As some of you know I am currently supposed to be on an expedition to Portugal, it didn't quite go as planned...
Day 1- Drive to Le Mans and camp by a lake with some really loud frogs and cat fish that eat the ducks. Had some vibrations on the way that was a bit worrying
Day 2- Notice that there is a small amount of play in the rear drive shaft, take it off and change UJ. Still some vibration at certain speeds. Drive to Contis Plage which is south of Bordeaux
Day 3- Notice that one of the swivels has leaked out a hell of a lot of grease everywhere underneath...call breakdown cover who can't get us into a garage until Mon (it is currently Friday). Reception at the camp site finds us an LR dealer so we drive 65 miles south to it. LR have a look and decide it needs new seals and confusingly a half shaft seal. They say it will take 2 days to order the parts and it should be done by the end of the week. I call breakdown cover and they arrange for us to have a hire car for a few days. We get a nice Opel Zafira. So as to not completely ruin the holiday we decide that we will head down to Portugal anyway and meet up with Vince and Belinda at their place in Coja. We then buy a tent (which turns out to be too short) and mattress in decathlon and drive to San Sebastien and have a nice night
Day 4- 4 Hour drive to Tordesillas. Nice camp site ruined slightly by the fact that I reversed the hire car into a tree...
Day 5- Drive and meet Jamie, Lou, Vince and Belinda in Coja, have a great night
Day 6- Sadly watch the others leave for the expedition segment and decide to visit Porto. Book into an expensive but basic hotel and have a wander around Porto. Have some amazing Tapas
Day 7- Speak to the breakdown cover who inform us that LR should be looking at the car the next day and to call back at 4 the next day, so decide to head partly back. Have a tour of the Taylor's port factory and head to a scabby campsite in the middle of Spain, can't remember what it was called.
Day 8- LR tell the breakdown cover that they haven't had time to sort the car yet, but to call back at 4 tomorrow. We head back to Contis Plage as it is a nice campsite, set up in our old spot
Day 9- Hang around waiting for Breakdown to ring. When they ring they say that they haven't looked yet, etc. etc. Sarah gets annoyed and calls and gets them to promise to ring LR first thing next day
Day 10- Breakdown call to say that the Defender is fixed and we can collect it. We celebrate, but ask the guy to call and double check. He calls back and says that actually LR have just done the estimate and that it will be 2-3 days to order the parts we thought they had already ordered and that the Defender will be fixed by the end of next week. Oh, and that LR had emailed me a quote for the work:
Comes to £1484...
Seems quite excessive when all it needs are the seals around the swivels and everything on them is essentially new.
So I tell the breakdown that I can't even nearly afford that and that we had changed our return date to the 30th so it wouldn't be fixed in time. The breakdown company refused to compromise and wouldn't ship it back to the UK. So we decided to go and get the Defender. We handed the Zafira back, bought a couple of one shot greases, swapped back to the defender and headed back to the camp site. Going from 47mpg to sub 20 was not at all nice! I tried to put some grease in the swivel, but for some reason it would hardly accept any. The other side one however was completely empty! Smash one week old phone screen...decide that this holiday is over and change the channel tunnel to 8pm the next day.
Day 11- Try to squeeze some more grease in the swivels and then set off on a 11.5 hour journey to the UK, getting stuck in traffic and underestimating how long it will take by an hour
Day 12- Arrive home at 3am. The defender made it back, but now makes an ominous creaking when you turn left. No idea what it is.
So at the end of it we have decided that we want to give expeditioning another try, but at the same time that a Defender 90 is probably not the right vehicle for it. I have lost faith in my mechanical skills slightly and it is just too tiring and slow to do long distances in. Plus if we had something with aircon we could take the dog.
Day 1- Drive to Le Mans and camp by a lake with some really loud frogs and cat fish that eat the ducks. Had some vibrations on the way that was a bit worrying
Day 2- Notice that there is a small amount of play in the rear drive shaft, take it off and change UJ. Still some vibration at certain speeds. Drive to Contis Plage which is south of Bordeaux
Day 3- Notice that one of the swivels has leaked out a hell of a lot of grease everywhere underneath...call breakdown cover who can't get us into a garage until Mon (it is currently Friday). Reception at the camp site finds us an LR dealer so we drive 65 miles south to it. LR have a look and decide it needs new seals and confusingly a half shaft seal. They say it will take 2 days to order the parts and it should be done by the end of the week. I call breakdown cover and they arrange for us to have a hire car for a few days. We get a nice Opel Zafira. So as to not completely ruin the holiday we decide that we will head down to Portugal anyway and meet up with Vince and Belinda at their place in Coja. We then buy a tent (which turns out to be too short) and mattress in decathlon and drive to San Sebastien and have a nice night
Day 4- 4 Hour drive to Tordesillas. Nice camp site ruined slightly by the fact that I reversed the hire car into a tree...
Day 5- Drive and meet Jamie, Lou, Vince and Belinda in Coja, have a great night
Day 6- Sadly watch the others leave for the expedition segment and decide to visit Porto. Book into an expensive but basic hotel and have a wander around Porto. Have some amazing Tapas
Day 7- Speak to the breakdown cover who inform us that LR should be looking at the car the next day and to call back at 4 the next day, so decide to head partly back. Have a tour of the Taylor's port factory and head to a scabby campsite in the middle of Spain, can't remember what it was called.
Day 8- LR tell the breakdown cover that they haven't had time to sort the car yet, but to call back at 4 tomorrow. We head back to Contis Plage as it is a nice campsite, set up in our old spot
Day 9- Hang around waiting for Breakdown to ring. When they ring they say that they haven't looked yet, etc. etc. Sarah gets annoyed and calls and gets them to promise to ring LR first thing next day
Day 10- Breakdown call to say that the Defender is fixed and we can collect it. We celebrate, but ask the guy to call and double check. He calls back and says that actually LR have just done the estimate and that it will be 2-3 days to order the parts we thought they had already ordered and that the Defender will be fixed by the end of next week. Oh, and that LR had emailed me a quote for the work:
Comes to £1484...
Seems quite excessive when all it needs are the seals around the swivels and everything on them is essentially new.
So I tell the breakdown that I can't even nearly afford that and that we had changed our return date to the 30th so it wouldn't be fixed in time. The breakdown company refused to compromise and wouldn't ship it back to the UK. So we decided to go and get the Defender. We handed the Zafira back, bought a couple of one shot greases, swapped back to the defender and headed back to the camp site. Going from 47mpg to sub 20 was not at all nice! I tried to put some grease in the swivel, but for some reason it would hardly accept any. The other side one however was completely empty! Smash one week old phone screen...decide that this holiday is over and change the channel tunnel to 8pm the next day.
Day 11- Try to squeeze some more grease in the swivels and then set off on a 11.5 hour journey to the UK, getting stuck in traffic and underestimating how long it will take by an hour
Day 12- Arrive home at 3am. The defender made it back, but now makes an ominous creaking when you turn left. No idea what it is.
So at the end of it we have decided that we want to give expeditioning another try, but at the same time that a Defender 90 is probably not the right vehicle for it. I have lost faith in my mechanical skills slightly and it is just too tiring and slow to do long distances in. Plus if we had something with aircon we could take the dog.
