I was on my way to fill up my Beat at the local Shell petrol station so that I could go to the Beat MEet at Gaydon when my Beat misfired and conked out, about 5 metres from the pump! Even though the petrol gauge said there was a third of a tank left I decided to fill up and cross my fingers. Well, neither worked

It was backfiring badly and not even getting close to starting. So I pushed my Beat out of the way and called the AA. I tried starting my Beat every 5 minutes but got the same result, badly backfiring. 40 minutes later an AA man turned up and spent the next 20 minutes talking about the car and unzipping the hood, taking off the engine cover and having a look at the engine. I suggested that I start the car so he could what was happening. And you can guess what happened. She started first time and ran like a dream.

Now.... I dont want to risk a long drive up to Gaydon

I was looking forward to it too, so sorry to those who I missed.

Has anyone got any idea what could be causing this?

My Beat has been sitting in the nice dry garage for the past 3 weeks with the battery disconnected. She was nice and dry and had good oil and water.

Any help would be much appreciated.