Tag Archives: eurovan

Engines, Mechanics, And Eurovan Brains – Oh My…

February 23, 2016 Keevan Leave a comment

Anyone traveling along with us on this journey, might remember last year around this time, we were having some problems with Dear Ms. Keevan abruptly dying on us in inconvenient locations after heavy rainstorms. At least it seemed to happen after the rains, and it was nice to blame it on Something!

One time she died going up a hill. She just quit. No sputtering or grumblings to warn us. The other time was at a stop sign, again with no warnings.

Both times, because of very inconvenient locations and less than superb settings, we had to have her towed. Both times it was a Saturday or Sunday. You do know there are VERY FEW if any garages open on weekends, right?

Both times by the time Monday morning came around, she started up again. Both times we spent copious amounts of money trouble-shooting the issue. Oh my, it’s so difficult to troubleshoot issues that disappear when threatened with wrenches and power tools!

It seemed like something was shorting out after getting wet. But we could never find anything either shorted out or wet.

So why bring all this up now???

Because not one, but a few different people have asked us what we did to fix the problem. Seems Ms. Keevan is not the only 95 Eurovan that prefers sunnier weather.

It’s so simple and crazy, but the most practical and immediate remedy seemed to be the fact that we started covering up her brain (that main computer component that controls all her signals, aka the ECU / ECM) with a plastic bag inside the engine compartment whenever a big rain was forecast. Don’t laugh!!! It worked! If we didn’t do this, she would jump around unhappily in the mornings, like she didn’t want to get going.

There were other issues along the way.

When a person lives in their vehicle, when a person drives that vehicle every single day, when its pressed to go 40,000 miles, when it goes between sea level and 12,000 feet in elevation, over mountain passes and down gravel roads, when that vehicle has now over 200,000 miles on it’s engine…there are always Other Issues.

We’ve replaced the air filter and fuel filter, changed the oil, changed out the spark plugs and wires, put in a new distributer cap and rotor, …all the normal stuff.

Then we put in a new motor mount, after one of our mechanics noticed one was broken. This definitely helped the van to run smoother and shift better. We replaced the oxygen sensor. We tried to replace the EGR valve, but can’t find one that fits, so Fred took out the old one, and cleaned it up – it was badly clogged with carbon. He submersed it in boiling water with tongs for a few minutes, then dropped it in a can of cold water, then repeated this procedure again a few more times, and finally blew out any remaining loose material left over. We replaced two water temperature sensors, and a coolant temperature sensor. (Who knew there were so many sensors?) We replaced the EGR solenoid, which we neglected back when we cleaned the EGR valve up. We cleaned up the throttle, (which was very very dirty, and plugged with lots of carbons), we replaced some fuses, including one that went to the ECU. And finally, we cleaned up all the contacts on the infamous ECU, some of them being slightly corroded and rusty. A Volkswagen dealer at one point told us we needed a new $1,000,00 brain. *Never take a Volkswagen to a Volkswagen dealer, if possible.

I have to add in here, that once this last round of work was done, and the van was actually running fantastic, we were on the way home and the headlights went out. Honest! Somehow a wire had gotten torn loose! That one was an easier fix!

For those of you driving older VW Vanagons with the engines in the back. OK, please quit laughing now. We know, we know. They are easy to work on. These Eurovans, on the other hand, with the bigger more powerful engine in the front, which actually go up hills without pushing, and having their engines in front, therefore putting a little space between you and the highway and other high speed cruising vehicles, making you feel a bit safer, are notorious for being fickle to work on. Especially famous for being fickle is the 95 Eurovan with the 5 cylinder Audi engine, which is what Ms. Keevan is draped in. Mechanics love them and mechanics hate them.

Did I say mechanics?

Speaking of mechanics…if you can find a good one, hang on to them, don’t let them go away, offer to take them along for the trip, tie them on top, bake them cakes, do whatever possible to keep them around. Bad mechanics are easy to come by, good ones, not so much.

So what actually fixed our Rainy Day Problem?

