(written on the 6th from notes taken on the 4th)
I think it was somewhere between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. when I finally crashed for the night, somewhere not too far east of Shamrock, Texas.
I thought about stopping at the gas station that I got gas at, as I saw another van there, but I didn’t want to get interrupted by somebody who didn’t want me sleeping there, so I found an off-ramp that was away from civilization of any kind.
Oh yeah… my gas mileage was absolutely atrocious. 11.3 mi to the gallon.
😶
Crap.
I was crazy tired, but for some reason, I still couldn’t sleep very well. I think I might have had two or three hours of sleep, but I woke up a gazillion times.
Weird.
So I got up and headed right back out on the road. I started hearing a noise I wasn’t very happy about, so I stopped at an AutoZone in Amarillo, I think it was?
I noticed that there was an exhaust leak at the connection between the first section of exhaust pipe after the exhaust manifold and the secondary catalytic converter.
I figured that might be the sound issue, so I ordered a gasket in order to replace the busted one. They didn’t have it at that autozone, so I ordered it for pickup at another one in town and got gas again since the price was best at the station across from the AutoZone.
Ugh. Again it was 11.3. This was only after maybe burning through a half a tank instead of a full tank, but… 11.3 is absolutely pitiful.
After getting gas, I headed over to the AutoZone that had the gasket that I needed to buy, but before buying it, I did some other testing as well, concerned that part of the sound that I was hearing was an issue with one of my pulleys, so I bought a tensioner pulley and an idler pulley to be prepared for what could happen.
I couldn’t feel any play of significance in either the tensioner or idler pulley, but it’s not going to hurt to have those extra parts with me. I can always take them back. I did feel a little bit of bearing play in the water pump, which… isn’t so great, but I’m going to ignore it for now.
After buying the gasket and the pulleys, I headed away, planning to get back on the freeway and head West again, but I got just about to the freeway entrance when I just decided to stop because the noise was too disconcerting to ignore. So I pulled off the dog house to try and pinpoint exactly where the noise was coming from, two different noises. The noise from the exhaust, and then some weird chirping that I thought maybe was a pulley or a belt but turned out to be neither.
With the dog house off, I realized that one of the dtfe hoses was missing.
😶
Not only was it missing, but exhaust fumes were blowing out of it.
It was at that point when I started to realize more and more that what I was likely dealing with was a plugged up exhaust system, likely from plugged up catalytic converter.
Ugh.
🙄
As much as I wanted to keep driving and ignore the fact that the van was having problems, I drove myself back over to the AutoZone, bought some hose to replace what was missing, bought the sensor that the hose goes to, just in case the sensor might be having issues as well, installed the hose, and finally decided to head back west.
I drove and drove and drove, and I worked online, and I listened to a whole bunch of YouTube videos, including lots of LDS ones.
Then as I was coming up a steeper Hill, as the RPMs spiked to have the power to get up the hill, I heard a pop, and then a rushing air sound that stayed steady, and I lost a whole lot of power in the van.
I didn’t want to just pull over on the freeway, and there was an exit with a gas station about a mile or two down the road, so I limped it on the side of the road at maybe 30 miles an hour until I got to the gas station where I parked at the far end of the parking lot, pulled the dog house back off, and discovered that the hose that I had just installed had blown back off.
Seeing that the hose blew off, that pretty much solidified in my mind that the issue I’ve got with Rover is a plugged up exhaust system. That would explain the lack of power. It would explain the absolutely atrocious gas mileage…
And it’s not likely a cheap fix unless I find a way to Jimmy rig it.
😅
I spent some time chatting with one of my sisters. Spend some time chatting with my mom. Talked to one of my brothers for a bit.
One option that I had that I didn’t really like was to just straight up remove the upstream O2 sensors from the van. If it had power again, then that would basically prove the back pressure problem. Unfortunately, that would also mean the van would be extremely loud because all the exhaust noise would be blowing out of two small holes.
But that was the most reasonable course of action in my own mind, at least. I didn’t want to continue on with the awful 11.3 mi to the gallon. Nor did I want to keep on having to put the hose back on every time it blew off under heavier load because of all the back pressure in the exhaust system.
Gratefully, and quite possibly because of the mass of amount of back pressure, both upstream O2 sensors were not only easy to remove, but basically just straight up loose. So I unplugged them, unscrewed them, and set them on the floorboard, putting the dog house back in place and firing up the engine that now sounded like a cross between a diesel engine and a Harley.
A really loud harley. 😅
But the hose didn’t blow off again, and my gas mileage improved immediately without even having to go get gas to verify the numbers. It was that much better. 🎉
I kept working online. I stopped at the Walmart in Mount Taylor New Mexico, buying some comfort food and some wool socks for next winter, as they were on sale as off-season items at this point.
Speaking of winter, as I walked out of the walmart, it was snowing pretty good.
Welcome back to winter, Stephen. 🙃
So naturally, I ate the entire carton of mint chocolate chip ice cream, because… That’s just what you do when it’s snowing outside. 🙃
Kept working online, and was supposed to be heading over to my dad and stepmom’s place in Nevada, but there was a bit of a miscommunication, and it turned out to not be a good time, which meant I had driven quite a ways out of my way for no reason, but at least I found out when I did.
In fact, I found out I think only a mile and a half or two miles before one of the main routes north. Had I kept going west, all the rest of the routes North would have been really awkward, but I was able to head pretty much straight North from Gallup, New Mexico.
I chatted with one of my sisters for a good little while, and then I crossed into Colorado, and decided to keep going because I thought it would be nice to make it all the way to utah, even if just barely inside the border.
Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, exhausted, and ready to sleep, I found a nice little spot on a Sandy, dusty, dirt road just north of Monticello, Utah, where I gratefully crashed for the night.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful that after a very slow work day morning and afternoon, I was able to get at least a decent handful of questions answered in the evening.
- I’m grateful that I was able to limp the van along from New Mexico all the way to only a little ways south of Moab, Utah. Certainly, it was a very loud drive, but that leads me to my next point
- I’m grateful to have marshmallow headphones that double as ear plugs. I was able to mostly drown out the noise by listening to podcasts and YouTube and whatnot.
- I’m grateful that somehow, and I’m not sure how really, I was able to answer questions online for people over the phone despite the crazy loud engine and exhaust noises.
- I’m grateful that I was safe in my travels.
- I’m grateful to have the money to be able to buy spare parts as insurance for what might go wrong
- I’m grateful to know enough about vehicles to know how to Jimmy rig vehicles, when possible, to get me where I need to go without having to do major repairs.
Success:
- I think I was a lot better with my language today. I think a lot of that has to do with being much more spiritually focused. As much as I might feel like I’m not ready or wanting, there is definitely a noticeable, positive difference.
Improvement:
- I got a little frustrated with someone. I can do better.
Love and hugs, and hello, Utah!
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 