dawesberry adventures my view of the big family adventure.

The Smell Oh, jeez! There was this smell. It started happening one day in Kerry. Mid day, hot day, we were driving on the ring of Kerry, I think. We reached a really steep bit, and we smelled a smell through the front dash air vents. At the same time, the van was struggling to get up the incline, and Steve noticed that the gauge for the enginewas showing that it was really heating up. So we stopped climbing and parked there for 15 minutes, letting the engine cool. The smell had not persisted. But we were wondering what it had been. It did smell a-kin to a heated/burnt rubber or plastic something like a belt. But not quite. So we drove on. And as the days passed, we smelt that smell intermittently. Here and there. We couldn’t figure the source. When on level ground we had a good look at the engine. A look and smell, that is. We found something that might be the culprit: a very small pooling of radiator fluid on a flat depression under the radiator hoses. Sooooooooo, the radiator is …. Overheating…. Due to aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. .. . . . . hose that isn’t clamped on properly. Yeah, that’s it. So, lets reclamp the hose and clean up all the fluid that pooled up. Then we can tell if it still leaks. Yeah. That’s probably it. But, no. The smell returned. And again. But not for a half a day, or a whole day. But there didn’t seem to be a link to anything the van was doing. Well, you might remember that this great 82 campervan, VW, of course, we bought it. and the plan was to sell it because we NEED the money. So, we’re pretty serious about keeping it in really good condition, just like the owner before us did. He was an retired copper, and kept all 9 of his years of owning it on record. A log book of anything that went wrong, a new sound, etc. So, Steve kept it up as had been done before him. And it had to indlude the sleuthing of this problem. And at this time we were advertising it on ebay, so we had to tell that there was an intermittent problem with a smell, and that we think we’ve figure it out. Now, it didn’t seem to be the hose, no furthur pooling of fluid. So, maybe it was to do with………………….. the …………..uh hose that goes from the radiator to the overflow tank! Yeah, that’s it. there are some special instructions on how to get that air out, but we’ll have to have a place to do it. we’ll do that soon. Yeah, that’s it. Drive drive drive drive, there’s that smell, drive worry, think, drive drive drive drive worry. Wonder drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive smell (explitive) drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive. Well it had been going on since before we arrived at dingle and we hadn’t figured it out. We hoped it wouldn’t happen if someone was test driving it. !!! Ok well, guess what? We had to rent a car while the van was being worked on for a non-smell problem. And when we were driving to Achill, guess what we smelled??? THE SMELL! Whoa! This car has the same problem!!!!????? NO, it didn’t have the same problem. The smell was turf being burnt. It is what they burn, rather than wood, to warm their houses. It was always coming from the outside! DUHHHHHHHHH! It happens to ALL THE VEHICLES IN IRELAND. he he ho ho.