What a journey! ! Its started off so well! We travelled across North Wales on the coast road admiring the views. The coastline was fabulous, the Welsh beaches and hills were spectacular! We were in great form!!
We travelled down to Chester and North West England to Stafford where we stopped for some food. When we stopped we recieved text messages from concerned people who were wondering why we were stopped for so long!! They thought we had broken down!
We made good time en route to London arriving earlier than we had planned. We got up at 4.30am the next day after stopping at Enfield.
We travelled along the M25 and managed to dodge the worst of the traffic arriving in Foulkestone early! We had booked the 8.20am train but had the option of the 7am train because we had arrived so early!
Not far from boarding the train the car went over a ramp. The combined weight of our luggage and the 140 litres of extra fuel put huge strain on the car . This wieght caused the suspension subframe to snap! Our wheel came off!
The car was leaking fluids, the front bumper and side panel were damaged. The oil cooler and windscreen washer bottle were also damaged.
....................
to be continued!
Update.....
The car was towed to Foulkestone to a Vauxhall garage where an awesome bunch of mechanics managed to repair the damage to the wheel!
We just repaired enough to finished the trip to Paris! The vehicle now pulls to the left very strongly!
Update.....
So the unfortunate incident involving the ramp cut some electrical wires. We even lost some sensors on our conversion kit! Some wires were left in such a way that they drained the battery as the car sat in the car park on the Novotel!
The electrics which were damaged caused the electric windows to go up and down randomly! The car would also lock and unlock itself...
Aodhan thought I was playing a joke on him. Every time we locked the car and walked a few steps away the car would unlock itself! Aodhan wouldnt believe me until I handed him the keys and the car unlocked itself!
The car is now alive!
So with all the damage to the car we decided to have it checked over by an opel garage in Paris before the drive home.
Update......
The car is not road worthy and we have returned to Ireland by plane! The car is now going to be towed to Ireland where it will be repaired!!