Not sure. This is just what we did. It seems like a lot of work and expense. But this is our home. Just like a brick and mortar home, we have to keep it up, and we want it to be reliable. It’s where we sleep, eat, read, work on this blog, and so many other home type jobs.

Most importantly, during this process, we’ve cleaned up some of our other ongoing issues, especially the van running rough, it having too fast of an idle, it running too rich, and getting poor gas mileage. The running rich and bad mileage thing was due to among other things, a little lesser know EGR valve solenoid, which was making the EGR valve become stuck open, causing too much fuel to be burned, thus the poor gas mileage, and the reason our engine light was coming on and off. When that solenoid was replaced, life got a whole lot better!

Whew! Hopefully we can get back to more pretty pictures and hidden away travel destinations soon. In the meantime, I hope this can help others trying to make sense of complicated Eurovan diagnostics!

We’d love to hear if any of the above tricks has helped anyone else in solving their problems.

❧

Camping, Nature, Travel

More Fun Along The Coast

March 1, 2015 Keevan 2 Comments

Another week of immersing ourselves in coastal living. Another week of feeling very small and insignificant compared to the mighty Pacific. Another week of watching pods of gray whales heading south for the summer.

Highway 1 along the California coast is a road like no other. It is not for the meek. But if looking for incredible ocean views, and getting a sense of just how enormously humongous the ocean is, this is the road to take.

The ocean just goes on and on and on. You are driving right on top of it, next to it, and high above on bluffs with long steep drop offs right down into it. After many miles of this highway /ocean kinship, you sort of become one with the water and sand and its creatures in a very zen like way.

The beauty is breathtaking.

My most sincere apologies to those of you reading this in the eastern half of the U.S. who are still submerged in freezing temperatures, record breaking snow and sheets of ice covering your walkways.

Here folks, Spring has arrived. Today, on a short hike I counted at least twelve different wildflowers poking there pretty faces up and blooming like no end. There were Lupines, Poppies, Flowering currents, Potato vines, Paintbrush, Milkmaids, Western Columbine, and Wild cucumber to name just a few.

Lack of wifi / or cell reception this past week, has left me a little behind on the blog, but we certainly have had our share of nourishment.

My secrets divulged here, our two favorite campgrounds along this highway:

Plaskett Campground, which is a national forest campground, therefore accepting the senior access pass, and making it quite reasonable for California at a mere $12.50 per night. It’s spacious, has lots of green grass around all the sites, and is directly across from Sand Dollar Beach.

Our other favorite is Montana de Oro in Los Osos. This one is a State Park, so a bit more pricey, but we are in California and dispersed camping is not that easy along the coast. Both campgrounds always have really nice campers staying in them for some reason.

Take Plaskett for example: Here we meet Mark and Ronnie, our next door campers with a Eurovan the exact same year and engine that ours is. We spend time comparing interiors, discussing storage options, sleeping arrangements, and all the do dads that one figures out to be helpful camping in a van.

Then this beautiful Vanagon “Syncro” (that’s a much sought after 4 x4) pulls in next door to Mark and Ronnie. Isn’t this just a gorgeous setting with three lovely vans camped next to each other?

Some thoughts on photography…

Sometimes I’m perplexed on what photos to put on this blog. Of course I like to showcase photos that I think are pretty decent. But then this isn’t a photography blog. It is a travel blog. So I wind up adding a lot of photos that I don’t actually think are great photographically speaking, but yet they still tell a story.

When memories fail, photographs are great for picking up the pieces and putting times and places together in context.

Which is why, you might have to look really hard in these next shots to see the subject. We were seeing so many pods of gray whales spouting around, I couldn’t not try to capture some of them. They were really far out in the water, but try I did, and to my amazement with my 300mm lens, and some serious cropping, they actually materialized in the shots!

What I wouldn’t give for a nice spotting scope and one of those beastly very expensive super telephoto lenses!

