Day 10 Tuesday4 June 2019

DEVILS MARBLES TO TENNANT CREEK 201 kms

Left camp this morning intending to go to a Station Stay called Banka Banka about 100 kms North of Tennant Creek.

Well it was not to be as just after we left we had a Powertrain warning lamp come on and the car went into “Limp Mode” which restricted the speed to 60 kph. Stopped the car, turned off the ignition and restarted with the light not coming back on. Continued into Tennant Creek with no further trouble, refuelled then continued North until about 40 kms North of Three Ways Roadhouse we had 2 lights come on, the previous Powertrain warning lamp plus the Malfunction indicator light and the engine back into “Limp Mode”. A check of the Manual said if both lights came on to stop when safe to do do and have the vehicle checked by Authorised Mazda Repairer immediately. Of course by this time we have no phone signal so we restarted with no warning lights on, turned around and headed South until we could use the phone. The car kept going into “Limp Mode” and we crept along at 60 kph with our Hazard warning flashers going. Got back to the Three Ways Roadhouse before getting phone signal so stopped there and called the RACV. Had a mechanic there in about 1/2 hour and he checked diagnostics and found nothing wrong. He then looked under the bonnet and found that a hose was split and leaking air which caused the warning sensors to activate.

The options were to tape the split but no guarantee it would not go somewhere else or fit a new hose which had to come from Adelaide which would take 3 days. We opted for the new hose. The car was OK to drive short distances so we came back to Tennant Creek into a Caravan Park. As we have RACV Total Care they pay for the site fees at the Park and the car should be repaired first thing Friday morning.

RACV have been excellent in organising things and if things did not work out Friday they would look at getting us to Darwin for our Cruise.