Labour Weekend this year was spent down by the mountain together with Agata and Tom, with the weather being totally unreasonable - it rained the whole three days! But why am I surprised?
On Monday morning, with the weather still being wet, misty and windy we decided to slowly drive towards Auckland, with the hope of stopping over at Castlerock to do some mountain biking (since we all were carrying our bikes with us).
Last stop - Tokaanu to top up the tanks at the local Shell station. Of course, the diesel pump was out in the open, uncovered, and when Lukas picked up the nozzle, water poured out of it. We shook it to make sure all water was out and topped up the tank.
Start the car, drive away and tackle the first hill - our little Isuzu is having a lot of trouble! Blowing thick black smoke and really struggling, this doesn’t feel right! So we stop the first chance we get, pop the bonnet, look over the engine, look under the engine, revv the engine a bit, knock on the fuses - nothing obvious! Get back in, start driving - feels like a very sluggish, fat, lazy cow on the road! After a while we realise what’s happening - the turbo isn’t kicking in. Great! Just what we need.
We scrap the Castlerock idea, it’s still pouring down with rain anyway, and just hope we make it into the civilised areas safely. Luckily, Agata and Tom are in their own car, if something were to happen at least we have a way to get to the nearest town (or at least cellphone covered area). So we drive. Getting up to 80km/h on the straights, struggling up the hills but forward we go. After a while we stop for a bit, walk around, I call Kris (my little brother - the family mechanic) and relay the adventure. Keep on driving - says Kris. So we do. Start the car and in a cloud of black smoke drive away from the carpark. But now the car feels totally different - like our treasured little MU again! We test it a bit, accelerating up the first hill - YES!!! It’s back! The turbo is kicking in again!
After this it even stopped smoking and drove us smoothly to Auckland. So what happened? Here are some hypotheses:
- water in the diesel - but that’s supposed to produce WHITE smoke, not black
- exhaust gasket blown and got into the turbo, stopping the turbine - again, this should result in WHITE smoke
- a hole in the exhaust pipe - we would have noticed the car being louder, not more sluggish
- something got into the turbo and stopped the turbine, then dislodged itself - but why when we stopped?
- something much more mysterious is happening - electrics? mechanics? turbo ready to give up?