Well, we are heading over to San Luis Obispo to see our friends at German Auto for hopefully the last time in a really long time, (still having issues with the heater / ac unit) before leaving this beautiful shoreline and ever stretching ocean, teaming with abundant wildlife and grandeur, to head inland to warmer weather.

Looking forward to shedding a few of our heavy jackets.

❧

Campervan, Eurovan, Repairs, Travel

Eurovan Woes…Again…

February 18, 2015 Keevan 4 Comments

There we were, cruising down the road after a couple lovely weeks on the coast.

Up the hill, and uh…what the heck. She died. Again.

This is the same thing that happened when we first got back to Santa Cruz, right in the middle of an intersection. This time, we have to coast backwards, downhill, to a place where we can halfway safely pull off the road.

She won’t start up again. Battery’s o.k. Starter is o.k. Fuel lines are o.k.

She just won’t start. And it’s raining. Again. It was a hard and heavy and windy forceful full onslaught of rain hitting the front end on the van all night. So much so, the canvas tent was wet along the seams. On the inside!

Hours of not being able to get her going, we call for yet another tow. Number 3 in 4 months. Not a good record. Luckily we’re now into a new year, so our Geico free tow limit starts over again.

We take her to our good friends at German Auto again, in San Luis Obispo.

There she sits overnight. And wouldn’t you know it, she starts up fine the next morning.

Something is getting wet, somewhere, and something seems to be shorting out, somehow, and we nor the German Auto guys, nor the Volkswagon folks back in Santa Cruz can figure it out. And yes, both times, it’s happened on, yep, that’s right, a Saturday. Saturdays – you know are the days, when all good mechanics don’t work.

So by the time anyone smarter than us, can take a look at her, she’s dried herself off, and is behaving perfectly and very well mannered.

Frustrating. YES. But Miss Keevan, we still love you. Even if it means we are stuck someplace till yonder sunshine gleams down and brings forth light to our “Eurovan Adventures.” We’re sticking in there with her.

But we have made a few threats! Just so she knows.

On another front, we had to make another quick trip back to Santa Cruz, for some appointments, and for Fred to officially sign up for his old age fountain of youth, well deserved, social security retirement.

We are planning to squeeze in another trek down to Arizona, for a couple of months, before coming back to this city yet again, and finally – for the event of the year!

The event of the year? That would be the wedding of our most beautiful and loving, cherished daughter, and her most wonderful and handsome, totally awesome, soon to be husband.

Hope to be posting from down the desert roads again soon!

Campervan, Travel, Van Living

Things Fall Apart

December 4, 2014 Keevan 6 Comments

It seems that no VW long term journey is really complete without at least one good breakdown story.

Ours is a bit of a complex story…

You see, back in New Mexico along that wonderful Rio Grande River, one evening Fred sort of backed the van into a tree while we were getting set up for a night’s camping. Not a really bad encounter, but enough to mush up the bumper pretty good and ding up the back hatch door.

We did the proper thing and eventually turned it into our insurance, which promptly gave us a $900.00 check to go with our $500.00 deductible, to fix it at our leisure, anywhere between New Mexico and California. Sweet.

We decided to get it fixed when we got to Tucson. In fact, when we got to town, we arranged for an appointment, and for the Collision Center to get the parts before the appointment, since we would be without our home for three to four days and have to stay in a motel. All’s well.

We stayed out at Catalina State Park for the weekend, until our Monday appointment. On Sunday, we decided to run into town, just a few miles up the road to get a few groceries.

We only made it around the first corner out of the campground.

Bingo! Crash. Bam. What the heck.

It’s an ugly situation.

Our front ball joint just broke. The wheel fell off, and ugly oily stuff was leaking out the bottom. It was hot. AND it was Sunday.

Never, ever have a breakdown in Arizona on a Sunday.

After a very long wait, one park ranger, and two different Arizona highway patrol officers, our awesome tow truck driver arrived and artfully and skillfully got this mess up on his truck bed without damaging the entire front of the van.

In Arizona, nothing is open on Sundays. No auto dealerships, no repair shops, and after noon, no rental car companies. Yikes.

