Off to Europe for 2 months, any precautions?

[Rids64]

I'm shortly heading off to Europe for a 2 month road trip in my 93 1.6. In the last 12 months or so the car has had new discs/pads/calipers all round, new clutch slave cylinder, 2 new heater hoses, a new electric window regulator, cambelt and water pump, 4 new tyres and both wing mirror bolts replaced. It was serviced earlier this year which involved oil/filter, plugs, air filter, fuel filter and gear and diff oil changes.

Can anyone suggest anything else I could do to mitigate the chances of ending up on the back of a recovery truck?

[Ruffy94]

Take spare oil, water, battery/ charger pack. Even Duct tape, wd40 and a Haynes/ workshop manual could come in handy (im not suggesting a toolkit alongside it but the manual will be handy to check any issues against if you don't want to use expensive internet/mobile data looking up info abroad). That's if you have the space!

We're heading down to Spain in august (but in a Mondeo instead) and even then it could be a push to fit that into there with 4 passengers and their luggage! At least 5's don't seem to be too unreliable....

[feef]

How much work do you have to do on your car over an average 2 month period? I've of the mind that a car doesn't 'know' it's in a foreign country, so why would it be any more likely to break down than under normal usage?

[Rids64]

The car has probably only done 4000 miles in the last year but I'll be asking it to do that in 2 months so it more about the mileage than the time. I appreciate things can go wrong at any time and without warning but I am trying to ensure I have covered all the obvious.

I suspect the biggest challenge will be getting everything in the boot (I'm camping).

[Itsallicanafford]

Check your spare, do a dummy run changing the a tyre to check the jack, position of jacking points and stupid things like you have the locking wheel nut. You know if your going to get a flat, it will be in the dark when it's raining...( pack a torch!)

Battery condition, get it checked. Make sure you know the word for 'unleaded' in all the countries you are going to visit.

If you have the remote release for the boot in the central cubby thing, disengage it, keep valuables in the boot.

Photocopy all your documents, keep a copy in the boot.

Take a spare key and alarm fob.

Get mx5parts number on speed dial, any bits will may need will be with you overnight.

Spare fluids, Haynes manual, socket set....good to go, have a great time, I envy you!

[buzzer]

I think you have covered most of the key failure points... some good additional tips above. I did similar last year before we toured Europe in our MK1.

I would also add, check the condition of the radiator, and the clutch. the clutch is a difficult one, no way of really checking where it is in its lifecycle. As I do all the work myself, I ended up changing mine as I didn't want that to fail while we were away, and it only cost me £100 to change it for piece of mind. Over the top really though.

I have also purchased a second hand coil pack as these can go without warning, it was only £20 off Ebay.


Other modification I have recently done to ours in anticipation of another trip down to Spain is I have fitted cruise control, a cable to plug my phone in fed through the air vent by the screen and to a live feed from a fag lighter in the glove box. Save having a lead draped all over the dash!

Some pictures of my prep on this web site.

http://jtccc.wordpress.com/our-cars/about/

I didn't bother with a spare wheel as it took up so much room in the boot... I took a couple of cans of tyre seal instead. I also got a couple of long thin canvas bags that fit behind the seats on the back. with these I can still get the hood up and down, and it keeps things tidy. this sort of thing.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEAVY-DUTY-CANVAS-TOOL-B...

good luck on the trip!

[Rids64]

Thanks for all the tips, it seems I have covered most things and just need to have faith in the little roadster now.

Time to head over to the camping section to get advice on all things tent related..

[VladD]

buzzer said:

I have also purchased a second hand coil pack as these can go without warning, it was only £20 off Ebay.

Definitely this. Mine failed when I was at the Le Mans Classic in 2012 and they charged me about 300 euros for a replacemnet.

I'd also be tempted to take a motorcycle battery so that you can charge your phone/sat nav, if you have one. On my trip in 2012, the phone, which I was using for sat nav too, still ran dowwn despite being plugged into the cigarette lighter socket. Either that or just take a spare phone battery, assuming that you have access to a charger over night (I was camping, so didn't).

It might also be worth contacting the MX5 owners clubs for the various countries you'll be travelling through. The French MX5 owners club gave me tremedous help in 2012.

Edited by VladD on Tuesday 3rd June 13:43

[J-Tuner]

In addition to the above i would perhaps suggest some decent length cable ties, duct tape and a small tool kit. Ditch the regular wheel brace for a extendable lever/bar type - will be grateful of that if you ever have to use it.

[mozmajor]

I've recently got back from a trip to Germany. Take spare coil pack and HT leads just in case. I'd clean all the earth points as a loose earth can fry the coil pack. It was hot when I was over there, 35+ degrees. I ran with the lights popped up to get more cooling air through the engine and opened the bonnet when stopped at services, I find it gets very hot under there once stopped after a long motorway run. My little 1.8 mk1 did Southern Germany to Lancashire in 13 hours, pretty much non stop

[pewe]

Based on three trips to Italy in ours :-

1) Presumably you've checked that your insurance company is happy to cover you for that length of trip? Some insurers will exclude trips around the Nurbugring (in theory a public road but try telling an insurance company that in the event of an accident).

2) Are tax/MOT still going to be current through-out?

3)Have you converted the headlights either by fitting right dip lenses or DIY masks from Fablon or similar?

4)Phrase books?

5) Take a spare wheel rather than a can of foam - foam is bugger all use if you hit a side-wall on top of a mountain....

Enjoy...
Cheers, Pewe.