Rumbles on the Road

Back in February, it didn’t occur to us that our nearly-new motor home, with only 6,000 miles on it, could possibly have any serious mechanical issues.

Out on our first trip, to Cape Disappointment State Park in southwest Washington State, during a rest stop, as I was getting our of the coach, I caught a whiff of the what I recognized as the very distinct odor of gear oil.  Investigating further, I found fluid leaking out of the left rear axle, and dripping down the inside of the left rear inside tire.  I checked the brake fluid, which was OK – at that point, not having worked on vehicle rear ends, I wasn’t sure what the problem was.  I called Poulsbo RV, who suggested I call the nearest Ford dealer.  They suggested it was probably the axle seal, but wouldn’t have time to look at for a week.  Since we were already most of the way to the State Park, we went on and enjoyed our weekend.

Once we got back home in Seattle, I made an appointment and dropped La Casita (our motor home) off at Way Scarff Ford in Auburn, one of only two Ford dealers in Western Washington that works on RV’s.  They replaced the rear axle seal, and we went on our way.

By early June, we had moved into La Casita full-time, while the house was being remodeled in preparation for sale.  During our first trip out the driveway, I once again noticed the odor of gear oil, and found the axle leaking again.  I called the dealer, who was incredulous.   We made an appointment for us to take it in again, but this time we had to book a room at La Quinta in Auburn.

This time around, Ann thought to ask the service adviser Chris if there had been previous work on this problem done for the previous owner.  Surprise, we found out that Ford had replaced the seal twice before!  Chris called us back later that Monday to say they’d taken the hub apart again, and had removed the axle shaft and inspected and tested all the parts, but couldn’t find any reason why the axle would leak.  I didn’t find this conclusion promising.  The dealer called Ford to consult, and opted to replace the hub assembly, based on the “what else could it be” rationale.

During this visit, we went out to chat with the mechanic, Daniel.  It ends up that the dealership keeps goats:

And . . . two hours after driving away that Tuesday, I again smelled leaking gear oil – Ugh!  So, I called Chris at Ford, and booked us yet again at La Quinta.  It ends up that for this third visit, they only needed to get part numbers off of the axle housing – the plan was to replace the entire axle housing, again based on the “what else could it possibly be” rationale.  This was seriously not reassuring.  They ordered the housing, and the plan was for us to return the following Monday to have it replaced, which would take a couple of days.  At this point, I started asking a lot more questions about what tests they had done, their procedures for doing this, how experienced their mechanics were, etc.  I kept hearing about an “expert” called Gary, who had dropped by the last two times, and who seemed stumped.  Oh dear.

So, we showed up the next Monday, and were told it’d be a day or two.  This time around, Rumbles had to stay in the hotel with us, since the house had essentially been sold and he couldn’t stay in the store room at the house.  He was miserable in the hotel room.

I stopped by the dealer each afternoon to chat with the mechanic, Daniel, who seemed familiar with all the procedures for replacing an axle.  I encouraged him to take his time.

Little did I know that it’d take FOUR DAYS!  This was miserable for us – each day we had to check out of the hotel by 11:00 AM, not knowing if we’d need to stay another day.  Poor Rumbles was stuck for several hours each day in his carrier in the back of the car.  This is when I really pondered the advantages of a trailer or fifth wheel over a motor home – if the tow vehicle had broken down, we’d still have somewhere to live.

I also called Ford’s Warranty Department to discuss our predicament, and to begin a claim for reimbursement for our hotel bill.  As of last week, they’d approved this, and the check is due in another week or so.

I also daily grilled our service adviser Chris on progress, or lack thereof, and on possible causes for the leak.  He insisted that it had to be the axle housing, even though they had not found any defects or flaws in the housing.  I suggested that it might be a bent axle – Ann and I had consulted several other mechanics, and, thru one of her friends, an automotive engineer, and the consensus was that it must be a bent axle.  Well, Chris did agree to also replace the left axle shaft, and looked into ordering a new one – but found that a new one was not available.

At this point, it wasn’t clear to me that Ford, on their fifth try, were going to be able to fix the leak.  Ann and I discussed Plan B options, which included:  trading in the motor home; taking the motor home to a true expert, such as Randy’s Rack and Pinion; trying to force Ford to buy back the motor home.

However, during our hotel stay, I decided to keep an optimistic outlook, and went ahead with making reservations for a trip to Canada to visit Jasper and Banff, and to visit Glacier back in the States.

And on Thursday, we got a call that the work was complete.  When we went to pick it up, Daniel, our mechanic, said he’d taken it for a fifty-mile test drive, and that it seemed OK.

We launched ourselves that afternoon, and headed for Lake Ki RV Resort in Arlington, about fifty miles north of Auburn.  And, getting out at the end of the drive – no gear-oil smell!  Hallelujah!

Here I do need to give Way Scarff Ford credit for standing by us and finally getting our leaky axle fixed.  I just wished that it had not taken Ford five trys to do so.

The next day, we set out for Jasper National Park, in Canada.  After many trials getting the house ready to sell, and finally getting La Casita road-worthy, we had achieved escape velocity!