We managed to get into our motel room a night early, and thanks to the campground host, our stuff back at the campsite was safe and secured.

Monday was slightly better, as Geico gave us a nice 2014 GMC all wheel drive SUV for as long as we needed to drive around at no charge. Fun.

Of course, now the back collision work can’t be touched, until the front is fixed so the vehicle is mobile.

Very long story, shortened for this post…is two garages, different mechanics, one ball joint, one CVC and shaft, a new seal, and some new gear oil, and 11 days later, our beloved van is again on the road. Our insurance covered the second incident as well, but the rear end crunches are still not fixed. The first garage sent the parts back, when the van was moved to the second garage, and after 11 days, we really wanted our home back more than we wanted to wait around another week to get the back damage fixed. So we’ve put that off until we get back to California in Dec. to deal with.

During this time of van repairs, we had also arranged to meet up with some family in the little town of Laughlin, Nevada for a few days for a pre holiday get together. We were on a minute by minute standby, waiting for the van, and after waiting for us for a couple of days, they had to head home. No meeting up with them.

But wait, on Thursday afternoon, moments after we picked up the Keevan, they called and guess what? Their car broke down. In Laughlin.

Geeze…Friday we headed up there for our visit as now they were stranded for the entire weekend while the garage was closed.

Life…

We had a lovely visit with them.

And we had lots of fun in Tucson, got to visit another cousin of mine up near Phoenix, see some sights, and feel like locals for awhile.

And enjoyed some more beautiful Arizona sunsets.

Oh, those desert sunsets… ❧

Campervan, Nature, Simple Living, Travel

Birds Of Las Vegas

November 17, 2014 Keevan Leave a comment

9/30/14 – 10/1/14

Back to Santa Fe…Another mechanic…More dollars.

What to do?

After testing all the A/C components, this mechanic finally decides to test out our new relay, which tests out as no good. Volkswagon will order another relay for us at no charge, but they aren’t interested in paying for all the diagnostics to figure out that the part was no good. Grrrr.

We squabble and debate a bit.

We defiantly wait for the new part to arrive.

We go on another overnight sightseeing excursion.

We discover that Las Vegas, New Mexico is very different from Las Vegas, Nevada. Neither of us are real gung ho on bright lights and gambling, so we find this historic old town of Las Vegas much more to our liking.

The Las Vegas Wildlife Refuge is fantastic.

These White Pelicans in flight definitely brightened up our days.

Mr. Hawk teaches us a lesson in patience.

We think it all over a bit.

And decide it’s still all about the journey. We’re waiting for our new part, and enjoying New Mexico.

❧

Boondocking, Campervan, Camping, Nature, Travel

Crisscrossing New Mexico

November 13, 2014 Keevan 2 Comments

9/24/14 – 9/28/14

Back into Taos, we tried re-charging the A/C. It did’t do the trick, so we had someone look at it, who spent quite a few hours on it and traced it back to the relay under the dash. The part we needed had to be ordered by a Volkswagon dealer and had to come from Dallas, Texas. It had to be paid for in person, before anyone would order it. We had to go to Albuerque or Santa Fe. No brainer. We headed to Santa Fe.

Not a bad town to wait for a part. We enjoyed the plaza and native artists selling their wares. We bought a few gifts, did some sightseeing, and delighted in some New Mexico fall colors.

When the part arrived, we picked it up, quickly installed it, and ta-da…had cold air blasting into the cab.

To try out our refreshing luxury, we moseyed over to Bandelier National Park. Mostly we needed a place to camp for the night, and the park was handy.

A peaceful setting to enjoy the evening and early morning.

Some interesting campers were also visiting. In fact a lot of these Western Bluebirds were camping along side of us.

This Northern Flicker and White-breasted Nuthatch didn’t mind sharing a site.

Pretty sure this was a Merlin watching over the entire loop.

We moved on after these visitors left and lots of the two legged type moved in. (It was a weekend.)

Found this place a little quieter and more to our liking up a forest service road. Room for Pia to run and play, and plenty of New Mexico sunshine for the solar panel.

