The Crittenden Automotive Library

Blue & White Van Man 3 - Motoring & Auto DIY in France

Blue & White Van Man 3 - Motoring & Auto DIY in France

Stan Potter
DriveWrite
November 13, 2013

Stan Potter writes: Driving in France is much more enjoyable than the UK. In the countryside roads can disappear arrow straight to the horizon and in the mountains there are ascents, hairpins and descents to test the handling of any car. It is only in the large towns that things can become fraught. There is a rule called Priorité à droite.

This is a fiendish way to reduce average traffic speeds and keep an army of panel beaters in employment. Basically it means any vehicle joining a road from the right (roads, driveways, fields, gates, anything you can think of) has priority. On main roads you can see a sign of a yellow diamond; this means you have right of way (unless Gaston has had a large liquid lunch). If the diamond has a black bar diagonally across it means Priorité à droite, so keep alert!

The French Police look intimidating as they all carry guns, but those I have met had had at least a few words of English. I have been stopped a couple of times (comes as no surprise - editor).

Each time they were polite and asked for ‘permis de conduire’ (driving licence) and insurance. Once, by mistake, I gave him my bus pass, he inspected it and passed it back without comment (my licence was on the other side of my card wallet). Another time I was stopped and asked if I had consumed any alcohol. At 10am? I replied “coffee yes; alcohol no. I am on my way to Calais” which was about 700km. He replied “OK. Drive carefully - au revoir” and waved me on. If you have motorists coming towards you flashing their headlights it is very likely there is a police patrol ahead they may be doing routine checks or have a radar speed trap set up.

The DIY mechanic in France is virtually unknown except expat Brits and so I have found it is often quicker and always cheaper to source any spares I need in the UK. The local motor spares shop is very rare and Motor Factors who supply garages and the like are not used to dealing with the average motorist, especially if his knowledge of automotive technical French is nonexistent. To a degree this can be helped if you put the offending component on the counter and say (in French) I would like one of these please.

I have found that if I find the item on line at a British supplier and pay the extra postage, they will post it to an address in France and delivery is normally 3-4 days. The French postal system is very good even to very rural areas. I have ordered many parts for my Renault van (the blue and white one in the title), 1986 VW Golf and my Ride-on mower. Only once has this taken more than 4 days. I often take spare parts over with me for my friends in the area as such things as tyres and batteries can be 30% more and are often not available within the locality. This is especially true for items peculiar to RHD cars. I purchased the Golf specifically because it had a carburettor and conventional coil and distributor. This was to make it easier for a home mechanic such as myself to look after.

The distributor is state of the art with no points to go out of adjustment. The carburettor is also high tech as it has several vacuum operated controls and various electrical circuits. In fact after examining it closely as the engine was not running as I wanted, I broke the habits of a lifetime and read the instruction manual. The first comment about the carb was “The Pierburg 2e2 carburettor is probably the most complicated carburettor ever fitted to a road car” The problem I had was to do with tick-over settings. The golf has three tick-over speeds which are set in sequence, this is activated by an electric heater and various vacuum operated components. I decided the best way to proceed was to convert the carb to manual choke. Watch this space for further developments!