Marvins 2022 Road Trip – need car service around (greater) Edinburgh

[Marvin16x]

Hello guys,

(my help request can be found on the bottom)

it‘s happened. After six long years I‘m back in the UK for a fourth road trip around this beautiful island and I couldn‘t be happier. I was finally able to leave Germany on wednesday afternoon after a coolant leak (that‘s still not really fixed but somewhat…) had delayed things by 24 hours. Luckily and to my surprise it is possible to do last minute changes to your ferry bookings for a mere 10 pound fee. So I did that and took the DFDS ferry from Dunkirk on Thursday morning after I had spent 11 long hours on the road across central Europe. My initial plan was to leave home well rested and relaxed around noon to get to the ferry terminal before the sun would set so I could get a decent amount of sleep on my first night in the car. Well, as I still had multiple things to sort out (I basically transformed my S202 into a mini-RV) the clock had moved on to 5 pm when I finally left my little home town of Dürnau about 30 miles east of Stuttgart. At about 4 in the morning I reached the premises of DFDS in Dunkirk, France. Utterly tired, sick of driving but happy that I - we - had made it.

I got about 90 minutes of on-off-sleep before I had to get up and check in for the 8 am ferry. I usually need about 8.5 hours to feel good the next day, anything below 6 is like torture. Initially I was doing fine, but the lack of sleep started to show later that day and slowed me down tremendously. As it was also hot as heck I spent more than 30 minutes finding a parking spot in the shades where I could stop and rest for a while. I was so tired and unable to make it past London in time, unfortunately. It was late afternoon when I got to Dartford Crossing and of course it was absolutely crammed. As were so many sections between London and Leeds. This first part wasn‘t enjoyable at all, but I‘ve learned a few things from it.

I arrived in Scotland on Friday evening. Found a nice place in the hills east of Dumfries where I spent the night. I parked on the grass next to some country lane and just before I turned off the lights a fella in his pick-up truck pulled up and shouted ‚Hello??‘. I didn’t want to answer because I felt I’d got busted before I even went to sleep. Surprisingly he was just wondering whether I was alright and if needed a place to stay. I felt bad for declining for he really seemed to care about my well-being and couldn‘t believe that I was happy sleeping in the car by some random little road. But I had already prepared the interior and myself and I couldn‘t be bothered to move again. It was that moment I realized I had certainly reached Scotland. What a folk.

For Saturday I had actually planned to drive up to Aberdeen to attend the Grampian Forest Rally but it would‘ve been just too far even if I had left very early. I was sick of rushing and spending all day on busy roads. After a lazy and sunny morning I started to make my way across the hills to the coast in the northeast. I ended up in St Abbs because I thought it looked promising on the map. I was right. It‘s a beautiful place and the mix of golden light and low bits of cloud made for an amazing scene. You could also park right by the sea which is something I love to do. I spent the night on Whitesands Beach a few miles further up the coast and had canned chili with the loveliest sunset there.

Yesterday I finally reached Edinburgh. I had to because I had bought concert tickets in advance. It was an incredible show and emotionally the most important concert of my life since Travis were the band that got me into guitar playing some 20 years ago when I was a young boy. They also opened with ‚Sing‘, played the entire album ‚The Invisible Band‘ and added some bangers as a dessert. The rain stopped just in time and everybody had an amazing time in front of beautiful Edinburgh Castle. It was also the first night I spent in a hotel - felt good and was well needed.

Right, so much for the quick recap of the past couple of days. I will add pics some other time. I‘m currently sitting in some Mexican restaurant at St James Quarter because I needed to have the screen protector of my iPhone replaced. Yesterday when at the beach I forgot I had it put on the boot‘s loading edge when I did the dishes. I think you can imagine what happened next. I was gutted to find out it was my phone that prevented the boot lid from closing properly. Thankfully the screen is still perfectly intact and it was only the protecting layer (that I had put on just before I set off on Wednesday) that fractured. Next thing I‘ve got to do is to get a prepaid SIM with unlimited data. There‘s a vodafone shop down the road that should sort me out. I will walk there now.

Now onto my actual request for help/advice: I’m in need of a complete set up of the Merc’s head lights. Not only are they not adjusted for left-hand traffic but since the rear sits quite a bit lower due to all the weight they seem blind traffic significantly, the leveling should actually work but even ‚3‘ won‘t suffice. I know there are a couple of Scotsmen on here that I hope could perhaps guide me in finding a decent garage to help me out fuss-free. I have a pair of NOS head lamps at home waiting to be installed so the old ones can absolutely be adjusted for the current situation.

OK, that shall be it for now. I‘m looking forward to your replies. I‘d love to have this sorted out by tomorrow ideally so I can get back on the road and towards the North …

Thanks for your help!

