Thanks Simon. I'll be on to you next week.
We got back OK last week somehow slipping in between Brittany ferry strikes. This is the first chance to get on the forum as my daughter got married over the weekend and things have been accordingly pretty busy!
Again, a big thanks for the advice and assistance from people on here which enabled us to have a pretty much trouble free holiday once we'd done the temporary fix. Also thanks to Dave at Futbus for advice over the phone and for the loan of his high lift jack.
We came back over the Cevennes and spent three days in Chinon where I have some friends from teenage years and so enjoyed dinners and "aperos". We were also able to stock up with vital supplies of coffee, olive oil, wine etc to last us through the next year. This time though we had sister and brother in law with us so the VW had a huge load for the last 250 miles back to Roscoff with supplies for two households.
We did just under 2000 miles and generally I was pleased with the way the Syncro performed. It kept pretty cool on both journeys over the Cevennes. It managed just over 22mpg overall. Considering that we had four adults and all their gear plus the amount of wine etc that we brought back I was pretty pleased with this. We also did a lot more running around when in the Midi as sister in law had torn ligaments in her knee just before we left and so plans for bike rides and walks etc had to be largely shelved. Given the exchange rate and the cost of fuel in France we ended up spending a lot less on fuel than I had expected.
There were two other mechanical issues that developed towards the end of the trip. The first was was what I thought was a leaky exhaust but is in fact a leak in the induction side. I first noticed a popping sound on the overrun and then quite a loud induction roar on acceleration. I checked for all the obvious vacuum pipes etc but can't find anything. The induction noise is definately fron the right hand side though. I think I'm going to have to go through the whole system and check every joint right down to the gasket where the inlet manifold joins the head.
The second happened on the overnight run to Chinon when, after stopping for fuel, we lost headlights. I switched off to check fuses etc (all of which were OK) and then tried again and everything was OK. Subsequently it has happened again and this time both headlights and wipers stopped working (wipers - back in England!). Again I stopped to check what I could and then tried again and everything worked. I suspect this might be a common failing but I'm going to do separate posts for advice in the right place.
Here's a few pics of the journey and the places we stayed:
In the queue at Plymouth - sister in law strapped up!
First aire just south of Poitiers on the journey down. Had it to ourselves for the night.
Second aire at Florac
Nice French air cooled Westy at Florac. Owned by a family from Nimes who were away for the weekend. He had done the resto himself
Our set up at the friends' Mazet (barn) where we stayed most of the time
Fixing the leaking filler pipe
Our favourite beach at Collias
Another favourite swimming place at Pont du Gard
Our set up at Chinon (the only place we paid to stay in the whole trip - 15 euros per night including hook up!)
The view from just outside the camp site at Chinon
Right - now I need it to stop raining so that I can get that filler pipe off!
