Half way down France and I have a P1181 error code.

[sgould]

P1181 Long term fuel trim additive max value Air/Fuel too lean.

Engine is too hot to look for air leaks at the moment.  Anyone had this before?  Any other ideas?  I don't have the computer with WIS on it with me.  Just the code reader.

[sgould]

Found the cause. A cracked brake servo pipe.

But now the car has overheated and lost a lot of coolant. Still losing coolant. I suspect a head gasket. Waiting for the roadside assistance.

[sgould]

Car has been recovered to a Peugeot garage. SWMBO has gone to collect a hire car.  If the garage fix the car it will be a long drive back to fetch it.

[Geoff1951]

We're all following this Will. Good luck!

[sgould]

Today is Bastille day, so everything is shut.  We managed to attend the garage that is holding the car in order to leave unnecessary stuff that won't fit into the hire car - a Skoda Kamiq.  Quite roomy but the boot is a bit small.  The garage will look at the Saab on Monday and report.

Just arrived at Carcassonne after a drive via Monts?gur, the final Cathar stronghold which was conquered in 1244...

[Geoff1951]

Be interested to see what you think of Carcassonne.  School where I'm a governor takes a group there every year, teachers say it's good.

And yes, the Kamiq's boot is small. Good range of engines, friend has the 110 bhp petrol, he's quite happy with it, but wouldn't be my choice of engine.

[sgould]

I haven't looked under the bonnet! Yet!  It seems to go OK though.  Our son is with us and has just bought himself a Hyundai i20 with a 3 cylinder engine of less than 1 litre.  It has 110hp and he's getting 57 mpg on a trip from his home in Leamington down to us near Watford.  It seems the petrol engines these days are getting quite acceptable - just ibn time for the politicians to ban them...

We have been to Carcassonne before.  It has changed a bit since we were there in 2007. It's very busy, but that may be because it's a  holiday weekend.  Our son and daughter in law reckoned that the only medieval thing there now is the stonework and the basilica. Everywhere else is now souvenir shops, icecream shops, restaurants, hotels and a couple of dubious museums.  We didn't stay long and took the slow road north to tonight's stay at Cahors.

[Geoff1951]

Cheere Will, seems it's geared to the school trip market then. Think we'll give it a miss. Good luck with the rest of the journey.

[sgould]

Now moved on to Argentat-sur-Dordogne.  We have had a nice lunch with friends who have lived here since 1989. We are here for another day, then move on north.

Hoping for a report on the 9-5 tomorrow when the garage is back at work.

[welshwizard]

I haven't looked under the bonnet! Yet!  It seems to go OK though.  Our son is with us and has just bought himself a Hyundai i20 with a 3 cylinder engine of less than 1 litre.  It has 110hp and he's getting 57 mpg on a trip from his home in Leamington down to us near Watford.  It seems the petrol engines these days are getting quite acceptable - just ibn time for the politicians to ban them...

We had a Skoda K###q (the middle one) I thin Kodiaq with the 1.0TSI engine from Hamburg a few months ago..... Couldn't pull skin off custard and hideously uneconomical, the Mini Cooper we had more recently and the Passat Diesel we had 2 weeks ago were far more frugal than the Skoda.  I was actually shocked when I came to refill the car before the return, our 1.4TSI Golf returns 45-50 mpg regularly while the 9-5 does 30-33mpg, and the Skoda was thirstier than the 9-5!!

[sgould]

The Kamiq is not too bad.  I still don't know what engine is under the bonnet. but it's been doing over 30mpg with the four of us in it around the little country lanes.

[Geoff1951]

Hi welshwizard, if it was the one litre it'll have been a Karoq.  Weakest in the Kodiaq was a 1.4, 125 bhp.  The one litre Karoq has either 110 or 115 bhp.  Really needs the 1.5 150 bhp engine.  I'm surprised your economy was bad.
(I've driven several engine variants over the past 6, 7 years, Octavia, Karoq and Kamiq, and while the performance with the lower spec engines is "average", the petrol consumption has always been good, with little difference manual or auto boxes.  My 1.5 Karoq managed 37 mpg over 20k, with a few long distance tanksful/tankfuls? giving 47++ mpg.)
Now, my 2 litre petrol Audi A4 Avant, 190 bhp, gives over 36 mpg, even driven fast.  It's also very comfortable over long distances, almost but not quite as good as my old 9-5.

Anway, back on topic, I hope Will gets his 9-5 back soon!

[sgould]

Phoned the garage this evening.  Car not diagnosed yet...

Hopefully something tomorrow.

[sgould]

One day later.  Same as above   They promised to phone back, and haven't.  We have phoned them.  I  suspect car has not been looked at yet   We now have to decide whether to head north and hope for tomorrow, or cancel all hotel and channel crossing bookings and hang about in mid/south of France waiting for news.

One of the four of us has to be back at work on Monday morning.

[TomPaine]

What are the terms of the breakdown cover Will?

When we went to France last year I spent quite a lot of time looking at the small print of policies as I was worried by how many of them said they wouldn't repatriate the car if it exceeded the market value of the car to do so. I hope this can be sorted locally anyhow.