.

During the day we passed a convoy of Belgian registered classics – about 15 in all from Mercedes to Alfas, fiats and some 60’s American cars.

At dinner that night I decided it would be a great idea if I could find a local tyre fitting depot and get the wheels balanced. At least that would discount one possibility and if it worked we could make better progress the next day. I figured that a wheel weight might have come off to make the vibration – why had the wheels originally been balanced using clip on weights when alloys usually use stick on’s I wondered.

Following the sat nav out of Dole the next morning we came across a large tyre place and I knew I must stop.

30 mins later and 40 Euro’s lighter I sped onto the motorway with everything crossed and the vibration was gone.

Onwards at 80 mph towards Mont Blanc tunnel several hours away.

Returning to the car after a service stop I started the engine and immediately switched off when I heard a loud and rapid click click click. Was it the starter motor on its way out? I tried just the ignition (no starter) and it did it again very loudly. As soon as I switched off it died away. I was baffled – what (on a 411) activates when the ignition is on? – not a lot, no electric fuel pump or anything like that.

Up went the bonnet and back on with the ignition – hey presto – noise gone replaced with the cooling fans whirring. So of course cooling fans operate on a hot engine with ignition on and somehow one blade was hitting the fan casing with bonnet closed!

Started the car again, this time to be greeted with a not unpleasant buzzing/whining sound on throttle lift off. Like the sound you hear on a modern engine – a fuel pump or injector pump.

By this time I wanted to get on so the sound stayed with us for the rest of the journey.

Never mind because for the remaining journey she ran very smoothly at high speed and was a delight to drive. Gradually the previous mechanical problems faded from the back of my mind and the last part of the journey was the most enjoyable.

About 1000 miles from somerset to the east of Turin along fantastic French/Italian motorways and scenery.

The 411 is now relaxing in the sunshine awaiting some pampering to her woodwork and leather.