What’s Broken on Our Motorhome? And How Did We Fix It?

If you’re going on an extended trip in a motorhome, some things will fail at some point, it’s pretty much certain. The older the van, as a rule of thumb, it seems reasonable to expect more stuff to fail.

Here’s a summary of what’s broken on Dave, our 1993 Hymer B544, in the six months we’ve been living in him and travelling about 11,800Km in Europe and Morocco. When we bought him, Dave had 176,000Km on the clock, and a full service history, but we still took him to our local garage for a full check up and service – then an MOT the day before we left. We’ve been able to sort out all the problems, usually with little inconvenience (and a lot of satisfaction in some cases!). When we bought Dave, as an older van we anticipated having to spend a reasonable amount of our budget on repairs, and we’re about in line with our expectations.

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What Broke?
One of the rear leaf spring suspension mounting brackets was rusted through.

Where Did it Break?
Our garage at our home in Eastwood found it while servicing the van.

How Did We Fix It?
Our garage fitted two new brackets. They found, after a few calls with Fiat in Italy and Hymer, that the rubber bushes needed were no longer manufactured. They made us a set of bushes up from plastic instead.

How Much Did it Cost?
For a full service, the brackets, the replacement bushes and an MOT, £700.

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What Broke?
Our 3 way fridge wouldn’t cool down when on the gas supply.

When Did it Break?
Day 1 – when we stopped overnight on our way from Nottingham to Dover. We’d not picked it up on our shakedown trip, as we’d run the fridge on 12V and hook-up only. Doh!

Where Did it Break?
In Milton Keynes.

How Did We Fix It?
When we arrived at our first aire in Gravelines, France, Ju asked some fellow motorhomers about it. They told us it was most likely the gas burner, which on Dave is accessed from a panel at the back of the van. The burner has a tiny hole in it which the gas flows through, and which can get blocked with dust or dirt. We found it, removed the burner and tried to blow any rubbish out. This didn’t work, so we got it fixed at a Hymer dealer near to Honfleur (when they were sorting out the skylight – see below). The mechanic there said the burner was yonks old (it was rather rusty), and should have been swapped as part of servicing.

How Much Did it Cost?
€50.

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What Broke?
We lost the main skylight to the van on the motorway, leaving a set of motorway tolls. Fortunately for us the traffic was light behind us. We’d driven earlier in the day with the skylight up, realised and stopped, and wound it fully down. This might have damaged it and the wind removed it as we pulled away.

Where Did it Break?
On the M25.

How Did We Fix It?
We contacted Hymer UK who gave us details of the nearest dealer, however he said it wasn’t a standard part so we’d have to go to Brownhills in Preston (Hymer UK). We decided our chances of sorting it were better on mainland Europe (if needs must we could have driven to Hymer in Germany!), so we nipped into a carpert shop and asked for some of the tough plastic they wrap the carpets in, and a hardware place for a ratchet strap and duct tape. With this makeshift solution we headed for the ferry, We got it fixed at the Hymer dealership near Honfleur – Salinski Camping Cars, Parc de Lunay, 14130 Pont Leveque, France. We were fortunate as they had in stock a second hand skylight that was suitable, and fixed it (and the fridge) within two hours.

How Much Did it Cost?
€290.

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What Broke?
The leisure battery refused to hold charge.

Where Did it Break?
In Eastern France after 2 or 3 weeks into the trip.

How Did We Fix It?
We found the local Norauto (French equivalent of Halfords) but they didn’t have any leisure batteries in stock. They drew us a map to a motorhome shop, which was closed for a holiday. We tried another couple of shops before giving up and buying a 100Ah starter battery from a Feu Vert (Spanish equivalent of Halfords) near San Sebastian. We know starter batteries shouldn’t be used for this purpose, as they don’t like being deep cycled (frequently discharged without being immediately recharged) but we figured we try it anyway. So far we’ve been fine and it’s performed perfectly.

How Much Did it Cost?
€135.

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What Broke?
The rear passenger side tyre delaminated while driving on the motorway. It removed half the wheel arch, penetrated inside the van mangling a cupboard and heating pipes, and damaged the step. We later found it had bent one of the air suspension brackets, but didn’t get it fixed.

Where Did it Break?
Near Santander in Northern Spain.

How Did We Fix It?
Our scissor jack had siezed in the UK so I’d bought a bottle jack. This worked fine in testing, but I’d only jacked the van up with an inflated tyre. At the side of the motorway we found out that it wouldn’t lift the van high enough to get an uninflated tyre off. We called ADAC (our breakdown company) who sent a Spanish recovery vehicle. He used two jacks and some blocks of wood to jack the van up to get the spare on. We found the details a Hymer dealer in Santander in our Spanish campsite book (Caravanas Santander, Ctra. de Burgos, km 146,5, 39600 Muriedas, Cantabria). They were really good and did all the repairs the following day – it took them a whole day.

How Much Did it Cost?
We claimed on our insurance, but had to pay €300 excess.

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What Broke?
The air suspension refused to hold air.

Where Did it Break?
It was broken when we got the van.

