Service Time

Its been a while since the last service, in the interim, the engine has been in and out so the coolant was changed, but the oil and filters needed a refresh. An order to Coastal Motorhomes was placed the week before and then I tracked down some 15W40 Mineral Oil on Amazon. Goodies arrived this week and this afternoon the van was driven onto the ramps, axle stands placed in situ and the “special” stone placed behind the rear wheel…

Normally when I start a maintenance project in the drive, the wind whips up from nowhere to complicate things. Today remained calm but instead the cool, grey, overcast sky promptly cleared to beautiful sunshine, roasting the half of me hanging out from under the van, the other half enjoying a hot oil bath as I wrestled with old filter. Time for a new filter removal tool as my Dad’s preferred tactic of smashing a screw driver through the old filter rapidly became a slippery mess, not helped by sweat pouring into my eyes, which couldn’t be wiped away by oily hands…

Anyway oil was drained, sump plug and new crush washer replaced, new oil filter (a smaller filter was supplied by Coastal this time) fitted and four(ish) litres of new oil poured in in stages, monitoring the dipstick to ensure I didn’t overfill, the front bumper yet again proving its worth as a shelf.

I managed to get the air box off easily this time, without removing the cabin air intake box and I even remembered to remove the dizzy cap to access the lower left hand nut… On removal though I completely failed to undo the corroded screws to get into the housing to replace the filter, the captive nuts were just spinning in their rather worn and battered plastic housing, which was annoying. I replaced the fuel filter and then refit the air box with the old filter still in situ. One to tackle another day as it will involve destroying the current fixings..

Turning the ignition key I thought I’d somehow buggered up the fuel lines as the engine turned but wouldn’t catch. I then remembered to refit the dizzy cap and Rudolph fired up instantly…. A quick drive up the local hill to get things hot and a level check and top up and all was good.

So for the record, I replaced

• Oil
• Fuel filter
• Mileage 63773 (5694 miles since the last service in October 2019)

Next mission is to sort the air filter and look into a new vacuum nose for the brake master cylinder as the current one, whilst working, looks worryingly tatty where it attaches to the engine block.

Service time

 

Various goodies arrived from Coastal Motorhomes and after tracking down some 15w40 Mineral oil and waiting for the rain to stop, it was up on the ramps.

After a suitable amount of faff and more oil spillage than normal (rushing to beat the rain), Rudolph has fresh:

• Oil
• Air filter
• Spark plugs
• Mileage 58079 (4251 since service Sept last year)

The fuel filter was changed before our August holiday.

The centre pin from the dizzy cap fell out when I popped it off to access the lower nuts to the air filter housing. I put it back in, held by a blob of grease and the van fired up and ran fine – it didn’t catch instantly as it normally does when warm so a new dizzy cap and rotor is inbound.

I also removed the tape from the headlights and realised that due to work being done on the house, we’ve not been away since August!

 

Service time

After nearly 2000 miles of driving to the Italian alps and back, time for a refresh.

• New oil
• Fuel filter
• Oil filter
• Air filter
• 53828 miles

Plugs have been saved for later as he’s running fine at the moment.

 

Service time

After numerous packages arriving spread over several weeks and a visit to the local ECP, the van is now freshly serviced at 47250 miles. I undertook:

• Oil and oil filter change
• Air filter
• Fuel filter
• New spark plugs
• HT leads
• Distributor cap
• Rotor arm

My neighbour came to the rescue with an old Mini plug removal tool after my specially bought from Halfords tool wouldn’t fit down the holes..

Rudolph is now running like a (French) Swiss watch…. …with tappets and a slight blow to the exhaust..

Onwards!

Cuckmere Haven

A last minute decision to head out just before Saturday lunch time found us heading south on the M23. We decided to revisit Cuckmere Haven, somewhere familiar to us but not to the boys who were last there being towed behind push bikes with friends some years ago. We arrived early afternoon after lunching on the move on a petrol station picnic to find that campervans cost double that of cars to park… Rudolph has the same footprint as our family estate car.. pity we forgot National Trust members park free…

So we trotted down past the meanders via some interesting soil erosion and the boys played chicken with the waves, and lost. It was windy but great to be out.

Returning to the van at around 4.30pm, fish and chips were calling, so we head to St Leonards again to our current favourite chip shop and ate two haddock and chips and one cod and chips between us on the sea front in increasingly heavy wind and rain..

The next decision was where to spend the night, I’d read of a not so secret location atop a south down, sort of on the way home. So we head west again and found the car park empty, although we stayed in the horse box area as we couldn’t fit under the height barrier. We half expected to be moved on by a disgruntled local, or the police, or be surrounded by the area’s boy racers doing donuts on the grasscrete in the small hours. Or worse!

Of course the night passed without event, although the wind and rain pelted the van, causing it to rock impressively. Not for the first time did I not miss being in a tent.. Next morning, I was up at dawn and we had quick mugs of tea and hot chocolate watching the odd brave cyclist pass by in the near horizontal driving rain.

Arriving back in South London before 10am for breakfast, the weather brightening up, I decided to undertake the oil change I’d been aiming at for a while. Naturally the ‘universal’ sump socket didn’t fit properly and fear of rounding off the plug temporarily stopped play until Cara, returning from a food shop, picked up an 8mm square sump socket from Halfords. Oil out, and a surprisingly straightforward change of filter, I then replaced the sump plug with the new one I had supplied with the filters. Of course it didn’t seal properly, showing tiny amounts of left over oil weeping through, so leaving the van on the ramps bereft of oil in the engine, I currently await delivery of a copper washer in order to fill it up with fresh oil (or will do when I order it!)

Whilst in the mood, I also replaced the dim 8W fluorescent tubes to two of the fittings in the rear of the van. It appears they are cool white which is a little annoying, not least as the light fittings are certainly one of the less well conceived things I’ve come across, requiring 8 small fiddly screws to be removed and replaced to change a bulb..

Hopefully get the washer in the next day or two and have things back up and running. I need to replace a dodgy fuse holder in the split charge system whilst I’m at it and I’ve worked out why we dribble fresh water when leaned to the right, the connection of the filler hose to the fresh water tank is suspect.. One for next weekend. All good fun.