“I Think We Have Been Here Before !!”

So after our relaxing day at the beach It was time to drive back to the ‘bolt hole’, the van started first time, ‘phew !!’, there is always that nervous apprehension, the “Will it or won’t it start ?” always a nervous apprehension at the forefront of my mind, followed by much relief when the engine starts first time. I was still concerned though, I still had nagging doubts, the garage had not drained the fuel tank and although I have no mechanical knowledge, the logical side of my brain kept asking the same question over and over again, “If the problem had been created by the low cetane diesel, then surely, continuing to drive, with still nearly three quarters of a tank of the stuff, is only going to cause a repeat of that initial problem ?“, but hey, what do I know, they are supposed to be the experts, right ? On the short drive back from our beach stop, which was only 6 miles, we talked about what we should do. Now if the garage was correct, we needed to burn off around 180 miles worth of fuel to get it down to a quarter of a tank before we could put the Injector cleaner in, then we would need to drive a further 50-60 miles before we could fill up with good quality diesel.

The weather was still forecast to be good, very sunny and hot, so we decided to pack the van with enough clothes and food to last perhaps betwen 3-5 days, enough time to do a circular loop down along the Southern Coast, across to the Atlantic coast and then cross-country back to the bolt hole. We really could not afford any more time, as this was a commodity that was now fast running out for us. We still had to make a start on getting the ‘bolt hole’ cleaned top to bottom, a last laundry day, cleaning the cooker, fridge and freezer, then the washing machine and the dish washer all cleaned and rinsed through, the clothes sorted and packed, one’s that would remain at the apartment and the one’s we needed to take with us and then finally everything unplugged from the electric sockets and dust covers put over the furnishings. A lot of these things could not be done too much in advance so if we were to get a way for a few days it really had to be now, even though I still had those ‘What If‘ thoughts !!

The morning arrived, we had both had a very much better sleep than we had had over the last couple of nights, it was reassuring to know that the ‘Little Fokker’ was back outside in our car park rather than being locked up in a dark garage workshop. We got our stuff ready and after locking up the apartment, between us, we carried the several bags down to the van. I feel sure that I may have said this on several previous occasions, but foresight is always much better than hindsight, but in hindsight perhaps I should have had the foresight to have tried starting the van engine first !! But instead we got the internal storage stuff done first, food items stored into their respective cupboards and fridge/freezer, although the few clothes could remain in our rucksacks until we got to our first nightstop, which we had agreed would be ‘Campervan City‘ in Tarifa, just short of around fifty miles away. We buckled up, Sat Nav programmed and then put the key into the ignition, it started, idled for all of around two seconds then stalled, I tried again, twice, three times and a few more, bugger !! bugger !! and even more buggers !! but it refused to hold its engine revs and kept stalling. The air was blue inside the van, and for good measure even Shazza joined in with me, then she threw everything back into the bags from the cupboards which she had, just moments earlier, packed them into, she was not happy so that made two of us. First call was to France, the European Breakdown people, the second call was to the garage telling them to expect me back with my van later that morning with the it, once again on the back of a breakdown truck, I think ‘Pepe’ could judge from my tone that I was probably not in the happiest frame of mind and about to do a ‘Mount Etna’ and erupt.

Now the garage is part of a Suzuki car dealership, the smart looking showroom and associated offices being where the owner’s office is situated, so once we had pulled up, and whilst the recovery chap and the garage mechanics got my van off the back, I by-passed Pepi in the garage workshop and headed straight for the reception desk in the showroom where I knew, after paying the bill on the previous day, that ‘Frank’ was located, and he spoke very good English. Whilst I was explaining to him, in quite an agitated manner, my displeasure and frustration, the owner came out. Frank interpreted what I was saying and the garage owner agreed with me that the fuel should have been drained, he was, to be honest, extremely apologetic that my vehicle had not been fixed properly and he told me to leave the matter with him. The owner offered to run us back to our apartment, and we were grateful for his offer, but we said that we would walk back in to the town and get something to eat as it was nearly lunch time then catch the bus back.

I was quite surprised when later that same afternoon, once we had returned from Estepona on the bus, I received a phone call from Frank telling me the van was fixed !! He told me that the problem had been with the mechanic, who had forgotten to reset the vehicle’s on-board computer. I asked if the fuel tank had been drained but he told me that he would need to go and check with the workshop. I told him that I would prefer them to keep my van over the weekend, that way they could leave it overnight for a couple of days and then try to start it again on the Monday morning. Later that evening I went on to my Security Tracker App on my iPad, I could see four different ‘trips’ recorded for that day, the first had been a short ‘test drive’ of a couple of miles, the second was the owner taking it to his home during Siesta, I only know this because he told me where he lived when he had offered to drive us home, the third was the owner driving back to the garage after the Siesta period , but then I noticed a fourth very short trip, just 0.01 of a mile, not starting at the garage but from a street behind where the workshop was located ? I had assumed that they had a facility there for perhaps the draining of the excess fuel, otherwise that short journey did not make sense.

