First breakdown

Driving a 23-year-old vehicle down the Americas, we fully expect that things will break. Even though no important part of the Pony is actually 23 years old, because I’ve been replacing everything that made sense to replace, we know breakdowns happen.

A few days ago, I started hearing a faint clunk coming from the rear passenger side wheel. At first Stephanie was all like “you’re imagining it.” Then she was all like “it’s the road.” On Saturday, as we arrived to Lopez Mateos, she finally heard it. It was still subtle, so we just decided to keep an ear on it and camped for the night. On Sunday morning it became loud. As in, one of your axles is about to fall out loud. We limped to the next town, found a mechanic that was open (on Sunday!), drove over the pit, and I confirmed what I thought the problem was: a CV boot torn. Grease comes out, dirt comes in, clunk.

A visit to the local auto parts store proved that, although well stocked, they didn’t have the exact part I needed.

But they had a rubber boot of about the same dimensions, and with that, the metal from the old part and a clamp, we improvised a fix.Just one hour and $35 later we were on the road. The fix is nothing permanent, but it was plenty to make the 200+ Km to La Paz, where a real VW mechanic will fix things the right way.

Now we are safely in La Paz and already have a mechanic appointment for Wednesday (VW mechanics are in high demand here in Baja, too!). Until then we are relaxing in a nice, cheap room with wifi and AC. Tomorrow we’ll go camp to a nearby beach for the night, so we can be early Wednesday at the mechanic for a new CV.

Not bad at all as breakdowns go, and it makes for a really boring post. Hopefully, for the sake of this blog, the next breakdown will be more spectacular.
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