PJ In Africa Part 3 — The Saga Continues

Just in case you missed them, you can read Part 1 & Part 2 here.

We arrived in Winburg on Tuesday, August 13th expecting to stay one night and be on the road the next day. PJ had other ideas. Our mechanic, Ian, discovered a water pump leak the next day and being in the middle of nowhere, no replacement parts were on hand. Unable to locate one in the surrounding towns, we contacted the company we purchased the second-hand engine from and had them order one. Thankfully, Mike and Alison were heading our way the next day and graciously offered to bring it down to us. Mike showed up the morning of the 16th with the pump and we delivered it to Ian — hopefully, this was the last component. Of course, there was yet another road accident requiring Ian’s attention (the downside to working with the only mechanic in town) and he wasn’t able to finish the car until Saturday afternoon, August 17th. What had we been doing all this time, you may wonder, while stuck in the middle of nowhere with no wifi, heat, or a shower? Thankfully, the room was equipped with a television that got 4 channels, two of which showed movies nonstop. While there were some lowlights (Spy Kids, animated movies, Beatriz at Dinner), we were treated to three different installments from the Step Up franchise (none of which were # 1 or 2), so not a total loss.

Saturday finally rolled around and we sat in the room anxiously awaiting Ian’s arrival. Once he got there, we asked him how the engine was and he replied “Not good.” Greattt. We were still holding out hope of making one of the park reservations that Coons had made months ago. If we left then, we would have just made it to Sossusvlei National Park in Namibia, home to some of the largest sand dunes in the world. Rather than drive to Namibia, Ian suggested we head back to Joburg to get the car checked out by someone with a computer (you don’t have a computer?!) because the engine was misfiring and didn’t seem to have enough power. He assured us that we would be fine to make the three and a half-hour drive back to Joburg.

Resigned to the fact that we would not be making our reservations, we tossed our gear in the car and took off. Or tried to anyway. Coons stalled multiple times trying to back out and the gearbox was a struggle to shift. We finally got the car moving and headed to the highway. While merging, we noticed a significant lack of power. PJ was struggling to get any kind of speed and could not maintain speed in 5th gear up any sort of incline. This was not good. Determined to complete the drive even in 4th gear, we were cruising along for about 30 minutes until Coons noticed the engine had begun to overheat. We pulled over and popped the hood — the radiator was boiling and there was green fluid leaking from the car. Just what we needed!

We phoned Ian and told him what happened and he arranged for another mechanic who was close by to come help us out. Colin showed up after about 15 minutes with some water and got the radiator cooled down enough for us to follow him back to his shop. Once there, he and 3-4 other guys set about to diagnose our car. After a while, they noticed that the fan wasn’t properly attached and wasn’t cooling the engine down at all. They popped that off, drilled some holes in it, and reattached it to the front of the car. With that blowing properly, Colin and Coons took it for a test drive. The engine stayed cool, but he was amazed at how little power PJ was putting out. Back at the shop, they tested the engine coils and discovered that two of them were dead, meaning our V6 was now a V4. They said we would be fine to make it to Joburg, but we’d be going slow and guzzling petrol.

Back on the road again, we still had another three hours to Joburg and would not make it before nightfall. We were about to break rule #1 of Africa — no driving at night. We were determined to make our hostel and there was really nowhere to stay en route, so we decided to push on to the city. Any attempt at turning on the air condition led to the engine temperature creeping up, so we rolled down the windows for some natural ventilation. After an hour and a half of driving at 80 km/h (about 50 mph) on a major highway, the sun started falling and Coons switched on the headlights, or rather, tried to.

I know my eyes aren’t great, but are the headlights even on?

Turns out, no, the headlights were not on. High beams didn’t work either. We switched on the hazards and kept driving, hoping that we would make it without incident. We were pulled over once coming out of a tollbooth, but after explaining our situation she let us go, saying she hoped we made it safely. Around 7:30pm we finally pulled into Westmoreland Lodge and could relax.

To recap, we left  PJ with Ian for a month and now had a car with a misfiring engine, a gearbox that was incredibly difficult to shift, were missing one-third of our power, couldn’t use the air condition because the engine would overheat, and the lights didn’t work. What did we pay him for?! And the cherry on top — we tried starting it on Sunday because we were blocking someone in and the engine wouldn’t start! We pushed it out onto the road and tried to kick start it down the hill, but only succeeded in placing the car further away from the hostel. We couldn’t leave it on the street (people will steal tires, tent, etc.) so one of the hostel workers called her boyfriend to come help us out. We thought it could be the battery, but even with his new battery, we couldn’t start it. They towed us back up the hill and we pushed the car back in the parking lot.

Monday morning Coons was up early making calls. We knew we wanted to bring it to Freek (pronounced free-ahk) since his shop specialized in Mitsubishi and had been recommended by multiple people. We had actually talked to him a couple weeks ago when he offered to rebuild our engine, but we were hoping to get on the road quicker and chose the used engine. Big. Mistake. His shop recommended a guy with a trailer to come and tow us, and after pushing it out of the hostel lot and onto the trailer (who needs Crossfit when you have a car that won’t start?), we finally arrived around 11:30am.

Freek took one look at our engine and started going off about how this was the wrong engine and would never work and that no mechanic should have ever installed it in the first place. We contacted the shop we purchased it from and told them we would be returning it — thankfully we were within their 30-day guarantee window. Freek decided the next course of action was to get our old engine. We figured he would send someone down in a couple of days, but nope, he was going now. This was the mechanic for us! He dropped us off at the hostel and continued down to Winburg to collect our engine and the money that Ian owed us for the stolen items (oh did we mention, one of his guys stole some stuff from our truck?). Fortunately, we were able to return the used engine for a full refund.

Of course, Freek was able to get all of the original parts to rebuild the engine except the head gaskets, which proved to be in short supply. We grabbed another rental while we were waiting and visited two of South Africa’s premier parks and saw some amazing wildlife. Thankfully we had our camping gear so we were able to camp everywhere we went. Once we were back in Joburg, Freek still didn’t have the gaskets and said they wouldn’t be in until September 6. We started making calls and visiting shops, but everyone either had the wrong size or aftermarket gaskets, which wouldn’t last us very long.

So this is where we’re at, grounded in Joburg at the beginning of September, waiting for the head gaskets. Coons’ visa expires September 9th (Kourtney’s is already expired) and that is our line in the sand. If the car can be fixed and we can drive it out of the country by then, we will continue on our merry way. If not, we’ll have to leave the car and try to sell it remotely while we continue traveling elsewhere. Not the best options, but traveling in Africa has taught us absolutely nothing will go as planned (except our wedding — that was awesome!).