Marvin

 

[MD5]

Marvin, I hope someone can steer you in the right workshop direction (I'm at the other end of England, so can't help, sorry).

I've always enjoyed reading about your trips over here, and they remind me of our late friend, Derek (Druk), who I know you met - he would have done the work for you, I'm sure!

Safe travels and I look forward to following the rest of your trip.

 

[Rayny]

It's great to read of your travels in the UK - I'm also at the wrong end of the country. Hope that you get sorted out, and that you enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[Bellow]

Now onto my actual request for help/advice: I’m in need of a complete set up of the Merc’s head lights. Not only are they not adjusted for left-hand traffic but since the rear sits quite a bit lower due to all the weight they seem blind traffic significantly, the leveling should actually work but even ‚3‘ won‘t suffice. I know there are a couple of Scotsmen on here that I hope could perhaps guide me in finding a decent garage to help me out fuss-free. I have a pair of NOS head lamps at home waiting to be installed so the old ones can absolutely be adjusted for the current situation.

When you say '' not adjusted for left-hand traffic'' do you mean you don't have the likes of the below which cut parts of the beam?

headlamp converters lhd to rhd - Google Search

I doubt that adjustment alone will be sufficient - unless you mean adjustment additional to beam convertors?
If you do have to buy beam convertors, I'm not sure LHD to RHD will be easily available in the UK,

 

[Marvin16x]

Hello guys,

thanks for the replies! Yes, I‘m certain Derek wouldn‘t have hesitated in helping me out on this one. It would have been lovely to meet up again after all these years (can‘t remember if it was ‘13 or ‘15).

Concerning the headlamps. I don‘t know why but I thought that it might be possible to adjust the lights not just vertically but also horizontally, so that there would be no need for those adapters. That‘s why I hadn‘t bothered buying a pair yet, because I knew the lamps needed a vertical set-up and I was only driving in fair weather and during daylight until now anyway. I guess for a moment I forgot I‘m driving a 25-year-old car (not the first time I need to remind myself about the 202‘s age).

But apparently there are instructions on how to prepare the headlamps for left-hand traffic in the car‘s manual. I‘ve got tape with me. And lowering the beams myself shouldn‘t be too hard either. I shall do that tonight when the weather will have cleared up and after I gave the Benz a quick wash (we were parked under a tree last night…).

The thing that‘s still bothering me the most is the coolant leak. I know it comes from a tiny little hole about an inch above the clamp that connects the hose to the lpg vaporiser. Back home I had put basic isolating tape around it but it didn‘t really help. I could have known that… It‘s also a bad spot for that, felt like applying a plaster. Those hoses get so hot and regular tape adhesive just won‘t cut it. 3 days ago I put another layer on top and added zip ties to where I thought the hole was located, hoping they would at least somewhat seal it shut. But it‘s still leaking. It seems like my best bet would be to cut off that last inch of said hose and reattach it to the vaporiser. While the hose would be sufficiently long, it‘s only really soft enough to handle when it‘s hot. When it‘s cold it feels very hard and I doubt that a clamp could be put on properly. It might leak even more afterwards.

I will be on the road for three more weeks, so I don‘t quite know what to do about this. The leak isn‘t massive, but bad enough. About a litre every 400 miles or so. If I chose to carry on like this, I‘d need some actual coolant (blue-green Glysantin G48 equivalent) so it‘s not just all water in the end. Do you have a cheap option in mind that would do the job? Of course I‘d like to replace the hose entirely, but it goes all the way to the back of the engine, I don‘t even know where it ends. But something needs to be done.

Anyway this is the chance for me to see whether sending iPhone pics to the iPad and right up to the forums work. And it does seem to work like a charm indeed. I also have a bluetooth keyboard here which makes things a lot easier as well.

Apart from that everything‘s fine and I‘m looking forward to being back on the road again soon. The weather forecast looks alright.

 

[Bellow]

Hello guys,

thanks for the replies! Yes, I‘m certain Derek wouldn‘t have hesitated in helping me out on this one. It would have been lovely to meet up again after all these years (can‘t remember if it was ‘13 or ‘15).

Concerning the headlamps. I don‘t know why but I thought that it might be possible to adjust the lights not just vertically but also horizontally, so that there would be no need for those adapters. That‘s why I hadn‘t bothered buying a pair yet, because I knew the lamps needed a vertical set-up and I was only driving in fair weather and during daylight until now anyway. I guess for a moment I forgot I‘m driving a 25-year-old car (not the first time I need to remind myself about the 202‘s age).

