The Van Archives - Mygrations

Oh no, what’s that sound?

by mygrations | Jun 24, 2021

Living and travelling in a van isn’t all about the best spots to camp, the thumbs up we get or driving the most scenic roads. It’s also about waiting for the engine to cool down, being anxious about a new sound she’s making and visiting garages while holding your breath that they know what they’re doing.

Up to now we have visited a couple of garages. One didn’t know much about an old engine, the other one was specialised in it and now in Georgia we found an old guy who at least worked on a T3 before.

But still, while they are working on the engine, loosening more and more screws, taking more and more things out but still not the one you need fixed. It kind of feels like a surgeon who is working on your heart but he’s specialised in brains. They are educated and know much but just not the right thing.

Fixing van problems in Georgia

We were thinking when we passed the European borders people would know a lot more about oldtimer engines because they probably drive older cars. But like in Georgia, during the USSR time no foreign cars were allowed, thus no old Volkswagen. Luckily there are fan clubs everywhere and not only Volkswagen.

In Georgia we just contacted the Porsche fanclub. Porsche has been a close friend to Volkswagen. Ferdinand in the end stole the beetle design of the Jewish creator Ganz, made some minor changes and tadaaa the Volkswagen Hitler desired was born.

So, finding this fanclub was great. We send a message and the kindest of people replied. Lasha, president of not only the Porsche fanclub of Georgia but also the founder of the classic car fanclub. Oh my oh my were we lucky! He called some friends, one of whom has a T3 himself and had started ‘Vanlife Georgia‘ and the other one a Beetle, amongst other classics. We met and checked out the van before going to a garage. They confirmed what our Dutch rescue hotline (Dominique, Sander and Jaap) already thought; bearings in the alternator.

We changed the alternator in Italy but as written before; they didn’t really know what they were doing. Instead of replacing a broken cable they replaced our alternator. Luckily we still have the old one and so we decided to change it back. Our new made friends Lasha and Giorgi knew exactly the place. It’s that kind of place you would never find yourself.

But then, still, despite the good feeling and translation people are fiddling inside the heart of our van. It’s not the thumbs up that gets us to China but the engine. We can’t sleep at the most idyllic places if the engine isn’t working. So it hurts, seeing other people taking everything out and sometimes they look fabled, not knowing exactly what they are doing, questioning each other. And while not understanding them due to a language barrier it makes it even worse.

But we have faith in human kind and of course in Volkswagen. The reason why we got this far in the first place is because the engine is so strong, these cars are built for driving. Not just in the city, but distances. I’m sure that Pon intended this van to be used like we are using it now. Transporting people, migrating from place to place and maybe also meeting people through the van. Cause to be honest, we wouldn’t have met all these people if it wasn’t for the van.

Bernardus Marinus “Ben” Pon, Sr. (April 27, 1904 – May 15, 1968) was a Dutch businessman. In 1947, Pon’s Automobielhandel (“Pon’s Car Dealership”), became the first dealer outside of Germany to sell vehicles manufactured by Volkswagen. A sketch made by Pon inspired the engineers at Volkswagen to develop the VW Type 2 Transporter.

Branko in Montenegro who installed a new homokineet, got her checked and gave us some valuable tips. Lasha and Giorgi in Georgia who helped us fix the alternator and had us taste the delicious Georgian food and many more people who love the van and give us a beer, cherries or a great location to sleep.

Anyway, whenever we get her fixed we hold our hearts and hope she’ll return as her old self, hope she’ll feel better afterwards not worse. We can never be sure but let’s hope she likes people playing with her engine as I, Milene, like hairdressers playing with my hair 😉

Love, Milene & Yuri

The first van problems

by mygrations | Apr 2, 2021

While driving in Switzerland, from Liechtenstein to Zürich to be precise, the battery light started flickering suddenly. Not being panicked right away we continued driving towards Uster where a friend of us lives. Here we parked the car somewhere to check where we actually needed to go. When we wanted to move the van she didn’t start. But, like I told you in a previous post, after some pushing her engine started running again.

What to do when your battery light flickers?

Normally you stop but I am actually very happy that we continued driving and by accident stopped on a somewhat empty and not flat road. This way we could easily push her when she didn’t want to start. If we would’ve stopped on the highway right after the light started flickering we probably needed to call the road services. So, what do you do? That depends on you and of course the sound of the engine. Alexine sounded fine, we also know that we often have problems with her regarding electricity cables. That’s why we didn’t panic. It’s good to know your car so you will know what to do.

Then what happens?

The first thing we did was checking what we knew is sometimes the issue with her. Like I said, we had problems in the past. In England we were actually standing still on a very dangerous corner on a hill where people were driving crazy! Luckily a police officer came by and helped us out. He actually towed us to a parking place where we could fix her. The issue? A blown fuse. (I only knew because I called my father, who is my road service from a distance).

So, we first checked the things we knew; all fuses were okay, cables seemed to be fine, battery didn’t make a crazy noise and when the engine was working it sounded fine. So far no idea what the problem could be. We forgot our voltmeter so couldn’t measure the electric circuit.

A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electric potential difference between two points in an electric circuit. It is connected in parallel. It usually has a high resistance so that it takes negligible current from the circuit. So it measures voltages of either direct or alternating electric current on a scale usually graduated in volts, millivolts or kilovolts.

