#12 Our van is smoking - first major breakdown

October 30 - November 1, 2021: Wattwiller

F. Our plan for the next few days sounded so simple but was so difficult to implement. But let's start at the beginning. Since the weather was supposed to get unpleasant in the next few days, we had planned to cover some distance and drive through France more quickly. We were now heading towards the Mediterranean via the intermediate stops of Dijon and Lyon.

On this rainy Saturday morning, we briefly stopped at the German hardware store to do some minor repairs and improvements, and also stocked up on some groceries that we had forgotten the night before. As I was getting on the highway, I noticed that our van was not putting as much power on the road at a certain speed (around 90 km/h) as it usually does. I thought this was strange, was I imagining it or was it really happening? After all, we had been driving mostly downhill or only short distances in the past few days. Just past Mülhausen, we had to change highways, and as I was getting on the new highway, I noticed in the rearview mirror that black smoke was coming out of our exhaust when I accelerated very hard. Shit. Anyway, let's get off the highway and figure out what to do next on the next parking lot. In the last few meters, I was able to further analyze the cause of the smoke and observed that the black smoke formed at the exhaust only at a speed of about 2000 revolutions per minute. Black smoke from the exhaust indicated a faulty combustion to me. I quickly consulted Dr. Google to determine possible causes. Faulty spark plugs, faulty ignition programming, broken ignition cable, turbocharger damage, or something similar. None of it sounded good, but one thing was for sure, we had an appointment at the repair shop. Unfortunately, it was Saturday and 4pm. Finding a repair shop now would be difficult. Jenny had already done a lot of research on repair shops and showed me the way. Unfortunately, contrary to Google's statement, this one was closed, and we wouldn't reach the next open repair shop by 5pm either. Besides, the problem wouldn't be solved in 10 minutes. Therefore, we decided to head to the nearest campsite and wait until Monday to continue our journey.

The campsite in Wattwiller was beautifully located in the forest. It also had a heated swimming pool and a large warm lounge with several sofas and Wi-Fi. So everything you needed for a forced break in rainy weather was available. On Sunday, during a break in the rain, we carried out the minor repairs and improvements to the van. In addition, various blog entries were written and posted. Then we tested the heated pool and read some books. Jenny also had a phone call with Conny, who lives in Baden-Württemberg, as we had actually planned to visit him. During the conversation, we noticed that Monday, November 1st (All Saints' Day), could be a national holiday in France. The suspicion turned out to be correct after a short research, so our next action was to extend our stay by one day. Luckily, we had bought plenty of food and so we swam, wrote, posted, and even took a short walk on Monday. However, it was quickly interrupted by the onset of rain. What we experienced at the repair shop on Tuesday and whether we can continue our journey will be revealed in the next blog...

Day 16 - Total tour 1402 km

---- Subscribe ----

If you want to subscribe to our blog, you can either sign up with Vakantio and click on subscribe, or send us a message and we will add you to our own distribution list. We also appreciate feedback!

Email: querfeld2@gmail.com