How Did We Fix It?
A tale of woe this one! When the rear leaf springs started to make a lot of noise (see below), I removed the bent bracket thinking the air suspension could be causing the noise (it wasn’t). In the process I sheared off two bolts from the U shaped bolts which held the bracket to the rear axle. Later I found that a T piece in the air pipe had snapped and super glued it back together. This made the system air tight, but we didn’t have the U bolts to re-attach one of the brackets. We tried several hardware stores, a Norauto and a second hand car spares place before finally buying some 12mm threaded rod and, using advice from our blog readers, we bent it into shape to make new bolts. One bracket is still bent, but the air suspension now works.

How Much Did it Cost?
€17 for the rod, some tools and some 12mm nuts.

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What Broke?
The water pump made the pumping noise when we turned on the tap, but no water came out.

Where Did it Break?
Southern Morocco.

How Did We Fix It?
The pump on Dave is submersed in the fresh water tank. When we unscrewed the pump cover we found the pipe had simply become detached and we pushed it back on. Simples.

How Much Did it Cost?
€0.

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What Broke?
The rear skylight and back window leaked water during heavy rain.

Where Did it Break?
We spotted the leaks in France and Spain.

How Did We Fix It?
We worked out where the water was coming in while it was still raining, waited for it to dry up, and used some clear silicon sealent to sort it out.

How Much Did it Cost?
€3 (at a guess – can’t remember how much the silicon cost).

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What Broke?
A fuel pipe started to leak diesel.

Where Did it Break?
We spotted it while parked outside of Gibraltar. There was a small patch of oily substance under the engine in the morning when we went to leave. Looking under the bonnet, we could see diesel all over one of the fuel lines.

How Did We Fix It?
We bought a metre of fuel line from a car parts place and fitted it ourselves in about 30 minutes.

How Much Did it Cost?
€3.

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What Broke?
The latch on the main bathroom cabinet snapped.

Where Did it Break?
In Northern Spain.

How Did We Fix It?
Superglue sorted it.

How Much Did it Cost?
€1.

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What Broke?
The fog light came on when driving in rain and refused to switch off again. Pressing the switch on and off made no difference, the light on the dash stayed on, as did the actual fog light.

Where Did it Break?
In Northern Spain (it rains a lot in Northern Spain!).

How Did We Fix It?
Dave used to have a back box fitted which I’d removed. I’d cut the cables which had run to the light clusters on the back box and sealed them with silicon. I sprayed WD40 on them, and this seemed to sort it out. The lamp now operates as it should.

How Much Did it Cost?
€0.

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What Broke?
The rear suspension leaf springs started to make some nasty clonking noises as we went around corners.

Where Did it Break?
It started in Morocco and gradually got worse.

How Did We Fix It?
We tried spraying WD40 on the springs. We then tried jacking the van up and using a makeshift oil squirter (plastic bag taped to a drinking straw) we injected engine oil in between the springs. No joy so we went to a Fiat Garage in Antequerea, Spain who over a period of 2 days on and off tried to find a fault, but concluded the springs were just old. After more miles driving across southern Spain, the clonking got worse. Ju got the number for an expat British mobile mechanic from some other motorhomers. We met him at the side of a motorway, but his conclusion was also that the springs were safe, but just old and rubbing together. Eventually we got the air suspension working, which has taken some load off the springs, and stopped most of the noise.

How Much Did it Cost?
The Fiat garage in Antequerea charged us nothing. The mobile mechanic cost us €30 call out fee (but also tightened up a slipping belt and tried to fix the fan heater – see below).

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What Broke?
The cab windscreen heater fan started to work intermittently, then stopped completely. We had a couple of hairly moments driving in the rain when the windscreen fogged up and we had to open both cab side windows and get rained on.

Where Did it Break?
In Northern Spain.

How Did We Fix It?
We connected the fan directly to the leisure battery, and it worked, so we sussed the problem was the switch. I tried removing the dashboard to get at the switch, but it seems to be part of a larger assembly, which was confirmed by the mobile mechanic months later. I finally sorted it by fitting a separate heavy duty switch and connecting the fan directly to the leisure battery. It now works on full power only, but that’s fine as it works when we need it.

How Much Did it Cost?
€10 for the switch, wire and screws.

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What Broke?
The clutch died, making it more and more difficult to select a gear while the engine was running.

Where Did it Break?
As we left Spain over the Pyrenees.

How Did We Fix It?
I tightened the clutch cable, which helped but introduced a whining noise when the clutch was depressed. Ju explained the symptoms on outandaboutlive.com (a motorhome forum), and got a couple of fantastically helpful replies the next day basically saying it needed replacement, and by someone who knew what they were doing or we risked damage to the gearbox. The local post office gave us details of a nearby garage. He further tightened the clutch cable and told us the clutch was on it’s way out. His supplier couldn’t find the parts we needed, so he advised us to go to a Fiat garage. We found one in Narbonne (SNIA, Zac de Bonne Source – 7, rue Demonge, 11100 Narbone, France) and got the clutch fixed there. As they were so busy, we have to wait for 10 days. We winged it a bit and drove around the local area during this time. I had to adjust the clutch on more time before the proper repair, which took 4 days as they had to order a new clutch fork.

How Much Did it Cost?
€1397 for the repairs, plus €150 for 3 nights in the nearby pet friendly Etap hotel.

Watch this space! More stuff will break, and we’ll fix it was we go (or we’ll get someone else to!).

Cheers, Jay