Desert break-down - my RACV experience

Hey all,

I will start this tale from when disaster struck my Foz...

The VIC crew was out at Big Desert climbing the dunes to reach Thomson Peaks Lookout. This is a video of Venom going up:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGwJmhOC9I4"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGwJmhOC9I4[/ame]

He got up on his first go. I was next and unsuccessful on my first attempt at about 80-90% throttle. My second attempt was much better at 100% throttle, but still came to a halt about 5m from the top. Third go wasn't so good and to bring insult to injury, a thick plume of white smoke came gusting out of the engine bay when I stopped. Venom was watching and came to assist. We popped the bonnet and found a pretty badly damaged radiator header tank, with a 6-inch crack visible from the inlet hose mount:





There was coolant everywhere!

By this time, the car was off and rolling down the dune in neutral. With me were Venom, Dulagarl and subaruby. The guys were great in towing me out to a graded road just outside Big Desert. A big BIG THANK YOU to you 3 (I'm just sorry I didn't have any petrol left in the jerry can to fill subaruby's tank, but I'll make it up to you, mate!).

Waiting for the tow:


As a Total Care member, I contacted RACV on a Sunday 2.30pm with hopes of getting the radiator changed on Monday somewhere in the area. Towing was organised from Pinnaroo, SA (the closest township) and I was picked up by Chris at 4.20pm. He told me he had to take me into town of the night, which I was fine with.

Problems started when we arrived in Pinnaroo. Both Chris and I were on the phone to RACV trying to organise a follow-up tow for the following day. Chris told me the RAA wouldn't hesitate to send a tow truck out for one of its members, but the RACV attendant informed me there was no way I could be towed to Mildura (my initial preference for a quick repair) in a hurry - that was not their "practice" for breakdowns over 100kms from home.

The Pinnaroo Motel innkeeper, Cheryl, was great and very helpful with transport options out of Pinnaroo and even loaned me a phone charger, but given the difficulties with the car my night wasn't great. I had to make contact with RACV the following morning to find out what my alternatives were. They in contrast, were not helpful at all. Basically, the only thing I could do was:
1) Get transported back home by bus from Pinnaroo to Swan Hill, overnight stay and then V-line train back to Melbourne.
2) The car would stay at Chris' depot and be collected by a company organised by RACV on 1/Oct and delivered to me in Melb by 8/Oct

I was not happy about this. I don't think anyone would be happy to leave their car behind for just over 2 weeks! Having no alternative, I went to the depot to ready the car for transport. Repacked a few things, threw my food away and left the car keys with Chris. I left it after taking heaps of photos of my belongings inside it and the condition of the vehicle in general (I hope nothing happens, but I have to be prepared to argue in case something goes wrong).

This is the last photo of the car as I walked back to the motel:


I got on the bus and headed to Swan Hill, a long and sleepy 4h journey:


When I arrived at the train station in Swan Hill, I collected my ticket for the following morning and headed for my second motel overnighter. I contacted RACV once again to verify my options upon arrival in Melbourne. My expectation was that I would have a replacement vehicle (even a cheap runabout) paid for until my car was returned to me. To my surprise, this was not the case! The ever cranky attendant informed me that they consider me arriving home as the "end of the incident", by which time no further benefits are available. This astounds me as my car has not yet "arrived home", nor have I reached the limit of expenditure on my incident. Is it unreasonable for me to expect a loaner as a TOTAL CARE member??? Apparently yes.

Following day (this is now Tuesday), I jumped on the train and head back to Melbourne, a 4.5h ride:


I finally arrived home on Tuesday, around 1pm. As we only have 1 vehicle in my household, I had no option but to fork out for a car hire until my beloved Forester is repaired. Hopefully I'll get it back on the road sooner rather than later.


