FIRST RV Continued

Day three (and four and five): We awoke fairly early, fixed some breakfast, and prepared to travel. Shortly afterward, a young mechanic showed up and went to work to try to find our problem. The engine would start up and run normally until you turned on an accessory such as turn signals or wipers. It would then die. The mechanic began checking and replacing items. We relaxed and watched movies as the mechanic toiled. After a few hours, he pronounced it repaired. We paid the bill and resumed our journey. We then got back on highway 99 and headed south. We traveled without incident for all of three miles and the engine quit cold. We parked on the shoulder with our flashers on, the passing trucks rocking us to sleep, and called back to the garage. You guessed it, Friday evening, it's closing time and they don't work on weekends. They could not do anything for us before Monday because they were going to their Christmas party. Merry Christmas to us.

We called AAA again and they towed us to the next town and the local Dodge dealership (another $260 down the drain). We could park on their lot but of course they could not help us until Monday.
We unhooked the VW and moved to a motel for the weekend. We had a fairly comfortable weekend, watching TV and checking out the local restaurants. It was a small town and not much else to do. But we were anxious to get on the road to Las Vegas. During the weekend, we discovered that the VW turn signals and flashers had failed. Fortunately, there was a VW dealership nearby and our VW was still in warranty. They replaced the flasher, but it is an expensive module instead of the old three or four dollar can most of us are used to. They said it was burned out because of the towing wiring we had added, but they would overlook that and fix it under warranty. By that time, the motor home was repaired and we hooked up the VW in preparation for travel. We resumed our journey and made it all of 10 feet. The mechanic had gone to lunch so we had to wait for him to return. He came back on a dead run and said I'm going to find this problem if it's the last thing I do. He completely rewired one under-dash plug that had melted down, but insisted that the problem still was not solved. After much poking, prodding and testing he finally found the problem. The rubber sheath on a battery cable was hiding the problem. The connection had broken and was just lying there barely making contact so that when additional load was put on it by the turn signals or wipers, it would break contact. He repaired that and it has performed like a champ ever since.

When we pass a motor home beside the road, my wife now yells out "Check the battery cables." We soon got underway and finally, after six days on the road, got to Las Vegas in time for Christmas. Oh yes, Arlene got on the phone and upgraded our AAA benefits to include the motor home. She says that's why we haven't had any more trouble with the motor home.