Yes, we're still out here, even though I've been horrible about maintaining this thread. Our van is in Oaxaca, and we are on Caye Caulker. Hmm. Here's how that happened - I'll try to make a long story short.
Back in December (Christmas eve, in fact) we were trying to make it out to Bahia Kino to meet friends and family for the holidays. The van lost power and wouldn't do more than 40mph on the flat. We limped in and took it to a local mechanic. He inspected the fuel pickup in the tank and pressure tested the fuel pump. He couldn't find anything wrong, and he accompanied me on a 250 mile tour of Sonora trying to replicate the problem to no avail. So we continued south.
By the time we rolled into Oaxaca two months later, we were experiencing the same problem, but only on hills - we could do 110kph on the flat, but when you put your foot into it to climb a hill it would start to struggle. We decided we had to get it fixed once and for all.
Calvin at Overlander Oasis helped me (or actually I helped him) replace the injection control pressure sensor and the injection pressure regulator valve, based on advice from a mechanic at home. That didn't fix the problem, so rather than continuing to guess at it, we took it to the Ford dealer in Oaxaca. They've had it for the past two weeks. Calvin (who speaks good Spanish, and in particular car Spanish) has spoken with the mechanic working on it and got a good feeling from him.
Meanwhile we flew to Belize to meet my parents for a week, stopping in Mexico City (which we skipped when we drove past) for a few days on the way. It's disappointing we didn't get to drive here to meet them as planned, but at least we're not sitting around waiting for the car to be fixed. We're due back in Oaxaca by next Friday, so it's looking like we may do some waiting after all.
We've met some great people while in Oaxaca and got a chance to explore a little too. And like others, we can't say enough great things about Calvin and Leanne at Overlander Oasis!
Hierve El Agua, outside of Oaxaca
Back in December (Christmas eve, in fact) we were trying to make it out to Bahia Kino to meet friends and family for the holidays. The van lost power and wouldn't do more than 40mph on the flat. We limped in and took it to a local mechanic. He inspected the fuel pickup in the tank and pressure tested the fuel pump. He couldn't find anything wrong, and he accompanied me on a 250 mile tour of Sonora trying to replicate the problem to no avail. So we continued south.
By the time we rolled into Oaxaca two months later, we were experiencing the same problem, but only on hills - we could do 110kph on the flat, but when you put your foot into it to climb a hill it would start to struggle. We decided we had to get it fixed once and for all.
Calvin at Overlander Oasis helped me (or actually I helped him) replace the injection control pressure sensor and the injection pressure regulator valve, based on advice from a mechanic at home. That didn't fix the problem, so rather than continuing to guess at it, we took it to the Ford dealer in Oaxaca. They've had it for the past two weeks. Calvin (who speaks good Spanish, and in particular car Spanish) has spoken with the mechanic working on it and got a good feeling from him.
Meanwhile we flew to Belize to meet my parents for a week, stopping in Mexico City (which we skipped when we drove past) for a few days on the way. It's disappointing we didn't get to drive here to meet them as planned, but at least we're not sitting around waiting for the car to be fixed. We're due back in Oaxaca by next Friday, so it's looking like we may do some waiting after all.
We've met some great people while in Oaxaca and got a chance to explore a little too. And like others, we can't say enough great things about Calvin and Leanne at Overlander Oasis!
Hierve El Agua, outside of Oaxaca