A phone call from the dealer’s in Weston yesterday morning told me it was all ready to collect, so off I went back down the M5.
They’d kindly fitted new tyres (6 of them) following my complaint that the tyres that were on there – despite having done only 14700 miles – were still 8 years old and all had degraded and cracked sidewalls. Yup, they’d got it started after having taken the driver’s seat off to get at the battery and removing a piece of aluminium foil from between the negative terminal post and the cable clamp; claiming this to be the cause of it failing to start. With a distinct air of bullshit, I headed home with it. However, the wheel alignment seems to be out now – pulling to the left.
Called in at Bradley Stoke to fill up with fuel on the way back, & thereafter, there was the ever-present smell of diesel pervading the cab. We’d noticed this the first time we filled it up on our way to the Brecons. However, the smell had disappeared by the time we got to our destination so I though no more about it.
When I got home, I discovered the brand new reversing camera didn’t switch on when going into reverse gear. Not really wanting to have yet another trip down to WSM, I booked it in locally to have the wheel alignment checked (8am this morning), then spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon looking into the reversing camera problem – having assumed the cause to be related to the dealer having removed the phenomenally intermittently noisy indicator buzzers (at my request) under the instrument panel, adjacent to the camera wiring. The camera/display has a wire connected to the reversing light: This wire is what switches the display on & off. Lo and behold, the reversing light wasn’t lighting either. Check the fuses: There is a fuse for the reversing lights. 15A. Blown. 15A seems like a lot of spare capacity for a single reversing lamp. I didn’t have a spare 15A fuse, but I did have a 10A. Tried it – blew straight away. Give up.
However, whilst I was working on the reversing light fault, I noticed that from time-to-time, the automatic gear panel would occasionally light up as though doing its power-on self-test, accompanied by the sound of the automatic gears engaging. This was completely independent of anything I was or wasn’t doing at the time. Also, even with engine ignition off and the keys removed, there’s a constant buzzing/whirring sound under the hood. Something is running the whole time. Could this be something to do with the flat battery/can’t start problem?
This morning, it almost didn’t start: battery seemed pretty low. I never bought the idea of the alu foil on the terminal post as being the cause of dead battery/non starting.
I took the van round to have the steering alignment checked: They couldn’t do it because the laser beams from their alignment tools were being blocked by the coachbuilt body. I’d need to take it elsewhere. However, taking the van off the ramp, I noticed a trail of diesel fuel. Turned out to be running from the filler pipe to the fuel tank. Now I know why there was a smell of diesel.
Nothing for it now – another trip to Weston seems inevitable. Phoned the dealers: Service manager out today. Will call me back tomorrow morning.
Took the van to 2 further places to have the alignment checked/adjusted, having spoken to them about the size of the vehicle. 1st one also couldn’t do anything as they couldn’t get the gauges on the commercial wheels. 2nd place – in Yate – were able to do it after a fashion. They also looked into the fuel leakage whilst it was up on the ramp. Outcome: Split vent/breather hose at the fuel tank. Needs to have the tank dropped out to get at it. Bliss.
Back home, I discover a service invoice attached to the MOT certificate (it was serviced & MOTd a week before I originally collected it). On the service invoice was an item for the replacement of a defective reversing light switch on the gearbox. Could it be that this new switch has become faulty & is blowing the fuse?
I eagerly await tomorrow morning’s call from the dealer’s service manager.
Meanwhile, time passes, and we’re still stuck in this country instead of being in Italy.