December 14, 2018 – December 19, 2018

The town of Bariloche in the Lakes District of Argentina is a place that we had known about long before embarking on this trip. As we got closer and did more research, however, we kept running into one troubling piece of information….it seemed that Bariloche has had a bit of a problem with petty theft and vehicle break ins. Just a day or two before we were planning to arrive we had read about a couple who had parked on the street and went for a coffee in a nearby shop. Half an hour later they returned to find their vehicle had been broken into and the thieves took almost everything they owned. Overlanders, we read, were being targeted in Bariloche, as the thieves knew there would be computers, cameras, iPads and other goodies on board. We decided one lake town is as good as another, so we blew through Bariloche and headed to El Bolson, a town reputed to have a more relaxed vibe that had become popular with the “hippies” in the seventies.

We drove through El Bolson to a wild camp along a beautiful river. We sat in our lawn chairs amid the river rocks and talked about how much it looked like Canada, maybe northern British Colombia.

We had been impressed by what we had seen driving through El Bolson, always being fans of “hippie” inspired towns with colourful, relaxed lifestyles and lots of small businesses rather streets full of upscale see and be “scene” kind of places. So we gave up our spot on the river and headed into town to an organized campground to get a shower, some wifi and some laundry done. On the way into town, we decided to stop and do a little hike to a couple of water falls.

When we got back into the truck, Derek turned the key and the truck started to crank….and crank…and crank….maybe 10 or 12 seconds of cranking and it didn’t start. We sat for a moment giving the engine a little rest, then Derek “bumped” the starter to activate the fuel pump. We waited a few more seconds, then he tried again. Again, lots of battery power to crank the motor but it just would not start.

Derek flipped through the Haines Manual for the truck while I looked on the phone for a nearby mechanic. Derek tried the truck again…nothing. Still cranking strong but it wouldn’t fire. I said that we should wait a moment, “bump” the starter again, and if it didn’t start we should start the process of finding a tow truck.

“I want to try removing and replacing the engine fuel filter”, he said. This is the filter that the mechanic in La Serena had recommended we replace a few weeks prior, after which the truck began starting better. Derek’s theory was that removing a partly fouled filter would make just enough difference to the delivered pressure of the lift pump to allow the motor to start. Out came the tools, and as Derek crawled around on our big front bumper with his head under the hood I played the role of gopher, grabbing wrenches or parts as needed.

Long story short, we got the truck to go again, but did not totally understand why this engine filter, which our mechanic at home had said we should never need to change out since it is after two much finer pre-filters, and which we had just changed out a few weeks prior, was making a difference to how the truck started.

We drove to a campground on the edge of El Bolson, reluctantly turned off the motor, and settled in for a couple of days.

While camped there we got talking with a fascinating travelling family that was camping nearby. They and their two teenaged children had, among other things, lived on a sailboat for several years, and so they knew a lot about diesel engines. (As Anne said, one time they fixed their engine using an empty Coke can for a part that wasn’t readily available). We talked with them about the history of our engine problems (in between stories of other travel and life experiences). They had had experience with water fouled fuel and bacteria growths in the system and felt that was a likely source of our problems, and that we should drop the tank and have the entire system cleaned out. This seemed like a good place to start as it did not contradict any of our experiences for example no dash codes for faults in the high pressure injection system and the strong correlation to the fuel filtration.

We decided to head towards Chile again, to a town called Osorno where there was a Dodge dealership. Draining, removing and properly cleaning our huge tank and the associated fuel lines is not an easy job, so we decided to hire some professionals. Also, if we ended up needing to replace any parts, a dealership would be our best bet. It was good to have a plan and we set of into the beautiful border region of Argentina and Chile with some optimism and for the time being Seymour the truck seemed willing to continue starting when needed.

We said good bye to our neighbours, sighed with relief when the truck started up immediately and made our way towards the border with Chile.