Another holiday trashed.

[Ed.]

Well we can't take a trick, another holiday has been trashed. Missus and I left yesterday to go north. Stayed overnight in Rockhampton and continued North to stay at  Airlie Beach for a week, it was to be followed by 2 nights at Mission beach and a week in Cairns with a couple of fishing charters booked out of Port Douglas and a snorkelling trip to McKay Cay. Just before we got to Mackay we stopped for a coffee, when we got back to the car there were several litres of coolant under our car.

Managed to get to a Jeep dealer in Mackay who checked our car and said that they were booked out for 2 weeks and also the parts were not readily available. We managed to hire a RAV4, and transferred all our gear to it, we now staying overnight in Mackay and heading home early morning to unload. We then have to drive back to Mackay on Sunday with the wifes car following as well  to return the hire car, then return home again in the wifes car.

Followed by a repeat performance and to pick up the repaired car a few weeks later. So we have lost the money on the accommodation, the hire car, fuel and several thousands on the repairs. To say that I am cheesed off would be an understatement.

I am investigating the possibility of catching  a train back on Sunday night which would save my wife from driving all the way to Mackay and back in her car which would be better. Anyway, it is what it is so just have to accept it. This will be the third anniversary holiday in a row that we have had to cancel.

 

 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Sorry to hear Ed, that's terrible!  

[ellicat]

Ouch !! You can keep that luck, Ed.

Can't change plans to stay in Mackay for awhile ?

[Bri_sunnycoast]

Jeep, just expect every problem.

[Bob9863]

That's pretty bad luck. 

[Ed.]

53 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Ouch !! You can keep that luck, Ed.

Can't change plans to stay in Mackay for awhile ?

Between hiring a car and new accommodation, it would cost many thousands more on top of the cost of the repairs. Knowing Jeep the parts may be available in that time frame but probably not so it may drag on for much longer, so we are  cutting our losses and returning home to wait. It would add about $4K plus fuel just to to hire a car to complete our holidays all the way up to Cairns and back to Mackay, so no go.

[Angry51]

That's a bummer Ed. The way parts are at the moment it could be

a long wait. I'm assuming it's more than a hose.

All I can do is wish you good luck, there's that word again.

[Ed.]

Yep on the Jeep, it's a convoluted cooling system also involving the turbo, which may involve removing the manifolds to get to the valley part of the motor block as there is a coolant hose in there as well, which also means removing the fuel lines which are a one off use type so they have to be replaced as well, those could take a couple of weeks to 6 weeks to source, and so it goes on and on.

So depending where the leak started it will be two weeks before they can even look at it let alone order the required parts.

Hence the reason we can't be waiting around.

[rayke1938]

A bit late after the fact but consider RACQ ultimate Take it out in your name but on the wifes car. Wife will only be covered when she is driving her car but you are covered on any car that you drive,. Have a good look at their terms and conditions you get very good cover and they would have either trucked your car back to local jeep agent at home and paid fares for you and wife back home. or paid accommodation costs while you wait for car to be repaired You were lucky it happened in town and not on the highway and have to pay expensive towing fees just to get jeep back to a garage.

Edited September 23, 2022 by rayke1938

[Sunny boy]

6 hours ago, rayke1938 said:

A bit late after the fact but consider RACQ ultimate Take it out in your name but on the wifes car. Wife will only be covered when she is driving her car but you are covered on any car that you drive,. Have a good look at their terms and conditions you get very good cover and they would have either trucked your car back to local jeep agent at home and paid fares for you and wife back home. or paid accommodation costs while you wait for car to be repaired You were lucky it happened in town and not on the highway and have to pay expensive towing fees just to get jeep back to a garage.

These sound great tips! But a quick check on racq ultimate only covers up to 200km tow distance. 

[rayke1938]

That was the best tow allowance that you could get last time i checked. Adds up when it is around $10 per k. Another tip if your tug goes on a flat bed and you have a trailer or van behind it make certain that you advise them what type of hitch you have. I think they also have max length of van that they will tow

 

[Ed.]

