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Banjul Challenge – Tarifa – 1/16/23

Jan 18th, 2023 by rallyadmin

Out to the car and try to start it. It starts fine which is what has been the usual, it starts fine when it’s cold. We turn of the engine, wait a few minutes and try to re-start the engine. Nothing, zip, nada.

Another Challenge member, Angela, works in Gibraltar but leaves here in Tarifa and she’s given us a few leads on mechanic shops so we start a search and find a likely candidate.

The car had the engine check light on and we first want to find out what the MIL codes are that the car has thrown. Check on the web, we’ve found, as expected, way more info about the problem that we’re having than is actually necessary. The suggestions range from one or both of the 2 fuel pumps, the fuel pump relay, the crank position sensor, the cam shaft sensor, assorted other sensors and even the connector to the high pressure pump under the hood of the car. We have plenty of actual car repair people on the challenge who do know how to repair this car but we need to narrow down the possibilities.

We arrive at a full service repair shop in Algecieras. Fortunately, they have a woman at the front desk who speaks English well. With the help of Google translate (how did we get on without this app?), we get the car in for a scan. An hour later, a mechanic comes back with a tablet and a list of the error codes. He thinks that the possible problems are either one of the fuel pumps or the cam shaft sensor.

We discuss our options for a bit and he lease to test the cam shaft sensor. That has come up often on the web. A failing sensor can intermittently fail when hot. The test is to remove the sensor after the engine has heated up, cool the sensor with some cool spray, re-install the sensor and try to start the engine. All that takes another 2 hours.

The mechanic comes back and the news is not good. It’s not the sensor so it nust be one of the fuel pumps. “When can you get a fuel pump?” “Tomorrow. Maybe the next day.” That won’t work. We have a ferry crossing tomorrow that we can’t miss. We pay for the scan and head back to the hotel.

We meet up with Alan and Alex, the two mechanics who nare now looking after us anfd trying to resolve the starting issue. We decide to let the car cool and see if it will restart. An hour later the car starts and we decide not to do anything until we get the car on the ferry. If the car won’t start after the car is on the ferry then we will just tow it off the ferry and work on it in Morocco.

I retire to the room and try to catch up on my email and some programming issues that have come up just as I was leaving for Spain. A bag of chips and a mug of beer do for dinner. I get the programming issues more or less fixed and head to bed.

Another long day and the car issue is still hanging over us. Tomorrow, Morocco.

Obi

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