We thought we’d get Rafe off the blocks and head down to Hamilton to check out the recently completed Gardens. The weather was looking great for a few days, there was nothing urgent in the diary, so off we went.

Heading down the motorway, we got just past the Papakura turn-off when there was an amazing stink of hot diesel. I changed lanes, thinking it might be the vehicle in front, but the smell stayed with us. Then I wondered if Rafe was doing a DPF burn.

Just coming up to the Drury turn-off, the engine suddenly went into limp mode before shutting down completely. I managed to coast out of the traffic and onto the side of the motorway.

It started again straight away and, after a couple of stop-start attempts, we managed to limp off at the Drury exit and pull up outside some industrial buildings. Not exactly where we’d planned to stop!

The first thing we did was ring the AA, but they were only interested in towing it wherever we wanted it to go. Fair enough, so we arranged for it to be taken back to North Shore Diesel in Wairau Valley, where it had recently had a service.

About 20 minutes later, a really nice chap arrived with his flat-deck transporter.

He started preparing the vehicle for loading. During the process I realised I should have reversed about 20 feet onto some flatter ground, because the left-hand side found the only dip in the entire parking area! We managed to avoid even more damage by putting blocks of wood under the tyres, but unfortunately the damage had already been done.

Another home repair coming up…

It actually broke in exactly the same place as my last repair, which was interesting.

After about an hour we arrived in Wairau Road and safely dropped Rafe off in the locked courtyard. I called Mike at North Shore Diesel the next day and he confirmed the high-pressure fuel pipe had developed a pinhole leak. Apparently, they’re running at around 2,500 psi, which is ridiculous, and they’re known to fail after about 100,000 km or so.

Mind you, we’d already had one fail four years ago, so I reckon we were just a bit unlucky. Of course, the warranty on the replacement part had expired after three years! The last time it happened there was diesel everywhere. This time it was mostly contained under the engine cover and around the front of the motor.

The rear corner repair needed doing, but having tackled this more than once now, it was fairly straightforward. I seem to be getting better at it each time!

I started by hand-sanding the broken pieces before gluing them back together in stages with Gorilla Glue. It works really well on cleaned-up plastic and, because it expands slightly as it cures, it fills the little gaps nicely.

Click on the Gallery below to see the progress 🙂

Once the glue had set, I hand-sanded everything smooth before using the sander on the heavier areas. Then on went some two-pot Ados body filler.

That was machine-sanded, followed by more hand sanding. I had to repeat the process a couple of times because I’d missed a few small imperfections. Finally, I wet-sanded everything by hand up to 600 grit, and it looked magic.

Then came three coats of Colour Labs Gloss White, followed by four coats of Colour Labs Clear Lacquer.

It’s not perfect, but it looks heaps better than it did sitting on the truck, and the whole repair cost less than $50. Those panels are around $1100!