Another friendly mechanic!

16 Mar

While travelling on the Rock Arch 4×4 route we suddenly heard a loud metally “CLUNK”!!  So we stopped and looked underneath the car to investigate. Apparently those few off-road kilometers were too much for one of our front stabilizers. Lucky for us: We have a spare! Finally something breaks that we are prepared for.

But…of course… it wasn’t as easy as we thought. =) We tried and tried but we just couldn’t manage to get the screws off. DAMN!

So we went to the closest garage on our route, the Toyota in Okahandja. Where we met the most unfriendly reception ever. The whole place looked like a building site and was almost deserted. When turning around in the courtyard we saw some movement at the Parts and Services counter and went in. After waiting several minutes for the reception lady to finish her private call she immediately informed us that they are all extremely busy and wont be able to help us. Oookay…

So we took our business next door to a small tyre and fitment centre.

The guys here really made an effort but  the old stabilizer was completely stuck. In the end we even had to follow one of the mechanics home to get the grinder. After a few kilometers we stopped at a small workshop in the middle of one of the informal settlements. People here were definitely not used to tourist visits and we kind of stuck out.

The workshop had several old cars in the yard and an amazing collection of spares in a shack. The stabilizer was no match for an original Bosch grinder finally came off in a cloud of sparks. The new part was fixed within 5 minutes and now we are good as new again. Right on time for some dune bashing on the weekend!

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