But apparently there are instructions on how to prepare the headlamps for left-hand traffic in the car‘s manual. I‘ve got tape with me. And lowering the beams myself shouldn‘t be too hard either.

That should work well enough - given that darkness is still quite late in the day.

The thing that‘s still bothering me the most is the coolant leak. I know it comes from a tiny little hole about an inch above the clamp that connects the hose to the lpg vaporiser. Back home I had put basic isolating tape around it but it didn‘t really help. I could have known that… It‘s also a bad spot for that, felt like applying a plaster. Those hoses get so hot and regular tape adhesive just won‘t cut it. 3 days ago I put another layer on top and added zip ties to where I thought the hole was located, hoping they would at least somewhat seal it shut. But it‘s still leaking.

If you have to use tape, use self amalgamating tape - which is rubber for the main part.

It seems like my best bet would be to cut off that last inch of said hose and reattach it to the vaporiser. While the hose would be sufficiently long, it‘s only really soft enough to handle when it‘s hot. When it‘s cold it feels very hard and I doubt that a clamp could be put on properly. It might leak even more afterwards.

If there's an inch to spare and the hose isn't brittle hard it should be OK. Tighten the clamp as much as you can cold (but do the operation with it warm - just not hot enough to scald) then retighten at full temp.

I will be on the road for three more weeks, so I don‘t quite know what to do about this. The leak isn‘t massive, but bad enough. About a litre every 400 miles or so. If I chose to carry on like this, I‘d need some actual coolant (blue-green Glysantin G48 equivalent) so it‘s not just all water in the end. Do you have a cheap option in mind that would do the job?

You will lose coolant when you disconnect the hose for repair. You should catch this and dispose of it correctly. At the very least do not leave a puddle of it that any birds or animals can drink.
Until you get home, straight water will be fine. When you get home, drain and refill with correct mix of coolant (water: anti-freeze/corrosion inhibitor).

Of course I‘d like to replace the hose entirely, but it goes all the way to the back of the engine, I don‘t even know where it ends. But something needs to be done.

Ideally, buy a length of heater hose and replace. But if you can't locate the other end - avoid. No point in introducing potentially a second point of leakage.

 

[colinallcars]

Hello guys,

thanks for the replies! Yes, I‘m certain Derek wouldn‘t have hesitated in helping me out on this one. It would have been lovely to meet up again after all these years (can‘t remember if it was ‘13 or ‘15).

Concerning the headlamps. I don‘t know why but I thought that it might be possible to adjust the lights not just vertically but also horizontally, so that there would be no need for those adapters. That‘s why I hadn‘t bothered buying a pair yet, because I knew the lamps needed a vertical set-up and I was only driving in fair weather and during daylight until now anyway. I guess for a moment I forgot I‘m driving a 25-year-old car (not the first time I need to remind myself about the 202‘s age).

But apparently there are instructions on how to prepare the headlamps for left-hand traffic in the car‘s manual. I‘ve got tape with me. And lowering the beams myself shouldn‘t be too hard either. I shall do that tonight when the weather will have cleared up and after I gave the Benz a quick wash (we were parked under a tree last night…).

The thing that‘s still bothering me the most is the coolant leak. I know it comes from a tiny little hole about an inch above the clamp that connects the hose to the lpg vaporiser. Back home I had put basic isolating tape around it but it didn‘t really help. I could have known that… It‘s also a bad spot for that, felt like applying a plaster. Those hoses get so hot and regular tape adhesive just won‘t cut it. 3 days ago I put another layer on top and added zip ties to where I thought the hole was located, hoping they would at least somewhat seal it shut. But it‘s still leaking. It seems like my best bet would be to cut off that last inch of said hose and reattach it to the vaporiser. While the hose would be sufficiently long, it‘s only really soft enough to handle when it‘s hot. When it‘s cold it feels very hard and I doubt that a clamp could be put on properly. It might leak even more afterwards.

I will be on the road for three more weeks, so I don‘t quite know what to do about this. The leak isn‘t massive, but bad enough. About a litre every 400 miles or so. If I chose to carry on like this, I‘d need some actual coolant (blue-green Glysantin G48 equivalent) so it‘s not just all water in the end. Do you have a cheap option in mind that would do the job? Of course I‘d like to replace the hose entirely, but it goes all the way to the back of the engine, I don‘t even know where it ends. But something needs to be done.

Anyway this is the chance for me to see whether sending iPhone pics to the iPad and right up to the forums work. And it does seem to work like a charm indeed. I also have a bluetooth keyboard here which makes things a lot easier as well.

Apart from that everything‘s fine and I‘m looking forward to being back on the road again soon. The weather forecast looks alright.

And get a better fitting clamp, that one’s far too big so the fixed radius section won’t seal well.