This last trip though had been nagging me for some reason, something about it just didn’t appear right, the trip showed the journey back to the garage but it did not show the trip before, the one that got my van to that particular point ? So, the following morning I went back to the Security Tracker App and looked a bit closer at the previous days trips. Then it became obvious to me what had happened, on the third journey, the one with the owner returning to the garage after Siesta, on zooming in to much more detail on the map display, it revealed that the van had suddenly come to a ‘stop’ on a roundabout, probably three or four hundred metres from the garage, and unusually that is where the journey had ended for that trip ? But then the fourth and last trip of that day, which was an hour or so later, showed the journey starting about two hundred metres further on from where the last trip had ended, then going the short distance back to the garage. My former Police investigative assumptions, based on the circumstantial evidence that was presented before me, led me to a theory, the vehicle had broken down on the roundabout, clearly shown by the end of trip record on the map, but obviously the vehicle could not be left there and it needed pushing off the main road, no ignition on, therefore no recorded trip on the Tracker App. So it must have been pushed into the side street behind the garage workshop. Once the mechanics had returned from Siesta they will have been told to go and recover the vehicle, they must have managed to start the vehicle and drive it the short distance back into the garage workshop. These Security Tracker Apps have more uses than you would first imagine but I have to say that my theory is somewhat confirmed as I received a text message from my Tracker Service asking me to call them. Now remember that I had switched my ‘Theft Alert’ off whilst it was in the garage, but they informed me that the tracker is still active and it also alerts when the vehicle is being moved without the ignition on, which from the timing of the alert to them, was during the short period it had broken down on the roundabout to when it was being manually manouvered into the side street.

Now you may find this a strange thing to say, but this latest van breakdown came as a bit of relief to me. You see, from the time of the call from ‘Frank’ to myself, which was at 15:30, telling me that the van was fixed and ready for collection, from the trip timings on my App, there must have been a call from the owner, whilst he was at home, having arrived there without incident in my van, telling Frank to call me, because the return trip, when the van broke down, was two hours after I had received that call from Frank !! So at least now the owner knows that my van was not fixed, he was driving when it had broken down in the middle of a main road roundabout, not a pleasant experience for anyone, but moreso for an owner of a garage who had been told by ‘his’ mechanics that they had sorted the issue, so, if the computer had been reset properly this time, as I, and he, had been told, then it was obvious that the fault did not lay with an on-board computer error ? Now I can only imagine what the owner may have said to his workshop manager and mechanics once he had walked back to the garage, but it did give me a sort of assurance that my van would, this time at least, get the right kind of attention !! I was just pleased that we had not managed to get away on our road trip, otherwise we may have been left stranded somewhere and the breakdown people may not have been willing to take the van all the way back to the garage at Estepona, but to another much nearer garage, where I would have had to pay them for the repairs, again !!

So Monday morning arrived and I rang ‘Frank’ at the garage once again, I made no mention of what my Security Tracker App had told me, I simply asked if my van had been fixed, and whether the fuel tank had been drained. He told me it had, they had put in twenty Euros worth of correct grade diesel and had taken it for a test run that morning, which my Tracker had already shown me, and that the van was ready for collection. Once again Shazza and I caught the bus and walked from the town to the garage, at least we were getting our daily exercise completed at the same time. The owner was sat in his office when I went to speak with Frank, I had told him previously on the phone that I would pay for any diesel they put into the van so I settled the bill, €27 Euro, I noticed that there was no attempt to charge me for the time it took to drain the tank or a charge for the disposal of the old fuel, which I guess they could have done, but it was a gesture that I appreciated.  The owner came out and oplogised profusely again for them having not repaired the van correctly the first time and for the inconvenience that this had caused me, I had resumed my more normal calm and polite demeanour by this time and told him that I was just very happy that this time it had been fixed. I made no mention of what I knew about his unfortunate incident in my van, that in itself, for him, was embarrasment enough. I just enquired with him as to whether, now that the van had good fuel in it, if there was any need to still flush through with the Injector Cleaner, he confirmed that this was no longer necessary. I went through to see ‘Pepi’ to get my vehicle keys, who again, did not know what I knew, and so I smiled when he told me the problem was simply that the mechanic had not reset the computer and that is what the problem had been, but he informed me, they had also drained the old diesel and road tested it and it was fixed. Once in my van, I checked the level of the diesel and it showed a quarter of a tank, which appeared right for what I had just paid. I started the van up and then turned it off again, I did this two or three times, just to make sure !!

We decided that first we would drive to our regular ‘Repsol’ fuel station and put in €50 Euros worth of higher grade Diesel, then we went to the Supermarket to do a bit of shopping before returning to the apartment. It was a gloriously sunny day, already 23 degrees(c) with just a hint of a breeze so we decided to grab a few things, something for lunch and evening meal and we headed for the same beach we were at a few days earlier, as we parked up, overlooking the beach, Shazza turned to me and said “I think we have been here before” then she smiled, but it was one of those, ‘and you know what happened last time ?‘ sort of smiles !! So we would just have to wait until the morning, to see if the van starts ?

