Following the replacement of the the timing chain, the nearly everlasting Nissan Micra soldiered on, passing through the 400,000 mile mark, and even driving from Scotland to Spain and back, but the engine sounded more like a diesel than a petrol-driven car. Suddenly, when motoring along a country road in the Netherlands, the car lost power and coasted to a standstill, luckily allowing me to steer it onto the verge. I called the AA, who reported the breakdown to their Dutch colleagues at the ANWB, who in turn sent out a vehicle which towed me to the AD Autobedrijf garage in nearby Bennekom that had worked on the Micra years earlier. They confirmed that the timing chain had come off again, and that the car was effectively dead. However, they did say that they would be able to locate a used engine for €165...so I accepted of course! And so it was that Albert Blotenburg, Andreas Klaassen and Arjan Kennis, set about removing the old engine and installing the new one. Many thanks to them, and further thanks to Barry Marshall, of Kirkcowan Motors, for doing some further welding work underneath, allowing this amazing car to pass the MOT test with NO advisory comments!

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