Now for the good news!

Hi everyone,

Just a follow up really, from the last couple of postings we've made, where we were looking for advice/comments on things that seemed to be going wrong on a regular basis.
We've just returned from a lovely (but all too short!) holiday in the South Cotswolds and are pleased and relieved to say that all worked well.
We've come to realise that "Alice" our Symphony, is a very individual character, especially the "beast" that lives under the bonnet! You can't rush the starting process, you just have to wait till the pre-heat light goes out on all but the most hot start occasions, and then it will roar instantly into life, giving a good belch of smoke from cold. But start it does, without fail, and thereafter will pull us almost anywhere in no lower than 3rd gear, albeit with a somewhat loud voice! As we now have no syncro at all on 2nd gear this is a great help, although I am getting better at double de-clutching, which is quite satisfying when you get it right (and a bit noisey when you don't!)
Everything else worked a treat, and we had a lovely time. We began to appreciate the benefits of motor homing rather than caravaning, and found none of the stated problems.

After a double dose of Waxoyl we hope we've managed to stabilise the underside of things, and will continue to work toward the long holidays we've planned for next year.
If anyone wants info on the south cotswold area, let us know.

Just one question (there's always one!) I've been trying to source some touch up paint, but can't seem to identify the shade. Ours is a 1995 Symphony on a Boxer body, and the colour is quite a deep cream. I've seen other Auto-Sleepers of a similar age but the colours do seem to vary a bit, some being a bit lighter. Any thoughts?

regards

Jeff and Di

There should be a (job ) number inside the glove box, phone auto sleeper with this and they should be able to tell you, I think it might say what colour it is in the same place as the job number, if all else fails, any good motor factors, will be able to mix the colour you need and either put it in a tin or aerosol for you.
Pete

According to my Symphony handbook, the only colour of base vehicles is Peugeot White Code 201. Mine is a 1997 so it is possible that other years use a different shade..

Hi everyone, and thanks for the response regarding the paint colour for our 1995 Symphony.

It's been a rather frustrating experience, but we've now cracked it. Trips to Halfords and our local auto accessory shop produced two shades that were too light.
Two calls to Auto-Sleepers got a mixed response. The first produced a colour code, which proved to be wrong, and a return call produced a not so helpful response that basically told us that they never respray, and go look elsewhere for the info!
There then followed a trail up through the Peugeot dealer network, which though more friendly than Auto-Sleepers always seemed to come to the same conclusion, "the computer says no!" i.e. all records only go back to 1996. The final call was to Peugeot UK HQ, which though very professional, said the same thing. However, they did give me a "case number" and promised someone would look deeper and get back. Well after three days no-one had, so I phoned the caravan club technical help line. They couldn't have tried harder, but had to finally give up.
In desperation I phoned back Peugeot UK, gave my case number, more in hope than anything else, and was VERY surprised to be told the information required was in the post, but they could read the letter over the phone if it would help. Armed with the code, I phoned my local auto shop, and after a few seconds they said yup, that's on our computer, how much do you want? Well I now have a very precious little pot of touch up paint. And the colour.... it's Peugeot POCC Beige Tropic. I shan't forget that in a hurry!

If the experience has taught us something, it's that information is out there somewhere, and you just have to fight on past some of the very iffy customer relations experiences, because there are some real good guys out there as well. Top marks to Peugeot UK for being very efficient and professional, and top marks to the Caravan Club technical helpline for really trying hard.

On another point regarding previous comments about the cost of a replacement gearbox, I did shop around and have found a better deal, at £600, rather than £1,000. So thanks for the comments on that.

kind regards

Jeff and Di