Scary moment behind an A1
 

Couple of weeks ago I was driving down the M6 to the lake district on a nice Friday afternoon, enjoying the drive, I was in lane two and noticed an Audi A1 coming up behind in lane 3 and a rather large plume of blue/white smoke seem to come from it. After it went past I pulled out to overtake a truck but as I got behind the A1 a huge "curtain" of very dense thick cream coloured smoke came from the A1. Was like a wall and I couldn't see anything. First concern was the A1 had suffered some catastrophic failure and might come to a stop in front of me but of course I couldn't see because of the smoke. I also decided against slamming the brakes on as there was a reasonable amount of traffic behind me. Luckily the truck driver slowed down allowing me to move into lane 2 again, just in time to see the stricken A1 drift across to the hard shoulder. Just wondered what might have happened to the A1 to cause such a thing, any suggestions?

cheers+++

yeh.. dont buy an A1

im not so sure about all these new engines
too thin too fine under engineered

With that much smoke (and perhaps steam?), sounds like a blown head gasket.

I briefly owned a Citroen Xantia Activa that met its demise the same way. To be fair it had been 'over-chipped' (not by me) -- far more power than the fragile French engine had been built to handle. After giving it some welly up a steep sliproad to join the motorway one day, something let go and everything behind me was suddenly engulfed in so much smoke and steam that it looked like a space shuttle launch. Fortunately I hadn't made it beyond the inside lane so I was able to get over to the hard shoulder quickly.

I think the car got scrapped. Shame really, the Activa was an amazing and very rare car. That was the last of my run of French cars and when I bought my first '8.

+1. A triumph of marketing over Vorsprung Durch Technik (remember that?). I'd rather have a VW Polo, much more honest - a petrol one, that is.

Collected SWMBO from her job in Heinz Wigan a few years back. On the way home the Granade decided to blow the head gasket. She kept running and even restarted after a visit to ASDA. Only problem was that looking like a steam train we left a trail of mayhem in the steam clouds.

You popped into Asda to do the shopping despite your head gasket blowing??
:eek::hammer:

Neil you must remember that I am only a mere male and as such very subserviant to SWMBO. She wanted to shop so we went shopping. The rest of the world might have been on fire but ASDA was calling. :mad: