Gibraltarby Bob - 13:43 on 26 December 2008As we have been delayed setting off on our trip to Africa we have decided to give Sandy a good test run down to Gibraltar for Christmas to try everything out. Good job we did as we had one or two teething problems.
We left England on the Thur 18th Dec on the 9 pm boat. Everything went fine all the way down through France until we came to the Pyrenees mountains.
We seemed to be loosing a lot of power on the hills. I put it down to the high altitude. But as we went into Spain the engine started to miss and put a bit of white smoke out at the same time. I also noticed black smoke on full power. As we were only 50 mile from our camp site we continued slowly at about 40mph sometimes a bit slower. Having arrived at the campsite at about 6pm, and taken 1 1/2 hours to do the 50 miles we set up camp and headed straight for the bar. Well it was dark and we needed a drink.
Nothing could be done until morning and that was Sunday so Monday was really the first chance we would have to get a repair done if needed. Looking at the engine on Sunday we had been burning some oil which was not expected as we had a reconditioned engine. So thoughts went to the turbo and yes a bit of oil on the input air side but not a lot, same on the output side. Turbo had a little play but nothing excessive. Now I was struggling a bit, everything was new, fuel tank, filter, lift pump, injectors and the injector pump. ( I should have checked the obvious) Fortunately the camp site knew a local garage who they used for servicing so Monday morning it was down to the garage. The owner Ottowo did not speak much English and my Spanish was just as good so I thought we are going to have fun. Having shown him the problem at the garage he wanted to test drive Sandy. Not over happy at this but I went along with him. It seemed that every car we passed he knew the driver and had a great time beeping the horn and waving to everybody. Posing came to mind. On our completion of the test run we rang the camp site and spoke to Paul who spoke excellent English and he translated for me. Thanks Paul at International Camping at Palamos, if you read this you made life a lot easier for us. (I would also add that it is a well run and equipped tidy site). We left Sandy with the garage, no choice in it. Booked a chalet at the camp site as our home was a tent on top of Sandy. Later we grabbed a cab and went to the garage only to see on the way there our Sandy going the other way!!!!!! Was she repaired? We waited at the garage for 20 min until Ottowo returned and told us that he had not finished. But he should be done by about 7 or 8 o'clock that night. Off we went back to the site rather dejected and down fearing the worst. At 7.30 Paul rang from reception to let us know that Ottowo had finished and would pick me up in 10 min. Paul explained that they had found water in the fuel and the filters. He had put a chemical in the tank to evaporate the water and clean out the fuel system. All I can say is it worked. But not as well as the bill. Ouch!!!! did he know how to charge but what can you do but smile. We were back on the road in the morning that's what mattered.
We ran from Palamos at the top of Spain down to Mazarron by Murca some 467 miles to see some friends and Sandy never missed beat and used no oil. Now I was a happy bunny. Well for a short time anyway. The starter solenoid stuck. Fortunately a quick tap with the hammer jarred it loose. But true to form next morning it stuck again so it was changed. As I had a spare starter in the back nothing lost apart from a little time. Wed 24th we drove the remainder of the 1700 miles down to Gib. Again at a steady 55/60mph over the mountains, it seemed it was all mountains until the last two miles and once more we never missed a beat for the 316 miles. Other than a door lock that needed a bit of oil and a water leak on the drinking water system we have had no other problems.
Our intention is to fuel up the auxiliary derv tanks with 180 litres and the main tank 70 litres as fuel is 63p per litre in Gib which should hopefully see us home without buying any more fuel. Setting off home on the 27th getting the ferry on the 31st.
We still have not sorted out the Sat nav and need to plug it into the computer with the docking station. Fortunately Jackie is a competent map reader so we were now working on Jackie nav.
As we get home we will update as to if our return trip is trouble free or not. Hopefully it will be.
We are home and early. The tanks were filled with Derv in Gib, 226 ltrs to full giving 70 ltr in the main tank and two 90lt tanks. (55 gall in all) but at 63p p ltr who can refuse it. This took us all the way to just outside Paris some 1106 miles giving about 20 mpg. I had expected a little more than that but we had been running at about 70mph so some price in fuel consumption has to be expected. our normal fuel consumption as around 23 mpg which would have returned and extra 159 miles. Makes you think. In addition the four jerry cans would have carried another 80 ltr (19 gall) extending our range by another 380 miles but with the trouble we had it was decided not to risk contaminating the tanks and to make sure that the cans are clean before use. (We thought they were but decided not to take the chance).
Our run back was trouble free. The turbo is suspect and so is the brake servo and a few oil leaks to deal with. The tent is a pain, putting it away if fine it is the cover that is a total pain to put on. That will be changed to make it much easier. But that’s what the trip was all about. Finding the week spots out now and sorting them. All in all a good trip with lessons learned in preparation, expectations, using the equipment and abilities.
Miles done 3806, using 696.96 ltr (154.19 Gall) return overall 24mpg. (I think we have missed a fuel stop out somewhere too much difference) But it shows the difference of driving at 55 to 70mph.
Route down, Stilton, Dover, Calais, Paris, Orleans, Clermont-Ferrand, Millanu, Beziers, Narbonne, Perpigan, Palmoros (Spain) Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Mazarron, Granada, Maliga, Marbella, Gibraltar.
Route back, Gibraltar, Marbella, Maliga, Granada, Madrid, Burgos, Vitoria, Bordeaux, Toures, Rouen, Calais, Dover, Stilton.
We look forward to the real trip.
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Kind regards
Adi