At the end of August, we returned the Land Rover to the lease company, and bought ourselves a Toyota Landcruiser 76, sedan type car, henceforth to be known as The Beast. We had only had it a week or so, when we flew suddenly to the UK for Phil's funeral.
Since he got back, KISA has been adding little touches here and there to it, to make it into the vehicle we will be able to take anywhere this country throws at us. And we intend to do so. Hopefully next year. If work allows.
Anyway, on Friday the latest thing, a cruise control, was fitted. A necessary device that pays for itself within two avoided speeding tickets, and Mr Plod lurks everywhere with his trusty speed cameras.
Less than 24 hours after installation, we were driving out to Christmas Dinner at Seaforth, when the dials on the dash started doing wierd and wonderful things. First the airbag light came on. Then the wipers went kind of wonky, like they were drunk (it was raining). Then all the dials went off, even the speedo, so we had no idea what speed we were going, but that didn't matter as the car wasn't going very fast when KISA hit the pedal anyway. He turned off the lights and the aircon and the dials came back on again. We arrived at dad's and unpacked the car. Dad suggested we put it under the car port as we were staying over, and when KISA tried to start it again, it was just click, click.
We figured we would worry about it in the morning and went inside for our meal and a well needed drink. It was quite scary and memories of the recent cruise control issues Toyota had came to mind.
The next day The Beast jump started with Dad's car, and we headed home. About half way there, it all started happening again. The mighty Beast couldn't even climb a hill without slowing right down, and just before the outskirts of town, it just died and rolled slowly to a stop.
We rang our roadside assist and the place that installed the cruise control, because it was a logical assumption that something had gone horribly wrong during the installation.
The roadside assist couldn't start it and said we were entitled to a tow, so we opted to have it towed to Autobarn's workshop. The manager of the workshop had offered to come in and look at it (even though it was sunday and he was not at work). My sister came to pick me and the food we had in the car up to take me home to get my car.
The Beast about to get hauled up on the tow truck. How undignified!!
It was in Autobarn for 3 hours and the guy said that he found a clutch wire had been disconnected and not reconnected and that the battery was now drained, though still ok, so we needed to take it home and charge the battery. Which we did. The next morning, it started and we drove it to the harbour just to see if everything really was ok. On the way back, the power started to go again. Though the dials were ok. We took it back to Autobarn and they ran some tests on it.
It turned out that the chip that ran the alternator had blown. So this TINY thing, brought down our mighty beast.
All credit to Autobarn. We couldn't prove that they caused the chip to go and they couldn't prove they didn't. They didn't charge us for a second of the 6 hours they took to find the fault and everything is working honky dory now. I was also impressed that the workshop guy gave up half his Sunday as well for us.
Since he got back, KISA has been adding little touches here and there to it, to make it into the vehicle we will be able to take anywhere this country throws at us. And we intend to do so. Hopefully next year. If work allows.
Anyway, on Friday the latest thing, a cruise control, was fitted. A necessary device that pays for itself within two avoided speeding tickets, and Mr Plod lurks everywhere with his trusty speed cameras.
Less than 24 hours after installation, we were driving out to Christmas Dinner at Seaforth, when the dials on the dash started doing wierd and wonderful things. First the airbag light came on. Then the wipers went kind of wonky, like they were drunk (it was raining). Then all the dials went off, even the speedo, so we had no idea what speed we were going, but that didn't matter as the car wasn't going very fast when KISA hit the pedal anyway. He turned off the lights and the aircon and the dials came back on again. We arrived at dad's and unpacked the car. Dad suggested we put it under the car port as we were staying over, and when KISA tried to start it again, it was just click, click.
We figured we would worry about it in the morning and went inside for our meal and a well needed drink. It was quite scary and memories of the recent cruise control issues Toyota had came to mind.
The next day The Beast jump started with Dad's car, and we headed home. About half way there, it all started happening again. The mighty Beast couldn't even climb a hill without slowing right down, and just before the outskirts of town, it just died and rolled slowly to a stop.
We rang our roadside assist and the place that installed the cruise control, because it was a logical assumption that something had gone horribly wrong during the installation.
The roadside assist couldn't start it and said we were entitled to a tow, so we opted to have it towed to Autobarn's workshop. The manager of the workshop had offered to come in and look at it (even though it was sunday and he was not at work). My sister came to pick me and the food we had in the car up to take me home to get my car.
The Beast about to get hauled up on the tow truck. How undignified!!It was in Autobarn for 3 hours and the guy said that he found a clutch wire had been disconnected and not reconnected and that the battery was now drained, though still ok, so we needed to take it home and charge the battery. Which we did. The next morning, it started and we drove it to the harbour just to see if everything really was ok. On the way back, the power started to go again. Though the dials were ok. We took it back to Autobarn and they ran some tests on it.
It turned out that the chip that ran the alternator had blown. So this TINY thing, brought down our mighty beast.
All credit to Autobarn. We couldn't prove that they caused the chip to go and they couldn't prove they didn't. They didn't charge us for a second of the 6 hours they took to find the fault and everything is working honky dory now. I was also impressed that the workshop guy gave up half his Sunday as well for us.
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