Some of these Bluebirds thought so too, as they followed us to our new camping spot.

img_7757-version-2 (1)

We drove by and visited Valles Caldera National Preserve.

It was a beautiful valley, but there was no place to spend the night. We inched our way around the Jemez mountains.

A quiet walk in the Santa Fe National Forest.

Nature’s sculpture…

And yet another lovely peaceful camping spot, thanks to the forest service folks for maintaining their roads.

The countryside changes abruptly.

Emerging out of the forest and into Jemez Pueblo.

It was about here when our air conditioner quit working again…

❧

Simple Living, Travel, Van Living

Mesa Verde

October 29, 2014 Keevan 4 Comments

9/12/14 – 9/15/14

We’ve alternated finding, ordering, and installing new tires for the Van with exploring Anestral Pueblo Civilizations – also known as the “Anasazi” or Cliff Dwellers.

A stark realization of the contrast of worlds. We think we are living simply in our little 80 square feet, but yet with propane, we still have a stove, and refrigerator, and a heater. We can fill up our water tank and still have running water. In the middle of the desert, we can go to the grocery store and buy ourselves pretty decent food. And we can go to a tire store and get tires shipped down 150 miles away in a little over one day.

The Ancestral Pueblo people in contrast living here between 600 and 1300 AD in this harsh desert ecosystem, not only survived on really very little, but thrived at it. For about 700 years anyway.

Click on this gallery below and check out where these folks lived…and the incredible architecture!

Built with adobe clay hand hewn bricks and stones, into sandstone cliffs, high above the valleys and far below the mesas, sometimes crawling on hands and knees, or climbing the face of cliffs to reach their homes, neighborhoods, and villages.

The beauty of the harsh world they co-existed in still survives.

They were People of the Land. Subsistence farmers, creators, gatherer’s, and artists. Aways one with their environment.

We are so fortunate that places like this have been preserved to help us modern Simplitarians and once been Back to the Landers ourselves understand where we’ve come from and where it began.

Once again humbled and awed by life.

Back to our own modest little campsite to rejoice in what we have and where we can go.

❧

Mesa Verde National Park

Ancestral Pueblo peoples

Anasazi

Boondocking, Camping, Simple Living, Travel

Fred Puts on Shorts!

May 21, 2014 Keevan 2 Comments

Since I’m becoming quite behind in this blogging thing, I’m now adding accurate travel dates to the posts, as the posting dates seem to run about a week behind. Since I am doing this sort of as a reference, it seems like the weather should at least be when it really happened, instead of like the snow falling in the middle of June or something, when it actually fell in May…

May 12, 2014

We left Lee’s Ferry campground taking a scenic route into Utah through Jacobs Lake. We again decide to forgo the Grand Canyon, since the road to the North Rim (where we are now) doesn’t open for another three days, and we are anxious to get into Utah.

At the junction of our turnoff, we see this cute laundry, and needing to do some, stop in for a quick wash and dry, before heading out.

And this was next door!

It can’t get any better than being able to take showers, while the clothes are washing. Little did we know that 95% of the washing machines didn’t work, and 98% of the dryers were inoperable. And that the washers were sort of antiques and took forever…and the dryers took even more forever…

But oh well, while there we met two lovely ladies who were about to embark upon a six day river rafting trip down the Colorado. These ladies had been friends for over 30 years, have lived in different states for over 20 years, and decided to venture out together for this once in a lifetime trip together. They were awesome!!

We shared stories, histories, and soon photos and videos of our grandchildren. I can’t remember the names, but I’m sure they had a fantastic trip down the river, and have many many memories to share and take back to their families.

Hours later…we continue winding away from the Vermillion Cliffs, and head up to higher elevations. Much higher!

Those of you who know Fred, know he’s not much of a shorts kind of guy. In fact our kids have probably never seen this picture of their dad. So it’s pretty ironic, he decides to finally put on shorts…and we come across this. More snow. (O.k., he did just wash his two pair of jeans – which maybe explains it.)