SO WHAT HAVE I LEARNED FROM THIS:

1) The mates I made through this forum are absolutely great! I'm very happy to know you all!
2) Country folk are exceptionally helpful, even when they don't have to (I already knew this, but once again got it reconfirmed).
3) RACV TOTAL CARE is passable, but probably needs a new name to more accurately describe the service on offer.
4) Never, ever lose your cool on the phone to these RACV attendants. They are only following procedure and don't have a lot of leeway to support their customers.
5) I think RACV should spend a little less on TV ads and direct these funds to improve its assistance services - after all, that's what it's there to do!

Pedro.

Mmmmh, not a nice story…that RACV isn't very serious, is there any alternative ?

Is your radiator an OEM Subaru ? What made it break ? Overheating ?

As you say, its still a nice adventure because most people were nice and helpful !

Geez! What a horror story, Pedro (I'm not sure which to do ... ).

What wonderful help everyone involved has given you, with one notable exception ...

Bugger about your car.

These things do happen, however. That much I well understand, as I'm sure you do.

However, the RACV's "Total Care" service you have received thusly far does not appear to bear any relationship whatsoever to the PDS I have for just that service.

I am (was?) going to upgrade my normal RACV cover to this level before leaving for Brissy late October/early November. I may have to ask them some embarrassing questions before doing this (embarrassing for them ... ), using your situation as a very bad example ...

Those standard Subaru radiators are not great.
Using plastic and metal together with different rates of expansion I think would cause fatigue over time. Usually about 180000 to 200000 kms.
Not the best time to fail though.

jf1sf5 said:

Mmmmh, not a nice story…that RACV isn't very serious, is there any alternative ?

Is your radiator an OEM Subaru ? What made it break ? Overheating ?

As you say, its still a nice adventure because most people were nice and helpful !

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For people living in the state of Victoria, RACV is the most common option for roadside assist...

The radiator that blew up was a reworked top header, since I had my original leaking about 12 months ago. My guess is the reworked tank was slightly damaged during re-clamping and that caused the fault... I need to confirm this when I get the car back.

Car was no where near overheating. It was sitting in a comfortable 95 deg Celsius when the radiator gave way.

Ratbag said:

I am (was?) going to upgrade my normal RACV cover to this level before leaving for Brissy late October/early November. I may have to ask them some embarrassing questions before doing this (embarrassing for them ... ), using your situation as a very bad example ...

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I suggest you do that...

I have re-read the PDS I got on file and although not great, what they provided me complies with the document...

Don't get me wrong, Total Care is certainly better than a kick on the nuts. But it's not as good as they display it on their ads...

pezimm said:

I suggest you do that...

I have re-read the PDS I got on file and although not great, what they provided me complies with the document...

Click to expand...

From my reading of the PDS I have some weeks ago, it would appear that they may have honoured the broad issues discussed, but they appear to have addressed their other liabilities in a quite disingenuous manner. I will re-read the PDS tomorrow and see what I make of your case as against what is contracted ...

Don't get me wrong, Total Care is certainly better than a kick on the nuts. But it's not as good as they display it on their ads...

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Or in their PDS, IIRC (I may not, but tomorrow will tell).

If you think I may be of any assistance, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I have occasionally been able to help others with insurance matters, as well as ourselves.

Once again, sorry that things have turned out like this for you mate. Yet again, it demonstrates the value of friendship, and the willingness of total strangers to help in any way they can. It also demonstrates the fecklessness of some of those we pay to help us.

Pedro,
Not a good experience but at least you have total care. Imagine the predicament you would be in if you did not have it. The main aim is to get you and your car home.
Cheers

havachat said:

Pedro,
Not a good experience but at least you have total care. Imagine the predicament you would be in if you did not have it. The main aim is to get you and your car home.
Cheers

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You're absolutely right, havachat!

I'm glad i had it... But I wanted to write this to share my experience and make others aware!

Pedro.

I wouldnt be happy leaving mu Foz behind for 2 weeks either!

The worst part was you didnt get to make the climb!

UPDATE:

My car has finally arrived back in Melbourne! It took RACV 17 days to get their tow organised and in the end it was a direct truck from Pinnaroo to Melbourne, so the question remains: couldn't this have been organised on the same week I had the problem?

