Things that happened this week in van life…. Would you believe that we had a check engine light pop on, our van not start due to cold, a 10 starts left DEF failure, and bursting water pipes?
Let me tell you a story!
Check Engine Light
Our check engine light came on as we were driving over Rabbit Ears Pass headed to Winter Park. When we check with Mercedes in Littleton (Denver) they said as long as the van was driving normally it wasn’t an issue to keep driving it until we could get into a service location. Mercedes of Littleton was 4 months out!
Van Won’t Start – Too Cold
The temps in Steamboat Springs hit -20 overnight, and even though we waited until 11am and it warming up to 5 degrees… the van wouldn’t start. Fortunately the maintaining guy at the KOA was super nice and gave us a battery jumper and propane torch to heat the oil pan. After 45 mins we got it started.
Only 10 Starts Left
After deciding to drive all the way back to Seattle, 2 hours away from Steamboat Springs, our van gets an alert on the dash stating that we only have 10 starts until the van shuts down due to some diesel exhaust fluid failure. So, as I’m driving, Emily calls multiple Mercedes dealerships that were on our way, and after striking out on the first two… Mercedes of Boise has a policy that if you need help you can drop your vehicle off and they will get to it in just a couple days. We feel relived that someone will help!
Water Pipe Bursts
On our way to Boise we stop at Rock Springs for the night, and when we turn on our water pump we hear water shooting into our shower. It turns out that -20 didn’t agree with the cartridge that controls that water in our shower and it failed. So we couldn’t turn on any water in the van without water shooting into our shower. Which would be fine if our shower wasn’t our extra closet in the winter.
Mercedes of Boise Saves the Day
Amazingly, after only two days, Mercedes of Boise got our van all fixed up, and our extended warranty covered it all! We still haven’t paid for the warranty yet, but we have 20k miles left to do so!
In the end we’ve found a new Mercedes dealership to take our van to if we ever need service, and have overcome the dreaded DEF 10 starts!
Now if we can just get Sportsmobile to even email us back about our warranty issues.
Links
Mercedes Benz of Boise
Other This Week in Van Life Posts
Our YouTube Channel
Leave a Reply