Day 56 Monday 19th November: No fans of Toyota in Chile.

Chris writes:

We awoke once again beside the magnificent Pacific Ocean but were greeted by a somewhat dull and cloudy sky, was this an indication of things to come?

Breakfast at 07.00, John was already on conference calls, and we had a message from Robert, [the guy is a legend], that the independent workshop he had already contacted would be all over the vehicle as soon as it arrived on the premises.

The added benefit is that there will be less procedures to follow such as Health and Safety, Duty of Care, Time sheets, log on / log off f rom the job etc compared to putting the vehicle into a Toyota Dealership.

The labour charge will be lower than a main Dealer and another benefit is that Juan’s workshop is located conveniently close to the Antofagasta Toyota Dealer, so we can pop down the road to pick up the required parts.

So back up to Robert’s house where our tow truck friend Louis returned and we loaded the vehicle.

Arriving at the workshop we unloaded next to a rather special and very classic fire truck which is the pride and joy of the head of the Antofagasta fire service, perhaps we could continue in that vehicle?

Juan and his team quickly jumped on the job and had the radiator out in seconds which was certainly repairable and didn’t need replacing.

We knew we needed top and bottom hoses for the rad so they were on our shopping list and we also needed a new cooling fan assembly as ours is only good for the scrap heap.

Rather than buy a new fan and motor the ingenious mechanics who responded to this challenge with immense enthusiasm started to find solutions around the rather extensive yard and immediately offered up a fan from a massive truck that could have powered an Air Boat.

I am aware that many of our readers are not technically minded, and to provide a fascinating insight into automotive cooling fan technology,  will probably result in a mass cancellation of some followers, so I won’t do that.

Suffice to say that some fans are required to push air forwards away from the fan (blow fans) and some to suck air into and then behind the fan (suck fans).

Some rotate clockwise and others anti-clockwise. Sadly the fan that was offered up was an air pusher (blow) and rotated clockwise we required an anti-clockwise rotating fan, sucking air through the radiator and pushing it behind the fan motor and onto the engine for the correct cooling effect.

Plan B was off to the Toyota Dealer Summit Motors to purchase the required parts, two hoses, fan assembly and fan cowl , if possible also buy the spare wheel that we have been missing for the past five days.

With Robert’s native Spanish and my technical knowledge we communicated what we needed to the Toyota Parts specialist [who in fact was wearing a Ford branded shirt which immediately I thought was not a good omen].

Still he duly found the part numbers on the system which in my world are all fast-moving service parts which should be stocked by all dealers, and then, he hit us with a bombshell.

They didn’t have any of the parts in stock, nor did their Santiago branch and it appears that the Toyota parts warehouse servicing Chile doesn’t have them freely available either and the earliest would be a delivery in two days. In the UK most brands offer a same day delivery on VOR parts [Vehicle off Road].

Our Sequoia is based on a commercial pickup the Toyota Tundra of which there was a new vehicle in the showroom.

Doug eagerly volunteered to check this out to see if it had parts we needed [we knew it did] and here he can be seen to be opening the bonnet of the vehicle whilst at the same time posing, maybe not only for he photograph.

Our next quest was to ask the Service Manager if he would remove the parts we needed from this new Tundra and allow us to continue on our way without  further delay. He didn’t see any competitive advantage or media opportunities for doing this despite my relaying how in good franchises in Europe we would do this.

Back at the workshop the guys had made up some alternative hoses, sent the radiator for repair and were still trying to find a fan, they sent us to numerous locations and to different companies including air conditioner unit manufacturers, compressor assemblers but sadly no such fans.

It seems that there are only blow jobs available in Antofagasta not fans that can suck.

A team conference call was held and we then phoned Warren in Bolivia who had loaned us the vehicle and advised that we had reached the end of the road and would leave it at the workshop to be fixed and we would make alternative arrangements to carry on with our challenge drive.

Next stop was the Antofagasta airport to secure a one way rent for 425 miles to the beautiful city of Santiago.

Of the seven rental companies located at the airport, they had one car to offer us in total, for those in the rental business, these guys don’t like one way rentals and therefore availability is usually non-existent. It was only when I referred to my association with Avis in Europe that the Avis desk found something for us available later in the afternoon in the city centre.

So, our challenge plans were changed once again and we accepted a standard saloon model as we needed to make up lost time and get back on the road.

Fortunately John was based in the hotel and could cancel pre booked hotels along the route, look at various options and make alternative arrangements for the next three days.

His control centre was the envy of everyone staying at the NH hotel in Antofagasta even tough his dress code was more military than our Driving challenge dress code.

At 17.15 we had a new Avis car, had loaded our luggage which to our amusement had fitted, thanked Robert for his excellent support and decided to get at least 150 miles down the road by dusk which we achieved on what were reasonable good roads.

Finally just prior to dusk we arrived at Taltal a small coastal village where Mike and Doug decided that they needed to share the vivid violet bedroom.

We then headed off to a Greek restaurant that had nothing Greek on the menu

So, a disappointing day, we couldn’t  fix the Toyota, Toyota service or lack of it was a surprise, we have had to amend plans but are back on the road and that is the main objective.

We wonder what more can this challenge drive throw at us,  we still have nearly 20 more days to go and thousands of miles – who knows?

Tune in tomorrow for Day 57 as we speed south towards Santiago.