New radiator is on hand, I'm also getting a new radiator cap, new thermostat and soon enough I'll get some silicone hoses on it as well. Once the new radiator is in, engine will be checked for head gasket integrity.

Hopefully I'll have the car back on the road tomorrow or Friday.

Geez Pedro, 17 days is pretty good compared with 34 days, or 64 days, but it's pretty RS otherwise.

I guess the good thing is that you didn't have to pay for it. Worth it for that alone, I guess ... Less the cost of your hire car, of course ... .

Last time I had something like this happen, my new reconditioned engine in #2 Colt dropped a valve.

The RACV moved it from Skenes Creek to Apollo Bay, and took us home to Marengo. The bloke whose company did the re-co arranged for it to be taken to Colac, and was going to ship the new engine to Colac, until he found out that it would take SIX days to get the engine from Melbourne to Colac - all of about 180 kms ....

He then rang back the next morning and said that he was sending a tray truck to pick up the car, us and our cat. The truck duly arrived that afternoon, picked us all up, dropped SWMBO and our cat off at home, took me and #2 Colt to Geoffery's workshop, then took me home.

He then put a new head on it (rather than just replacing the valve - it hadn't damaged the piston or anything else), and the car was ready for pick up the next day.

We never saw a bill for any of it ...

The now repaired engine served us well for over 100K Kms, until the gearbox and diff shat themselves (again ... 5th time for the diff; 3rd time for the GB ... ). By this time, every removable panel on the car was rusted to hell (the structural parts were fine), and I delivered it to the yard where it got stamped on and recycled.

THAT's the sort of service I would have expected you to receive from the RACV ....

I guess that we are fortunate in that we have always been a two-car family.

Car's back on the road as of last Thursday . A total turnaround of 18 days.

I will put a post on my build thread with the details of what I went with and this thread can remain about RACV or similar road side assist providers.

Cheers,
Pedro.

Well, hardly a pleasant experience, but if you paid nothing for the tow over such a distance, that alone should have saved you a ton. Obviously, being taken out of 4wd trails before that by forum members is the key to savings here! I do not know, of course, the cost of your membership. I think, however, that 2 weeks of car rental would have been too much for any such company to swallow.

Hope your car works fine now!

The episode shows just how important it is not to go alone. Unfortunately, that is how we usually go with the kids. In between kids and a solo drive, I have had to be very carefully with research and planning and then conservative when in doubt. Thankfully, I have been able to drive what I wanted the most in spite of these limitations. At least I could make the longest of those drives in the company of forum member Superu Legacy, which felt great.

^ Pinnaroo to Melbourne is around 570 Kms ...

We call solo travelling off the beaten track "expeditioning" here.

Almost all of my travels will be done this way, hence the careful preparations and fall-back positions (EPIRB, satellite tracking, etc).

One reason for my trailer coming with me is that it gets lots of heavy stuff out of the car and carried on another much more heavy duty axle (roof basket, winch, recovery gear, extra fuel and water, extra spare wheel, camping gear, tools, spares; and my accommodation - the camper trailer tent :iconwink: :biggrin. Since my rims/tyres are identical on car and trailer, I can always strip the trailer and run for safety, if needs be. That would give me 4 spare rims/tyres for the car ...

Most of the interesting places in Oz are a long way too far off the main roads, let alone towns, to walk out of. It is very easy to die in the Oz outback if one is stupid or careless.

Yeah, that is what I thought. Alaska aside, the only truly remote areas of the US are concentrated around here, in the Southwest.

Generally, it would not be as easy to die, so long as we talk adults walking on actual road or trail, in good shape, fit enough for an occasional exceptionally long track, with enough food and water. Some of the roads are so remote and rarely traveled that it is possible that no one would show up for quite awhile, thus making waiting by the car a tough call.

Many of the really long and remote roads are actually periodically monitored by rangers. There are a few, however, that can take you about 60 miles from the nearest paved roads and that are not necessarily monitored on regular basis.