When do you go to a garage?

We believe that before going on a trip like this one needs to know the van. So, last summer we followed a course of a week getting to know our van. We checked the engine, set valves, changed bougies, oil & brake fluid. We learned what to look at when things go wrong, how to change a tire and how to change our breaks. We got to know how an engine works and had time to actually work on our van and do these things. So, we learned a lot but of course not enough and you forget things as well. But it’s a start.

What I would always do is check everything you know and rule things out. It’s good to know what it cannot be so the list of what the problem can be becomes smaller and when you go to a garage you can actually tell them what you’ve already figured out, so they don’t have to. Saves a lot of time and money.

However, in some cases, like ours, you end up in a garage anyway. While driving from Zürich to Lucarno we had to go over mountains and through tunnels. Especially in the tunnels the light started flickering. So, there was a problem with our battery but only in tunnels. That means, our solar panels are working, and they are actually charging our battery. Wow! We are driving hybrid now. You think that’s great right? Well, not when your engine is not made for this. Our van is old and she needs to drive on old and bad fossil.

Where do you go when your van has a problem?

Firstly, we went to a garage in Switzerland in a tiny village. They often have more time, are cheaper and sometimes still work with old cars. But this time we had no luck. He sends us to an electric car shop in Lucarno. So, we went there, but he didn’t want to help us. They all told us immediately that the alternator was broken even though they did not measure it. Which to us sound a bit strange so we went to another one, and another one, and another one.

The problem is electric which means you need to go to a garage that has knowledge of the electric system, often you see signs with ‘Bosch Service’. And then you need to find the one that you feel okay with, which is sometimes quite difficult. I often feel garages just want my money and they aren’t waiting for my knowledge on the car.

In Switzerland we didn’t find a garage that could or wanted to help us, which I guess was a good thing. Cause, in Italy we found a garage via a friend. These are always the best ones! A friend of a friend works with cars and he had worked at this garage. Because these are small villages, they of course know each other. We brought the van there, they did some measurements and figured out it indeed was the alternator. Changing the alternator isn’t a cheap fix, neither a quick one. So, the van was standing at the garage for a full day, and in the end even the night. Because we felt we could trust these people we left her there. If we wouldn’t trust them, we wouldn’t leave the van there. You want to see what they are doing on your car, not only because you have to pay for it in the end but also because you learn from what they are doing. If something goes wrong later on you can fix it yourself.

Tip: always take a photo before they start, and during is also nice. I take photos and video’s all the time when people are working on my van.

What is an alternator and how can it cause a problem?

Pfoe I’m really getting into detail here so if you are not into cars and you don’t care about fixing problems like these or even know about them, do continue to scroll. If you are interested do read and if you know more or better do leave a comment below.

So, here we go. I’ll try to keep is as basic and simple as possible. To be honest not so difficult as I only know the basics.

Anyway, your engine has a battery. Without this battery the engine is not doing anything. But a battery needs to be connected to the engine otherwise it doesn’t make sense, right?

So, the alternator is a generator whose purpose is to distribute electricity to the car and recharge the battery. All vehicles with a standard internal combustion engine will have an alternator. The alternator is about the size of a coconut and is generally mounted to the front of the engine and has a belt (the V-belt) running around it.

The alternator provides the car with the bulk of its electricity and helps recharge the battery. But to do all of that, the alternator must first turn mechanical energy into electricity. The belt’s movement — the mechanical energy — spins the alternator’s rotor at a high speed within the stator.

Electricity is made as the rotor spins. The magnets surrounding the rotor are deliberately placed so that as they pass over the copper wiring in the stator, a magnetic field is created.

This magnetic field, in turn, produces voltage that is captured by the stator. This power then reaches the voltage regulator, which disperses electricity to the vehicle and manages the amount of voltage the battery receives.

So you can see that many things can cause problems for an alternator.

From one problem into the other

Sometimes a garage thinks they know the problem but then find out it wasn’t actually the problem and something else is causing it. That happens, because like I said before fixing a problem is ruling things out. Also for a garage.

So, when the garage told us it’s the alternator that’s not working we were doubting it. But they are the pro’s in the end. So after a full day of work on the car they didn’t fix the problem. Luckily we could stay at our friends place because sleeping in the van wouldn’t be an option. Normally we wouldn’t leave the van at a garage but like I wrote before, as these were friends of our friend we trusted them.

They changed the alternator for a new one but suddenly her engine worked on 3 not 4 cylinders. What are cylinders? Every engine has cylinders, there are cars with 3 cylinders but normally it’s four, or six, or eight. Our van has four. Working on three cylinders means there is something wrong. The people at the garage didn’t know what was wrong and neither did I. As they speak in Italian it’s quite hard to understand what they are talking about.

But the next day when we woke up, after a not so good night of sleep, we got a call that the car was fixed. Happily we went to the garage to check it out.

In the end it wasn’t the alternator at all, it was a cable that was broken which connects the alternator with the battery. A problem that could’ve been fixed easily. So, the kind garage said that we did not have to pay anything except for the new alternator. Which is very kind actually cause we didn’t have an appointment and it was right before Easter so they were very busy anyway.

All good in the end. Now we have our van back and are able to hit the road again! On our way to the valley of Trebbia!