Left Mackay at 6:00am and got home about 4:15pm today, unloaded all the gear from the hire car, will have to leave by 5:30am in the morning to drive back to Mackay to return the hire car. So pretty tired at the moment, have booked the train from Mackay which leaves at 7:56pm to return us to Hervey Bay next morning. All the sleeping beds were booked out due to school holidays, so we will have to sit up overnight. This is our best solution for us as at least we won't have to drive back the same day as I would have to get the missus to follow me up in her car and then drive back.

I will have to look at the RACQ Ultimate policy when I get some more time.

[ellicat]

A bit of an adventure you could have done without, for sure.

[Angry51]

Drive safely Ed, not worth killing yourself over it.

Will be a big couple of days.

[Ed.]

Thanks guys.

[Ed.]

Well back home now after a 10 hour trip on the train in an upright position as all the bed seats were taken. That was very tiring as I couldn't sleep in that position. Now I just have to go back to Mackay to pick up the Jeep when it gets fixed in 3-6 weeks time, again by train, stay overnight and then drive back home over 1-2 nights.

We are now trying to book all those trips and fishing charters back for next year.

[Angry51]

Good that you got it done safely Ed.

Did you price Greyhound for your return to Mackay, probably be less travel time.

 

[Ed.]

Actually my wife did for the trip from Mackay but the times were about the same and the prices were double the train fare. Apparently, Greyhound have an 1.5 hour layover somewhere on that trip. At least on the train you can get up and walk from one carriage to the next and they have  a coffee/nibbles section, also you can watch movies at the back of the seat facing you. Anyway, it will all depend on the availability of getting a bed on it at short notice. Once the school holidays are over, I might have a better chance.

[Angry51]

When I used to do float work up and down the coast the

Brisbane company used to want change-over loads in Gladstone as

it was 6 hours from Brissy and their drivers could do log book hours.

Greyhound probably work the same. Have their change over and rest period there.

Anyhow was just a thought.

[Hweebe]

Really feel for you Ed, hopefully the end of this saga is in sight.

Most of my holiday / leave is taken as road trips around Australia in my own car, I've often thought about what would happen if I break down 1000km+ away from home.

The thought of the costs / expense have always been to scary to think about (so i just bury them)

Makes me wonder why there isn't some domestic travel insurance that would cover your type of scenario (although I've never really looked into it)

[Ed.]

Just got an update, looks like they will repair the Jeep by Thursday and so I will be jumping on board the train back up there on Thursday night. Yay, another sleepless night sitting upright for 9 hours.

Bit cheesed off that they said it would be 2 weeks before they could even look at it. If they had said a few days, we could have hung around and at least got to do the rest of the trip, we cancelled everything so we could get some of our money back, now it's too late to get the bookings back.

I suppose I should be grateful that they can repair it quickly but it could have been handled better.

[ellicat]

Oh, that is frustrating !

[Angry51]

Sounds like poor management to me.

You could have stayed there and saved the cost of hire car etc.

But I suppose.

[kmcrosby78]

Frustrating experience and a shame you missed out on the trip. I'm assuming seeing as though they'll have the car ready so quickly it's a relatively simple/cheap fix?

[Ed.]

"relatively simple/cheap fix", is such a broad term, it will still cost $1070, still it is better than I expected, although they are only replacing part of the coolant pipe, so don't know what that implies.

[ellicat]

That's a dear pipe.

[Ed.]

The actual pipe is cheap, it's the labour that is required to dismantle a heap of engine parts just to get to it, as my vehicle is a compact SUV there is stuff all room for anything under the bonnet or room to work on the engine.

Last time I had the manifolds replaced, I went and fitted an Oil Catch can after I got the vehicle back, it took almost 1.5 hours just to fit it in there, not including the time to make a custom made bracket to hold it in place, that Catch Can is 110mm x 220mm in size and will only fit in one spot under the bonnet and even then it is a tight squeeze under several pipes.

[ellicat]

Yes, it's crazy how packed engine bays are these days.