In the middle of the storm last night I got a call from Mrs BTB:
"The Vito is making a funny noise. Oh, it's stopped".
After a bit of diagnostic Q&A we concluded that it had a flat tyre. She'd only gone a couple of miles (all at 20 mph or so - unlit single-track lanes) so I loaded up the C300 with a work light, tyre inflator, socket set & breaker bar and went to the rescue. She wasn't kidding about the flat tyre ...
She'd heard a 'pop' (presumably as the outer edge of the tyre came off the rim) and the ASR/ESP basically stopped the van. We'd done a 250 mile motorway run in it the day before with no problems?!
It was blowing a gale, raining, pitch dark and the van was stopped in a muddy passing place on a single-track lane ... so the perfect opportunity to practice my wheel changing skills (luckily the Vito does have a spare - a tyre inflation kit wouldn't quite have cut it). Found the wheel nut key, cracked the bolts, got the jack out, and went to get the spare. This is in an under-slung cradle behind the rear axle, which is winched down using a long rod that inserts into a hole above the bumper:
The end of the rod engages in a hex. socket on the winch, at the bottom of the hole. Except this time it didn't. It was impossible to see down the hole, but it felt like something was blocking it at the far end. The only thing I could think of trying was a pick-up tool:
So back home again to get one. After a *lot* of fiddling around I eventually managed to pull out ... an acorn! No idea how it got there as the hole is sealed by the tailgate when it's closed, but all good from there on. New tyre going on tomorrow as I suspect the old one is beyond saving
"The Vito is making a funny noise. Oh, it's stopped".
After a bit of diagnostic Q&A we concluded that it had a flat tyre. She'd only gone a couple of miles (all at 20 mph or so - unlit single-track lanes) so I loaded up the C300 with a work light, tyre inflator, socket set & breaker bar and went to the rescue. She wasn't kidding about the flat tyre ...
She'd heard a 'pop' (presumably as the outer edge of the tyre came off the rim) and the ASR/ESP basically stopped the van. We'd done a 250 mile motorway run in it the day before with no problems?!
It was blowing a gale, raining, pitch dark and the van was stopped in a muddy passing place on a single-track lane ... so the perfect opportunity to practice my wheel changing skills (luckily the Vito does have a spare - a tyre inflation kit wouldn't quite have cut it). Found the wheel nut key, cracked the bolts, got the jack out, and went to get the spare. This is in an under-slung cradle behind the rear axle, which is winched down using a long rod that inserts into a hole above the bumper:
The end of the rod engages in a hex. socket on the winch, at the bottom of the hole. Except this time it didn't. It was impossible to see down the hole, but it felt like something was blocking it at the far end. The only thing I could think of trying was a pick-up tool:
So back home again to get one. After a *lot* of fiddling around I eventually managed to pull out ... an acorn! No idea how it got there as the hole is sealed by the tailgate when it's closed, but all good from there on. New tyre going on tomorrow as I suspect the old one is beyond saving