But while it would not be that easy for well-prepared and fit adults to find themselves in life-threatening situations, kids and anyone with less mobility would be a different story.

The area we like to explore is a rectangle, sort of, that goes east from Phoenix to central New Mexico then north to Colorado and West to about Vegas through the middle of Utah and then a bit diagonally back to Phoenix.

Pezimm, it sucks you had such a bad experience with RACV but at least you have it going again & with what will be even better cooling/reliability. Just a shame you missed out on some great dunes...oh well next time :iconwink:

Ratbag said:

Most of the interesting places in Oz are a long way too far off the main roads, let alone towns, to walk out of. It is very easy to die in the Oz outback if one is stupid or careless.

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Yep, its way too easy to die in the outback if you break down alone. Which is why they say NEVER ever leave your car!

Apart from being a source of shade & water, it is an easy target for SAR to find

^ Specially if one has a tarp that's about 4 x 3 metres that's been painted white on one side (or is silver reflective coated, as many are these days) with the word "HELP" painted in great big black letters on it. One can also paint "OK" on the other side if one feels like it ... :iconwink: :lol:.

Four poles and some guy ropes and with the tarp slung over the car, it serves several purposes:

1) Keeps the car far cooler, lessening dehydration rates;

2) Is (relatively) easy to spot from the air, specially if the S&R people have the GPS coordinates from your EPIRB or similar. It should be mandated that people carry one of these if going off the main highways; or even if staying on some of them ...

I recall that tragic case of the young couple travelling from Perth to Adelaide about 15-25 years ago. They broke down about 30 Kms out of Ceduna. The husband set out to walk into Ceduna in the middle of the day. His pregnant wife waited until nightfall, and as no help had come, she walked along the main road into Ceduna. Unknown to her, she walked past her husband's body. He had died of thirst during his attempt to walk a mere 30 kms ...

I had a similar personal experience when I was about 18 y.o.. The WWII Jeep broke down (not unusual ... ), so we walked back along our tracks (and the fence line) straight back to the neighbouring station (US = "homestead"), a distance of around 1-2 miles (max.). We were both wearing proper clothing, and had broad-brimmed hats. I ruined a pair of Baxter's riding boots (the soles de-laminated); got a serious case of heat burned soles of my feet; and my friend and I drank the several gallons of water in the station fridge dry between us. Mrs Simpkins had filled it that morning. Nine gallons, IIRC. We could possibly have died, even though we knew what we were doing, knew where we were, and how short that distance was - being much younger, and considerably stupider, we thought we did, anyway ...

The Oz bush can be a very dangerous place, even today.

Yeah, at the end, having somebody know where you are and when your silence is suspicious is quite important. That story you told is quite sad. In 2013 two people who had been lucky enough to get a permit for the Wave just lost their way and died on what is a fairly well-known place (a rock formation in northern Arizona accessible only with special permit; only a few permits are available per day and most are awarded by lottery well ahead of time).

The climate here in the Sonoran desert (central and southern AZ) is not any friendlier.

You are quite brave to venture out over the hot months...work is as far as I go here between early May and mid-October It is 115F/46C in my garage for months and months...after I installed insulation. When we venture out during the summer we usually go far from the desert though we have spent quite some time in Southern Utah where it is extremely arid, too, but a bit not as hot (higher elevations).

I like driving through the desert, but only between mid-Oct and mid-Apr.

MiddleAgeSubie said:

The climate here in the Sonoran desert (central and southern AZ) is not any friendlier.

You are quite brave to venture out over the hot months...work is as far as I go here between early May and mid-October It is 115F/46C in my garage for months and months...after I installed insulation.

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In Melbourne, which is on the southern coast of Oz, we've had 46.7deg in the shade. In the outback it gets much hotter, esp in areas like gibber plains (plains covered by small ball-bearing like iron rich rocks where nothing grows & the heat just radiates back from the ground)