Pia, on the other hand, rather enjoyed the snow.

We made it to Jacob Lake, at almost 8,000 feet, just as it was about dark, and the one and only campground wasn’t open yet. It obviously opens the same day as the Rim Road to the Grand Canyon. Anyway, we found a nice forest road that wasn’t too muddy, spotted a wide area, and pulled over, popped the top and yay…turned on the heater!!!

You see, our Eurovan has a propane heater with a built in thermostat, which we’ve enjoyed quite liberally with all this cold weather.

❧

Beginnings, Travel

Relatives And Repairs in Yuma, Arizona

April 14, 2014 Keevan 8 Comments

We’ve been in Yuma now going on 6 days. We knew we would be here visiting our relatives for awhile before taking off for the wild blue yonder, so we left a few van issues to take care of while here.

First up were the brakes. We needed new brakes on the van all the way around, so that was the first item we needed to cross off the list. Luckily – our hunch was correct. The price we just paid for 4 new brakes and pads, with the rotors and back drums turned, an emergency brake adjustment, and the entire system bled, was less than half the cost they quoted us to do the job back in Santa Cruz. We just saved almost $500.00 by waiting to get to Yuma to do the brake job! UNBELIEVABLE.

Feeling now pretty happy and with a few pennies leftover, we decided to order the part for the fridge. We needed a new lighter ignition unit (not the technical name I’m sure) to get the propane to light properly. After finding good guy Jerry who is going to put it in for us, we ordered it Friday, and it should be here Tuesday or Wednesday. Jerry also did some rewiring on our electrical to get that all working in top shape. Yeah!! Super excited to have the fridge run great off both electricity and propane once again. Before we left Santa Cruz, we also replaced the old propane tank with a brand new shiny one.

We are really itching to get on the road again, but trying hard to be patient. It is nice to be able to take care of these issues, while having a lovely place to stay, and good company to spend our evenings with! Of course getting all the work done for much cheaper is not too bad either. 😊

We couldn’t ask for a more beautiful spot to wait and work on our patience. I took this little photo tour of the yard and Minneola orchard this morning after sipping my jo, and here is my first wordpress slideshow. Enjoy. ❧

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Camping, Travel

Day Nine

April 11, 2014 Keevan 4 Comments

That week sure flew by!

The van’s running great for the most part. The fridge always has been and still is irritating, being oh so temperamental and undependable. It is one of those things we’ve never dealt with, and I know most people with this same Norcold fridge have the same complaints. We will one day deal with it! For the time being we are happily eating simple foods, and using it again mostly for storage.

We are all adjusting, sleeping well, and traveling contently. We have boondocked a few nights, camped in a National Park a few nights, spent our first night of this trip in a Wallmart parking lot, and tonight are in a nice soft bed at my relatives house here in Yuma, Az.

The most drastic adjustment has been the weather. One week ago, we were bundled in down jackets, hats and gloves, and still cold and damp. Today it was 100 degrees in the shade.

Big Rocks at Joshua Tree Joshua Tree National Park was as always lovely. The temps there were warm, but not too hot, the wind kept things comfortable, and we had a wonderful campsite for $5.00 a night, and no fee to visit the park. (Thanks to Fred’s senior interagency pass)

There was enough flora still in bloom to keep us happily busy identifying what was what, and we took turns taking short nature hikes while the other one hung out with Pia. We played on the boulders, took some driving excursions and ate leisurely breakfasts with coffee and tea. We met some really nice folks driving and camping in a Volkswagon Rialta – a small RV, bigger than our Eurovan, yet smaller than most other RV’s. They are pretty cool abodes, very roomy, but still get great gas mileage. Maybe someday, but for now we like the versatility and ability to go where other RV’s can’t go with our LWV. Our van has been lifted up and has larger wheels and tires than most Eurovans do. It therefore handles quite nicely off road, as well as on highway.

"Cactus Garden" in Joshua Tree

Peace ❧

Keevan Soul