It started to rain in the early hours of the morning and the ground was quite wet when “He” had a comfort stop at 6:00am. We had the alarm set for 7:00am but we finally got up just before 7:30am as we were in no real hurry.
We were actually ready to leave by 9:30am with the caravan hitched and goodbyes said. Then the car would not start with the battery charge insufficient to start the diesel. One of the other campers gave us a jump start but investigation of instruments revealed that all was not good. The car was full of fuel but the fuel warning light was on, the tacho was not working, the time has reset to midnight but more importantly, an engine warning light was on.
We had intended to have someone look at the battery but now we had to find a Nissan dealer as we might have warranty issues if we drove the car a great distance, but more importantly, we needed the car serviceable for the trip.
We located the local Nissan dealer who agreed to look at the car provided we left it for the day. Prior to leaving the car, we restarted the engine but the engine warning light stayed on. So much for Nagambie today and Apollo Bay tomorrow night.
Much thanks to Jason Wagga Nissan as they managed to clear the engine error message quickly and we were mobile just after midday.
We stopped at Uranquinty at the fabulous bakery for lunch and kept the engine running, before heading towards Albury. It was then that we noticed that the computer was only displaying the trip distance. As we use the fuel consumption figures to calculate when we require fuel, this was a major inconvenience.
We initially spoke with Steve Jarvin at Burwood (NSW) who informed us they had another vehicle there with the exact same problem. It was agreed they would call us with the solution. That call came and we were told that we would have to go to a Nissan dealer to have the computer reset. We called the Nissan hotline and obtained details for Wodonga and Wangaratta, both in Victoria. We called the Wodonga dealer (McRae Motors) and spoke with Trent who advised us how to fix the problem. Unfortunately the fix did not work and Trent informed us that if we called there, he would arrange for someone to look at the problem whilst we were parked in the driveway. True to his word, Trent arranged for one of the technicians to look at the problem and it was solved quickly.
After leaving Wodonga, we decided to abandon our plan to go to Nagambie and to continue straight down the highway and stay at Seymour. We booked into the Goulburn River Caravan Park and arrived there just before 5:00pm. We had a quick tea and were both in bed before 9:00pm.