Friday 16th February

Lee -

So we have a diagnosis from the garage.  Turns out from my original thoughts of it being something simple like a spark plug or a lead playing up, they delved deeper as the engine sounded like it was only firing on three cylinders.  By this time, it was getting late in the day, the garage was due to shut and the van was only usable for short mileage.   As mentioned before, we had a kind offer from one of the mechanics to park the van on his front garden for the night as he only lived round the corner.   Phil was ever so generous and like he said ‘us Poms stick together’.  Thanks again Phil. 

The next day, the garage found the fault.  There was a hole in one of our exhaust valves.  This part of the engine had to be sent off somewhere else to be pressure tested and valve replaced.   The garage also acknowledged our predicament and have made sure we’ve had a vehicle loaned to us so we’ve been buzzing around in a ropey old ute, sadly with no dog in the back!  We are currently staying in the next village along in a static caravan on a nice site.

The garage are doing there very best to get us the van back for the weekend however this is a hard job as half of our engine has been removed.  As they are closed on Saturdays and Sundays, we more than likely won’t get the van back until Monday.  If it isn’t possible to get the van back today, they plan to swap the ute for a Toyota Corola which should be more fuel friendly and allow us to drive to the beach perhaps and enjoy the 40 degree heat expected this weekend.  Phew!

Lizzy dealt with the bad news well to start with as my facial expressions were not that of concern but when it became obvious that this is gonna cost a lot money and we would have to spend four nights in a caravan when we have a campervan of our own, we had a small amount of tears & ’why us?’. Unfortunately SHIT HAPPENS to all of us so we are getting on with things and have made arrangements for my work tools to be sent to my great uncle Terry’s in Brisbane.  This way, we can redeem some funds a bit sooner than planned, if need be.

Thoughts did go through our minds as to whether the sellers knew of this problem, but we’ve been assured that this fault is impossible to temporary fix for the purpose of a sale for instance.  The hole that appeared was in the middle of the engine and the mechanics have assured us that the Nissan Urvan Camper-van has a pretty sound engine and it was just bad luck that it happened to us only two days after buying it.  Since we’ve been looking a camper-vans, we’ve seen some really bad examples.  Despite our problem with the engine, we are still pleased with our purchase as we know we have a good example.  

Right, we’re gonna go and get hot and sweaty now.  The last couple of days has been 37-40 degrees.  Sweet!