When our problem of Blu not starting commences we were actually further out west, but we realised that if we could just get Blu going we’d be able to drive. And so we got a pull start, just 10m, and away we went.
Toowoomba was the ideal spot to be stuck for this period: Christmas with family and friends, free parking and access to a house, my brother is a wealth of information with a good supply of tools, and whilst much of Australia was suffering a heat wave with temperatures of 40° (Celsius) or more, Toowoomba rarely breached 30°.
Before I write about the problems of Blu, let me first write just a little about why we were in the vacinity of our Australian ‘homebase’ anyway. (Blu or Blac are home for us, but each has a ‘homebase’ where our families are.)
We’ve been back in Australia a few months. But the Aussie has had some health problems to deal with and we also had some trouble with the installation of a second air conditioner in Blu (to run off solar, while we are parked... maybe I should write a post about that?).
Without saying too much here Ali had a troublesome ovarian cyst which is now gone and via laparoscopic surgery she’s got a confirmed diagnosis of endometriosis. We are completely happy to talk about this, but let’s get back to mechanics for this post.
In the time that we’ve been driving Blu (since 2016) she’s never been an easy vehicle to start. Originally H thought it was the battery, and when we installed a lithium starting battery it did improve our starting for a while. Another concern, that we thought might be a contributor was that in the 3 months prior to mid December we had had a regular supply of waste veggie oil from a commercial kitchen and H had been filtering and feeding that to Blu. Not every tank mind you, and always a mix. And just before Blu stopped starting she’d been ‘choking’ and H had done a roadside replacement of the fuel filter.
So, when Blu stopped starting the first things H looked at were the fuel filter, then he looked for air in the system. But these things weren’t the culprit. Obviously, we hoped for a quick, inexpensive, and easy fix so we started with those things. We adjusted the valve clearances, unfortunately it didn’t fix the problem but Blu’s sure to run better with this done. Was it the engine brake? No.
Experts from around the world weighed in with their ideas on where we should look, most we’d already done, some we tried but we still weren’t solving our problem.
We ran injector cleaning fluid through the system but it didn’t change anything. So H took the injectors out and a local diesel workshop installed new nozzles and gave them back looking super shiny. But, it didn’t help.
Finally, the big job, H removed the injector pump and we took it to the diesel workshop. When the workshop tested our pump the pressure was just 35Mpa, and it should have been about 85! Assessing the damage they called us and offered a cheap fix to get us going but not long term, or a complete job to see Blu going for years to come (well, as far as this part is concerned). We got them to do the complete refurbish, there’s a lot of miles to do in Blu yet.
Here’s the injector pump when H took it out.
H asked if the veggie oil might have caused the problem and was told an emphatic “no, not on this old one”. So, that’s nice to know.
It was the Christmas - New Year period so we had to wait because in Australia most industrial businesses close at that time, many for a few weeks, so even if the workshop we dealt with was open to do work they had to wait for parts.
The whole job took a lot of time, and we are very pleased that H could do what he could do. Getting the injectors fixed (4) cost about $550, and the pump about $2800. (Australian dollars). Blu is a 1995 Mercedes-Benz 812 (known also as a Vario) with a 1992 364A engine.
The refurbished injector pump ready to be reinstalled. (It’s so clean!)
But Blu goes now! The look on H’s face when she went was one of absolute relief and happiness! Mine probably was too. And, not only does she start, but she goes so well. We can overtake other vehicles on an uphill! We are hoping that time will prove better fuel economy for us as well.
Now we have set off to explore more of Australia. We don’t have an itinerary, just vague plans. At the moment, it’s a generally southerly direction.
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