Burned out
German Truck Tech
Zambia, Lusaka
November 15 - 17, 2019
The first day of the rest of our trip, full of expectations on the road. This is how it feels when we leave Harry and Geke's garden fully rested, where we entered almost two weeks ago. Our upcoming departure - it must happen one day, according to Harry - has been a humorous subject for days. Honorable Harry lies jokingly that the weather forecast at our next destination only gives sun and absolutely no rain. Klusschuwe Onno offers to tile the bathroom and paint the ceiling. Harry hastily rejects every offer.
Search
Just refuel at the nearby pump and then to the Northeast. After a kilometer of asphalt road, the fuse again plays the leading role. He burns out again. 'No, not now again', we have to swallow deeply. It is wiser to solve the repetitive problem in this capital city with equipped garages. So we drive south to the German Truck Tech garage. The experienced electrician, Tobias, immediately saves time. Tobias has a jealous, trained body, and a good set of brains with which he first thinks before he does something. He checks the printed electrical circuit step by step. Reads the on-board computer of the car and stays calm under the many, ominous error messages. Unfortunately, it does not produce anything. We get homework at the end of the afternoon; driving around by car and looking for as many unpaved roads as possible. Tobias hopes that the reset computer will give usable error messages tomorrow. It is already dark when the dashboard light fails, a dark surface remains. We cheer. Fortunately, another blown fuse that may point to a cause tomorrow. Strange that the brake lights still work, they should not actually do it with a blown fuse.
We report to Harry and Geke at the gate, again we are warmly welcomed. The jokes are not included.
The end?
Despite the fact that it is Saturday, Tobias is present at 8.00 hours and immediately examines the car. This time a completely different fuse has blown. The board computer is silent in all languages, no error to report. Already two types of fuses that burn out and no indication of the cause. The seriousness of the matter is slowly entering our minds. Diligently remove Onno and Tobias all cover plates. The wiring is exposed and moved, but the short circuit remains off. The owner of the garage recalls memories of cars where the cause was not found. We know it, but we don't pronounce it out loud yet. If the ever-expanding outage is not located, it is not wise to drive deeper into Africa. Further away from good quality garages and adequate help if things really go wrong. This would mean the end of this adventurous journey with the G.
But hopefully it is not there yet. A new search starts on Monday morning at 7: 30 hours with extra tips from our Dutch G expert. The bottom stone must come up. We keep thumbs.
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We are with you!
We have not been able to find the cause of the malfunction. The fuse of the brake and tail lights continues to blow. That is why we pulled new cables and bypassed that part of the cable harness. We are now 400 km on the road and the problem has not occurred again. Let's hope that the other functions that are controlled by the "damaged" wiring harness, including the fuel pump, will continue to work. We keep our fingers crossed.
We are now on our way to South Luangwa, which seems to be one of the most beautiful parks in Zambia. Hopefully soon positive and nice messages on the website.
Greetings,
Onno and Ingrid
Hello Onno and Ingrid,
Don't lower your courage. It'll be fine. I thumb with it. Repair the car and hop to the next adventure. What is on the program? South Luangwa? North Luangwa? Greetings. Jean-Philippe
Emergency repairs carried out and we drive again. We are now indeed on the road to South Luangwa. Wondering how much we can still see, because it seems that quite a bit of rain has already fallen, so not all roads, and especially the side loops, can be driven. We are surprised!
Greetings,
Onno and Ingrid
We are with you
We are on the road again! See the text with Esther for an explanation