Both of our minds had been consumed with worry over the last few weeks, and it really was a worry for us, it had been three weeks since we first started suffering with the loss of use of the van. The first bit of concern was the financial aspect, ‘How much is this repair going to cost us ?’ we had vivid memories of the last bill, then our thoughts turned to, ‘What if it is something really major and they cannot fix it in time before we are due to catch our ferry ?‘, remembering that our van was not just a mode of transport, it was our fulltime home, especially in the UK where we did not have a bolt hole, after those thoughts it was then just sheer and utter frustration, ‘Why did they not drain the diesel tank in the first place like we had asked them to do ?’ had they have done so we would not have had this extended period of concern. Our minds had really been in overdrive, even though we tried on several occasions to rationalise each potential scenario, neither of us could lift our moods even though we both kept telling each other several times that there was nothing that we could actually do about it, which, although true, didn’t make either of us feel any better. We were still going out for our daily exercise walks, but even then our minds were only on the one thing, the van, in the evenings we tried to watch the TV, but although we were both sat in silence neither of us was really paying much attention to what was on the screen in front of us, even when we got alerts telling us that there were newly published travel Vlog posts on ‘You Tube’, the last thing we actually wanted to do was to watch other people enjoying their ‘Vanlife Adventures’, or ‘Sailing around the World’ exploring new places, I guess it was envy, combined with disappointment and frustration, which was all rolled up into one big green-eyed monster called ‘Jealousy’, or perhaps even our own ‘Self Pity’, we were both just generally pissed off with our current situation.

Strangely enough I slept quite well, I had expected not to, as the evening before, in my mind I had already been replaying the scenario of going down to the van and it not working again, having to call up the Breakdown people again, then calling the garage, again. Where all this negativity was coming from I just do not know, I am generally the ‘optimist’ and Shazza is the ‘pessemist’, and the van had sounded so much better this time around, even Shazza commented that it sounded, and felt, much smoother than the first time we had driven it away from the garage, just a few days earlier. Perhaps it was my ‘Dark Forces’ defence strategy kicking in, which is to worry about something enough that in the end it does not happen because you had prepared yourself for the worst, the ‘Dark Forces’ prefer to strike the unwary, the unprepared so they go elsewhere to seek out a different victim.

I made my way to the ‘Little Fokker’ and opened the door, I have to admit that I had a bit of a knot in my stomach, but it had to be done, I needed to know, I turned the key and watched all the dashboard lights come on, then listened to the faint hum of the on-board computer running through its systems checks, and then I turned the key in the ignition……………the engine bust into life at the first time of asking, all the dashboard lights went out, but probably even more importantly, the amber EML light, the only red light that stayed on was the handbrake warning light and then I just sat listening to the engine sat idling over at a smooth level. I risked it again, ignition off, ignition on and then again the engine burst back into life. There are no words that can explain my utter relief, it was a massive ‘punching of the air‘ moment, the ‘Little Fokker’ had come through the two surgical procedures and was back in the recovery room. I tempered my celebrations, I was obviously very happy, but there was still a certain anxiousness, it would take a lot more miles of me nervously listening to the sound of the engine on a much longer trip, waiting to see if I felt any judder, a cough or a loss of power before I could get back to the kind of relaxed confident driving that I had been used to. Not once, before this, had I even doubted the ‘Little Fokkers’ reliability. I knew that I was solely to blame for the whole thing, it was not an unexpected mechanical fault on behalf of the FIAT engine, just me putting ‘convenience’ over and above ‘good sense’, in life you sometimes have to learn from your mistakes, but just so that there is no doubt, rest assured that I have certainly learnt my lesson and, if our experience serves as a deterrant to anyone else finding themselves in the same position, then perhaps some good will have come out of this whole unfortunate incident.

The weather had changed considerably from what it had been over the last week, from waking up to sunshine and blue sky and having temperatures up into the low twenties with only the slightest of breezes, this morning we awoke to mist, grey sky with lots of cloud and the ‘Works of Fiction’ were forecasting no sun, not even sunny intervals and a temperature of only 17 degrees(c) with 15mph wind, which let’s be honest, is not cold in the grand scheme of things and the devastating storms currently effecting a lot of Northern Europe were nowhere near us. So we decided to once again take advantage of being re-united with our van, although not confident enough to take it out anywhere too far, so we would just drive back down to the same beach park-up we had frequented the day before and just enjoy being back in the van. Even ‘Dave’ joined us this time, resuming his more accustomed position back in the van, all of our travelling family were once again back together and looking forward to many more adventures……………….. and okay, perhaps I will allow myself just one more celebratory ‘punch of the air‘ whilst the ‘Dark Forces’ are not looking !!

Someone looks a lot happier now !!

Sorry for the bad photo but just to show that ‘Dave’ seems relaxed to be back with the family !!

There is always something to watch out of the window, irrespective of the weather……..

You appreciate things like this just that little bit more when you have been without them !!