Remember that Antifreeze Leak?

Remember that antifreeze leak that delayed us on the day we started our trip south? After having the antifreeze reservoir replaced at a Freightliner shop, they failed to properly tighten a connection. That pink antifreeze had been dripping out ever since. You can see a pink drop at the bottom of that black hose in the picture below. It was so low by the time we started up, the diesel engine turned off because it would damage the motor home to run at so low levels. 

So Mark bought more antifreeze and refilled the reservoir. That allowed us to get on the road. He had to continue filling up the antifreeze as it continued to leak out on our drive south. Now that we are settled in for a month or two, Mark had time to look at the problem and determine if he could fix it. Our motor home is a "diesel pusher," which means that the engine is in the back. That would put it under our bedroom.

While the diesel repair shop chose to make the fix from the outside of the coach, we now know that they didn't do a very good job. So Mark is going to try to fix it the proper way from the inside. That involves unscrewing the trap door in the flooring in the bedroom and closet. The screws that hold this in place have been hidden in the carpet since the motor home was built 8 years ago. It took a strong magnet and a lot of patience to find those screw heads.

It was no small job to find and then loosen those screws so that trap door could be removed to gain access to the rear engine. 

Once that was removed, Mark had the first view of the top of our diesel engine. He's driven it many miles, but this is the first time we've gotten this view. The bad news is that he can't access the leaking antifreeze reservoir from here.

So Mark had to also open up the trap door in our closet, with the tedious job of finding more screw heads again. At this point, we are glad that we weren't paying a diesel mechanic $160 per hour to do this job. Mark took this picture more to remind himself of their placement of the screws in case he ever has to do this again.

Removing this trap door allowed a first view of the top of the antifreeze tank.

Mark is doing all this while laying under the bed and across the threshold of the closet. It's not exactly the most comfortable position. But it does allow him to get to that leaking connection.

Denisa is basically worthless through this entire process. She did help with using a magnet to find the screw heads, but the only other thing she can do is to take pictures of Mark working. In this picture Mark is actually standing outside behind the motor home, looking up through our closet's trap door. Denisa thinks that he has never looked more handsome than when he is working on their motor home!

Even with the trap doors open, it wasn't easy to get to the antifreeze tank. It was a tough job! Mark repositioned a new fastener, and watched for any antifreeze leaking. He also started up the engine and let it get up to pressure. Still no leaks. We think it's fixed!

Denisa is sure glad that Mark can tackle repairs like this! He replaced the trap doors, and we hope not to open them ever again! Another part of this repair was communicating with the repair shop that caused the leak. Mark is always very nice, but he let them know about the problem. They offered to look at it again, but of course we were too far down the road for that option. So they did refund $200 of our repair bill to cover the expense of the lost antifreeze and an hour of a diesel mechanic's time. Now we know that it would take more than an hour just to find and loosen those screws. Remember that antifreeze leak? Wish us luck as we continue down the road, but we think it is fixed!