What did you do to your van today?

Broke Down!

Actually not today, Friday last. It just seems to be the way for me, the minute I get new tyres something goes wrong! The Hymer that we had before this had shiny new tyres when the engine self-destructed as has pretty much every vehicle I've owned. New tyres just seem to be a bad omen for me!

Went over to Kirkwall for an appointment at the hospital on Thursday. Stopped over in our usual spot next to the Peedie sea as I had the van booked in for new tyres first thing Friday morning.

Was out for a little run around Mainland to kill time on Thursday evening and the engine management light popped up and the engine went into limp mode! Joy!

When I went for the tyres I asked the garage if they could pop their reader on since I was there. It reported a faulty coolant temp sensor. Driving it to the supermarkets to do some shopping before returning to Westray, and the journey from Rapness at the south of Westray to our house at the North tends to confirm that inasmuch as the temp indicator never went off zero.

So, I've ordered a new temp sender and an OBDII reader so I can check/reset stuff myself. Let's hope it is a simple as that.
 
Well, had a few plans for today to do stuff but checking what was happening before I ventured out ....
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Thought it was meant to be "British Summer Time"?
 
I was going to clean my water system and waste tank but its to cold, the weather has defeated me.

So just as an update to this, it was warmer this afternoon so I got on with filling the tanks with the water and chemicals was out for a drive to give everything a shake. Then disaster, loss of power, red warning signs. So got onto the garage and the van is broken and needs to go to the van hospital.

This is even worse because I was booked to go away this weekend 😭😭
 
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I drilled a couple of dozen 8mm holes in the floor----good eh !!
 
Swapped 15" steel wheels for 16" alloys purchased from Rimstyle. Very happy with chunkier look and Goodyear all weathers.

Now is there even a market for four 15" steel wheels with tyres (2x6mm tread and 2x4mm tread) plus decent wheel trims

IMG_20210412_140905855_HDR.jpg
 
Decided to move it back onto the drive from the field so I could try to change an almost inaccessible front indicator light, which appeared to involve lying on the ground with 5 foot long arms! Moved the van, managed to just about reach the bulb holder but no way could I remove it. BUT the indicator is now working again so obviously just a bad connection. Fingers crossed that it carries on working otherwise it’s a garage job!
 
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We gave it the first clean for a long time. A little trip to the garage tomorrow as it has a very slow puncture, then a day out on Friday with our surprise freedom granted this morning.
 
I have washed it, including the roof.
I applied some wet and forget to the roof, so I shouldn't have to do the roof again, we'll see how that works out.🤔
Next wil be sorting out the inside before we set out to Hereford and beyond, now we can travel. whoop whoop.😁
 
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So yours are still looking good. That's good to see.

I had an anxious moment when the new wheels wouldn't seat correctly. We discovered they were fouling on the locating lugs for the old steel wheels. Rimstyle were very reassuring and once the lugs were easily removed from the hubs all fitted snugly. Not convinced by the skinny 17mm studs supplied with the wheels tho. Local fitter almost insisted on using the old 21mm ones. Any of this familiar exwindsurfer?
 
Broke Down!

Actually not today, Friday last. It just seems to be the way for me, the minute I get new tyres something goes wrong! The Hymer that we had before this had shiny new tyres when the engine self-destructed as has pretty much every vehicle I've owned. New tyres just seem to be a bad omen for me!

Went over to Kirkwall for an appointment at the hospital on Thursday. Stopped over in our usual spot next to the Peedie sea as I had the van booked in for new tyres first thing Friday morning.

Was out for a little run around Mainland to kill time on Thursday evening and the engine management light popped up and the engine went into limp mode! Joy!

When I went for the tyres I asked the garage if they could pop their reader on since I was there. It reported a faulty coolant temp sensor. Driving it to the supermarkets to do some shopping before returning to Westray, and the journey from Rapness at the south of Westray to our house at the North tends to confirm that inasmuch as the temp indicator never went off zero.

So, I've ordered a new temp sender and an OBDII reader so I can check/reset stuff myself. Let's hope it is a simple as that.
All fixed now.

I knew I might be jumping the gun ordering the temp sensor but with a follow up hospital appointment imminent I wanted to hedge my bets.

The OBDII reader arrived this morning and having the opportunity to dig deeper into the diagnostics revealed that the No1 (low speed) fan was not being sensed as running. Felt the fan and it was stuck. Not properly seized as a quick tug turned it. Blathered it with WD40 and it got free-er. Still didn’t run, but as might be expected the fuse was blown. It was a larger (physically) fuse than I’ve ever seen before. Fortunately I was able to find a scrapped car down at the local hauliers that has the same fuses so I grabbed a handful of them.

Replaced the blown fuse, reset the faults with the OBDII reader and it all running okay now.

Happy Days!

P.S. Anybody want an unused Citroen Relay engine coolant temp sensor 😅 (actually, it hasn’t arrived yet).
 
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