Fun has started

Last Saturday I thought of getting the 4L out for a tour as it has been a week since I last drove it. I tried to start it but in vain. So I pushed it out of the house (easy job) and as I live ont he top of a hill I wanted to start it as I go down the hill, I tried a couple of times and still no success. My wife and aneighbour helped push me to the next down hill and this time it worked but as i stopped near a junction the engine stalled again. So Next down hill until I found myself some 5 Km far from the house and no more downhills :). I figured out by remembering some old experience on my father old car (a descent Renault 18) that playing with the starter button in and out could have different impact on the amount of air you inject to the engine and therefore you could make it start faster but you need to cancel that so you get better power from the engine to go up hill. This tickled my mind as I was rememebering this old outdated knowledge. Last time I used my father previous car was 10 years ago. 

So I fiddled with the starter and was succesful on starting it and arrive back home finding my wife starting her car to get out and search for me :) The neighbour was worried too.

on Sunday, I decided to take out again and go for a shopping trip to Decathlon. No issue this time and the car started in 1st go. Arriving to Decathlon, I could not lock my door with a key. I discovered that I broke the only key I have for this monster. I belive it happened due to the excessive force on it while I was trying to start it the day before. I rushed to a Key maker but he said he had no similar key in house and he will need to order it and it will take 10 days. The trouble is the car is stuck in a Casino Geant parking, unlocked and I go in holidays in 5 days :(. the last thing I needed. So i called a taxi, got all of us home and got my car. I headed to Anthy sur Lemans but I found the key maker closed there. In the night I searched some horror stories on Auto forums and some people talked of 300+ euros to change everything... So I decided that if tomorrow, I do not find a solution I will call the assistance and bring it home before I go on holidays. I called the assistance and they quoted me 100 euro as the distance is small and they do not apply Km price.

On Monday, I headed again to Anthy sur Leman and managed to get the key maker to copy a new key from the broken one. Super job done and i was able to start it and took it home. so No big deal this time except the taxi fair and two 70 km trips to Anthy but Fun has definitely started