Portugal trek august 2015 anyone?

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We're back.
Disco had 3 problems o the trip:-
1/ The cigarette lighter fuse blew, due to me having CB, satnav and a 230 volt inverter plugged in to it. Thankfully I had a spare fuse on board so 5 minutes later power was regained.
2/ Had a slow puncture. Got it fixed in France for 20 Euros.
3/ After a day of driving on Alentejo corrugated tracks, the oil filter started to slowly unscrew itself and leak oil over the campsite at Evora. Thankfully the problem rapidly identified and rectified.

James & Sarah's 90 had a U/J changed at Le Mans, then had a leak from a front hub appeared at Contis plage so although J&S made it to Portugal, it was in a hired car and not the 90.

Jamie & Lu's D4 remained trouble free throughout.

Now thinking about next year's expedition.

Yeah! We are still hopefully in for next year.

My 90 is nearly back on the road now, have changed both swivels as they were slightly pitted for teflon ones, and while I was at it changed the discs (and pads as they had grease on them), wheel bearings and of course seals. Fortunately running with only a small amount of grease in one of the swivels seems to not have caused any problems. I tried to keep it straight as much as I could so as to not put pressure on the CVs.

I'm hoping rebuilding most of the axles will stop the shaking at 70mph. Fyi it cost me £300 for OEM stuff, rather than the £1200 Land Rover wanted!
 
I might come along next year, just been discussing it with the old ball and chain. Just need to look at how many days holiday entitlement I will need as we have already booked to go the Corfu and Mexico next year, but ill see.
 
Yeah! We are still hopefully in for next year.

My 90 is nearly back on the road now, have changed both swivels as they were slightly pitted for teflon ones, and while I was at it changed the discs (and pads as they had grease on them), wheel bearings and of course seals. Fortunately running with only a small amount of grease in one of the swivels seems to not have caused any problems. I tried to keep it straight as much as I could so as to not put pressure on the CVs.

I'm hoping rebuilding most of the axles will stop the shaking at 70mph. Fyi it cost me £300 for OEM stuff, rather than the £1200 Land Rover wanted!

Sorry to read your 90 didn't make it all the way. Especially after all the work you have put into it. Hope you were still able to enjoy your holiday. Are you sure someone didn't spike the 90 so they could stay in hotel's. On the bright side I suppose you can look at it as a bit of a shake down, better it broke down in Europe rather than the middle of the Sahara. Has the axle rebuild sorted out your vibration. I have a similar problem which I need to get fixed. I was waiting for the warmer weather to sort mine out but the last couple of weeks its been up around the 36 to 38 C degrees. A little too hot.
 
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Sorry to read your 90 didn't make it all the way. Especially after all the work you have put into it. Hope you were still able to enjoy your holiday. Are you sure someone didn't spike the 90 so they could stay in hotel's. On the bright side I suppose you can look at it as a bit of a shake down, better it broke down in Europe rather than the middle of the Sahara. Has the axle rebuild sorted out your vibration. I have a similar problem which I need to get fixed. I was waiting for the warmer weather to sort mine out but the last couple of weeks its been up around the 36 to 38 C degrees. A little too hot.

Yeah, better to have a failure in Europe than having one in the sand dunes, I was taking some rubbish down the farm today to go and burn, 110 started up, drove for 1 mile and just switched itself off, hmmm, I thought it cant be that hard to fix whilst sitting on a grass verge. I have no coil lights or engine management light and the engine just spins over, no fuel pomp sound either. I set about wiggling fuses and s checking them, same with the relays and the fuel pump inertia switch all were fine. Immobiliser? Had my wife bring me the spare set of keys, no joy then disconnected the batt and left for 10 mins to clear the ECU, still joy. Had to phone the AA who sent out Land Rover Assist the guy checked all what I had checked then found that the sensors around the engine that can cut it were powered up but not getting a signal from the ECU deduced that the ECU was dead, WTF? Took a tow of shame to my mates garage (the mate who came to Morocco with me), got him out of bed to come and diagnose the issue, spent a couple of hours checking the loom, earths. sensors with some oscilloscope thing and sure enough the ECU is getting power but putting out no signals and hence why its dead. I have Mike from Dynachip coming out on Tuesday to fit a new ECU and to reprogram, tune etc. but if that of happened in some remote dust pan near the Algeria border we would have had a right drama.

Seems that the Motorola ECU's last about 7-10 years and then can just die suddenly, oh well.
 
