How to save fuel without even trying

May 22, 2009
Fairmont Hot Springs, BC

You just don't drive anywhere, right?

We were getting ready to head to the grocery store to stock up again, when I noticed that the Range Rover was "marking its territory" again, with a small spot of oil on the ground under the left front headlight area. I'd noticed that this happened once before about a week ago. It lost about ¼ cup, just enough to make a bit of a mess under the hood and make a spot about 6" around on the ground.

So, being a clever guy, I called the Land Rover Centre in Calgary to make an appointment for when we'll be there in early-June. I figured that we could live with it spitting out a few drops of oil once a week in the meantime. I checked the oil and it was right on the full mark, so I knew it wasn't leaking beyond what I'd already discovered.

Just out of curiosity, I decided to check under the hood once we had the pups in the car and were ready to head to the store. Much to my surprise, there was quite a bit of oil seeping out of the oil filter housing! On this model, the oil filter is mounted remotely, with easy access right behind the left headlight assembly, and the cartridge-style filter drops in and is covered with a screw-on cap. I got out the rags and wrenches and pulled the cap off to see if I had some debris around the cap's o-ring. I cleaned the cap and housing and replaced the cap. Well, I managed to make it worse, with a heavier flow of oil now coming out of the filter housing. No amount of loosening and tightening was fixing it.

So, we're having our semi-annual "thank goodness for roadside assistance" event. I called Roadside and they coordinated with their Canadian counterparts. Ivan the tow guy was on site to haul it away to Calgary within 45 minutes late yesterday afternoon. I called the Centre this morning to verify that they had it, and they just called back a few minutes ago to say it was fixed (new filter housing). Now all we have to do it coordinate its return, called a "reunite" in Land Rover parlance. It'll be interesting to see how the US call center, the Canadian call centre, and the dealer will be able to coordinate this. If they can't return it tomorrow (Saturday), they'll have to haul it to where we'll be next week (Kelowna, BC) or pay for a rental so we can do the BC wine country. I'm not sure I care either way, although I'd prefer to have it back so I can make sure it's all OK. We'll be able to make a follow up appointment when we're in Calgary the week after.

But, all is still well. We don't let little bumps in the road get in our way. When we decided to extend our stay here, we knew we needed to change sites within the park. So, we took advantage of the need to pack up to use the coach for a grocery run (I knew I should have bought more stuff when we shopped earlier last week). We got everything we need for the next week+ at the Sobeys in Invermere, and picked up a selection of wine at the provincial licensee here near the resort. We were able to get a satellite signal at the new site (it's a 30 amp site instead of 50 amp, but we don't need the air conditioning) so all is well with the world. We were basically just planning to relax for a couple of days anyway.

In other news, Geri made a great dinner tonight with sauteed bay scallops and shrimp finished with a tomato-enhanced Alfredo sauce over linguine - tasty! My sunburn is still pretty painful and I'm not quite as likely to take the waters again, but I think Geri will partake again.