While the van has its treatment...

We have to admit to a certain amount of trepidation when towing the van up to Novas, we were half expecting to get blank stares and to be told to go away again.

Thankfully, that didn't happen and Steve, the caravan doctor, was ready and waiting for us. He had the paperwork sorted and assured us that Friday lunchtime was 'possible'. He even suggested that if we bought a "Wingman" attachment for the TV aerial, he'd attach it quick smart. Now as Coast-to-Coast caravan parts is literally right next door, how could we refuse?

So, here we are loafing around the Mornington Peninsular waiting for the all-clear so we can go get hitched up and get back to Canberra by Saturday afternoon. Had a call from Steve today and it seems all is going along just fine, even if they did have to scrap the taillight assemblies and replace them with LED units (because they had to remove the whole back skin to fix the split way down low near the bull-bar).

We live in hope!

Cheers, all

Albert Park - Melbourne Vic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVIE!

Two daze for the price of one.

Saturday we went to the Queen Victoria Market for a look see - Judy found the fairy shop and it was all i could do to drag her away with the threat of coffee and food to save her from buying the full fairy dress. Just a small something for a small fairy back home.

Then down to the track for qua lies - what a blast! The young bucks, especially D Riccardo kept sticking it right up to the olde grade - they had better watch themselves!

'Our' Daniel had pole the lost it and then had it and finally settled for 2nd spot, 2nd only to Lewis Hamilton - not a bad effort for a number two!

Sunday - the day of the big race. We slept in - Judy needs a catch up after two big days

Anyhow we caught the good old tram - except they announced that some 'persons' were protesting against the incumbent Federal Government and that Melbourne City was blocked and the tram was being diverted down La Trobe Street (possibly the worst Governor that Victoria has had  - how ironic). That left us leading the rest of the mostly German racegoers on a merry old walk up La Trobe for 4 city blocks and down Spencer Street to the shuttle trams and what normally took 1 hour took 2.

The race itself was pretty uninteresting from a race point of view, but Nico did a fantastic start and Daniel held on to 2nd comfortably enough for the entire race - but what about that rookie Kevin Magnussen holding 3rd in his first race - once again i say that those old head had better rethink how badly they want to win because the new boys in town want it more than they do. Drive of the day should go to Bottas - he was giving it his all and despite hitting the wall and tearing a wheel and tyre off still came home sixth. Even Button showed some form. Could be the beginning of a great season.

This year we thought we'd have a bite to eat and a cup of tea before joining the tram queue, which we did at 7:25, by 7:50 we were on a tram - great, much better than last year. The tram roared off - and promptly stopped and started and stopped and 50 minutes, yes almost 1 whole hour, later we arrived at Souther Cross station. Gads it must be all of 3km. Then we waited for our 112 to West Preston, due in 3 minutes, no 4, no wait it'd been changed to an 11d and 20 minutes later turned up as a 112 anyway.  So just over 2 hours after we left the course we arrived back at stop 47 and grabbed the car for the not so short drive to the camp-site.

I celebrated by drinking an entire bottle of whine whilst Judith consulted her sister regarding their mothers state of health.

Tomorrow we will turn up at Nova expecting to drop the van off and get it fixed. Who knows what they will say when we actually park it on their doorstep?

We have a few days booked at some place down near Sorrento (that's in Victoria, not Italy) so we'll have to see how it goes.

It's been fun, dunno if we'll do it again next year

Cheers, B&J

Melbourne Vic

Well here we re again in Melbourne, once more at the BIG4 in Coburg or maybe North Preston, whatever. 

Easy run down today from Wang, found the park with Tom’s help. Mind you, it’s still odd driving down narrow backstreets towing an 8’6”” van ( do the conversion yerself) with inches on either side between the parked cars to get top the van park.

They put us on he tiniest site in the park, no chance of opening the awning, oh well could have cared less, just happy to be here! Went down to Albert Park to get the tickets and have a look round. The Prost stand is terrific, much better than the Fangio from lat year - good grief, we may even be able to see some action!

Hit the traffic at 445 in south Melbourne and it took an hour and a quarter to struggle back to a shopping centre near ‘home’. 

For the record, i really don’t like traffic, just what those do-gooders and clever clogg’s at home want to bring to Canberra - give me the wide open Spaces every time! Damn their eyes.

Good news! Yellow is cheap at $5.95 a bottle, ‘may have’ drunk several bottles by now!

No snap of the day - suffer in silence!

Wangaratta, Vic

Ha! Finally off again, this time down to Melbourne for this years F1 Grand Prix.

As mentioned in the last post, we only just got our car back from the wizards at Advanced Tech Automotive and along with the usual first day out 'things that go bump' we had a bit of a stress day making it down here to 'Wang' as i notice they now call themselves. The park is a bit fuller than last time, but we got the last en-suite and its still pleasant despite that busy road lout the from. I even had a swim in the pool.

The whole point of this trip, apart from going to the F1 races, is to leave  the Nova van at the Nova factory and get the few things we know need fixing, fixed.

Beemer is in hospital

That annoying crashing sound that we first heard coming up the mountains up in North Queensland failed to get better by itself, so off to Advanced Tech Automotive in Philip in Canberra it went. You may recall we bought a turbo charger in Melbourne last trip as that was their first suggestion. Alas, it was not to be. The noise persisted. Russell was almost convinced that it had to be a broken vane in the torque converter, but if you pull the gearbox out, you can't mount the starter motor and hence you can't start the engine and listen for noises. But wait, the cunning sod dreamt up a way to disconnect the torque converter from the engine and leave the gearbox in place. The noise persisted. They disconnected the belts and pulleys and things from the front of the engine. Still noisy. In desperation, someone stuck a screwdriver behind the harmonic balancer (remember that? we had it replaced in 2012 at the end of our first big trip) and lo and behold, it moved in a way it wasn't supposed to move!

The only thing to do was to replace the $700 after-market special with a $1200 genuine BMW part. Problem solved. Russell is yet to have deep and meaningful discussions with the original supplier.

Meanwhile Tony, the other partner in Advanced Tech Auto determined that the engine mounts (two at the from and one at the transfer case at the rear) needed replacing as well as they appeared to have collapsed. The front ones were done the next day, the rear one had to wait until the day before we left as it had to come from Singapore. They have certainly changed the characteristics of the car, it's much quieter and smoother, an underlying grumble and vibration has gone.

Now, I spent my life troubleshooting problems, the more obscure the better and I ask myself, and Russell and Tony, the question as to why I have destroyed a new harmonic balancer in such a short time. I'm happy that the original ones last about 180-200k and it's a know problem, but the replacement only had about 50k on it. Just a 'bad' part? They tell me that they have replaced heaps of them and this is the first one to breakdown. It occurred to me that perhaps if the rear engine mount allowed the gearbox/engine to actually sit on the chassis, that might be enough to cause the vibration/harmonics in the engine to all be focussed out through the front of the engine, i.e. right out through that harmonic balancer. Who knows? Anyhow, I'm very grateful for all the work and care that Advanced Tech Automotive have taken with my car.