Yeah, better to have a failure in Europe than having one in the sand dunes, I was taking some rubbish down the farm today to go and burn, 110 started up, drove for 1 mile and just switched itself off, hmmm, I thought it cant be that hard to fix whilst sitting on a grass verge. I have no coil lights or engine management light and the engine just spins over, no fuel pomp sound either. I set about wiggling fuses and s checking them, same with the relays and the fuel pump inertia switch all were fine. Immobiliser? Had my wife bring me the spare set of keys, no joy then disconnected the batt and left for 10 mins to clear the ECU, still joy. Had to phone the AA who sent out Land Rover Assist the guy checked all what I had checked then found that the sensors around the engine that can cut it were powered up but not getting a signal from the ECU deduced that the ECU was dead, WTF? Took a tow of shame to my mates garage (the mate who came to Morocco with me), got him out of bed to come and diagnose the issue, spent a couple of hours checking the loom, earths. sensors with some oscilloscope thing and sure enough the ECU is getting power but putting out no signals and hence why its dead. I have Mike from Dynachip coming out on Tuesday to fit a new ECU and to reprogram, tune etc. but if that of happened in some remote dust pan near the Algeria border we would have had a right drama.

Seems that the Motorola ECU's last about 7-10 years and then can just die suddenly, oh well.
You sound a bit like me, I'm glad when mine breaks down here. One less thing to worry about breaking down in Morocco. Having said that not much to go wrong with a 200 tdi. Mind you when we returned from the last trip, about six weeks later the clutch just went as I pulled up to the house. No warning, nothing. Just went.
 
There, pretty as a picture :)

DSC_0105_zpsnh3q5ypb.jpg


The creak has gone and I had it up to 85mph on the clock which is somewhere around 74 and there didn't seem to be any noticeable shaking, so fingers crossed. The brakes seem a bit better too now the pads aren't covered in grease!

There is still quite a loud click coming from the front when you start off and stop quite often so got to work out what that is.
 
Morning James,
That's looking better. And I assume that the plastic bottle is thread lock and not Sarah's finger nail paint!

Haha, yep. I thread locked everything! Interestingly the bottom swivel pin's bolts weren't all that tight, so need to check them again after driving it a bit.

It stops a lot better now the pads aren't covered in grease :D
 
Here are some of the pictures taken whilst on our trek..

I will try and put them in order.

Belinda xx
 

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Well the day has arrived. We take the Portsmouth to Le Havre ferry at 23:15 hrs.
James & Sarah - see you at camping Le Bounty at 18:00 ish on the 17th.
Jamie & Lu - see you at Coja (the square up the high street) on the 21st I guess around mid afternoon. If you call Belinda's mobile prior to your arrival we will meet you there.
Also, when entering Portugal, remember to follow the signs to the vehicle registration/toll paying bay. I know some Brits ignore them, but for the sake of a couple of Euros, it's not worth the risk.
Hi,
Just by chance you didn't publish any blogs of your trip to Portugal? There are a group of two of us so far thinking about a trip to Portugal. We were hoping to do Morocco again but several in the group have security concerns whilst the others have concerns about their vehicles being ready for Morocco again and don't want to venture out of the AA relay range. Sounds like a good start doesn't it !
Any suggestions about routes or route maps would be greatly appreciated. We were think about the Pyrenees also but we want to go in March and I think the Pyrenees could be a bit on the cold side. At least the beer wont be warm.
Many thanks in advance.
Mike
 
Hi,
Just by chance you didn't publish any blogs of your trip to Portugal? There are a group of two of us so far thinking about a trip to Portugal. We were hoping to do Morocco again but several in the group have security concerns whilst the others have concerns about their vehicles being ready for Morocco again and don't want to venture out of the AA relay range. Sounds like a good start doesn't it !
Any suggestions about routes or route maps would be greatly appreciated. We were think about the Pyrenees also but we want to go in March and I think the Pyrenees could be a bit on the cold side. At least the beer wont be warm.
Many thanks in advance.
Mike
I' afraid that I only have the few photos above. James done a bit of a blog but his 90 didn't get further than France due to cv joint discharge.
I share your concerns about Morocco. I've done it twice but don't think I'll do it again. Pyrenees would be fun but in March you would have to stay at hotels to prevent freezing to death.
My route in Portugal was a series of way points which was time consuming and difficult to follow. To obtain a better method of navigation, go to WIKILOC, log in and download routes to your iPad.
If you do set a date for a Portuguese trip please let me know as I may be able to join you.
Cheers, Vince.
 
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