We left home on Saturday, September 22nd with Daniel and Marjon Jacobs and headed for Lake Havasu City and Ken and Judy Booth’s home there.

On Sunday, September 23rd we drove to Tehachapi, California and spent the night at the Mountain Valley RV Park there. Before going to the Park we had dinner together at the Red House Barbecue Restaurant and it was really good. Some of the best ribs, brisket, and hot links I have ever had.

On Monday, September 24th we spent the night at San Lorenzo County Park in King City, California. The inside right rear tire had been leaking for quite some time so we stopped at the Rossi Tire Store before going to the RV park which is less than a half-mile away. They found and fixed a bad valve and charged me $30. I had an adventure with the tire pressure monitor sender and valve stem extension combination leaking really badly but they helped me find the problem. Finally, no tire leaks – for a while anyway.

On Tuesday, September 25th we visited Carla at Artistic HangUps in Salinas, California and then drove to San Jose Airport and parked the coach in Economy Lot 1 which is long term parking for $18 per day. The airport parking management told me parking a small RV would be OK but I think they must have been thinking of a class B because we barely fit and had to park where I could back up to a curb and take advantage of our rear overhang. Brian picked us up in the lot and we drove to his new high-rise apartment in downtown San Jose where we spent 3 nights.

On Friday, September 28th we left Brian’s. Chris gave us a ride to the airport at 8:30 AM and, since they live so close to the airport there was no traffic. We did have a problem when we got to the lot. The ticket gate was closed with a sign and a cone – the sign said “lot full”. We with no one around to help I decided to move the sign and the cone and then just go through the gate with a normal ticket. That made the help show up in a hurry – she let us in with our simple explanation. A consideration for next time We arrived at Mark’s business – The Local Bark in Rancho Cordova – and spent the afternoon with him and, eventually, his family. We only got to spend the one day and night with them because of a lack of planning, mostly on my part, due to the uncertainty of going on a trip involving a GMC and a new buyer.

On Saturday, September 29th, we drove about 15 miles to fellow GMCers Nick and Donna’s in Placerville, California, where we met up Daniel and Marjon again for the rest of the trip to Mt. Hood. When we left we took a really up and down windy road – Californa highway 49 through gold country. When we emerged at the intersection of highway I-80 the coach suddenly started acting bad – it had no power, wouldn’t respond to shift lever or the accelerator and general weirdness. I pulled over, shut it off and restarted and the problem went away. Later, I would realize that it was in “limp home” mode because of some computer detected error that did not have any indication on the instrument panel. On Saturday night we stayed at Woodson Bridge RV Park on the Sacramento River in Corning, California. There was a salmon run going on and people were in the area fishing. The people next to us had caught a 30+ pound salmon that day.

On Sunday, September 30th, we stayed at the Klamath Falls KOA – definitely not a good example for the KOA brand.

On Monday, October 1st, we drove around the West side of Crater Lake and then we stayed at Big Pines RV Park in Crescent, Oregon.

On Tuesday, October 2nd, we saw Smith Rock State Park and spent the night in the parking lot of Import Performance in Bend, Oregon. The reason for staying in the parking lot is related to another occurrence of “limp home” mode just as we got to the park. This time the “check engine” light lit up yellow. Not knowing what might be wrong and thinking the since this is a Mercedes I can call the local dealer and be helped by their quality service and expertise. Boy, was I wrong. They don’t service Sprinters and many Mercedes dealers don’t. If have one and you need service you are between a rock and a hard place unless you luck out with the local dealer. The local dealer told us to call one of the Mercedes dealers in Portland (200 or so  miles away) on one of two local independent shops. We ended up calling Import Performance who took us right in and tried to take us in some more with scary stories about how serious this was and what we might be doing to our engine. They estimated about a week or more of work and a bill of $3,000 – $4,000. I was mostly believing them but decided to call some GMCer friends who knew lots more than I did about diesels and see what they though. Steve Ferguson immediately said it had to be fuel or air flow related and I should replace the air and fuel filters and keep on going. Jerry Work pointed out what should have been obvious to me, star diagnostician that I am supposed to be, two sensor failures at the same time and replacing both of them? No way. We had to determine the root cause. Others already at the rally agreed and we decided to replace the filters and go on. In the morning I would pay my bill for “diagnosis” and go to the local O’Reilly’s and pick up new air and fuel filters. I watched videos about how to replace the fuel filter and went to sleep (it was not a pleasant night – noisy and thoughtful). I think that, during the night, I realized that the ScanGuage display that the previous owner had installed might be able to reset the check engine light and clear the codes that generated it.

On Wednesday, October 3rd, when we got up I used the ScanGuage computer to reset the computer and I went to the O’Reilly store, picked up the filters and started the replacement process but quickly realized that the video I watched did not match my Sprinter so returned the filters and drove on to the rally with no problems. In fact, I think it ran better than I ever experienced it. At about 1:00 PM we arrived at Mt. Hood Village RV Resort in Welches, Oregon.

During the first part of our time here I picked up the fuel and air filters and learned that a weak spot in the design of the Sprinters from 2011 on is the EGR valve. This valve is what controls the DEF-related smog system. It plugs into the exhaust stream and connects as a sensor, a water drain for the fuel filter’s water separator function, and it opens and closes a valve mechanism. If it is dirty it can cause problems like ours. I can be cleaned or replaced. For about $500-$600 just for the part I will clean it. I replaced the air filter and cleaned the EGR valve but finding the correct fuel filter is much more difficult than I realized. Not available at O’Reilly’s or anywhere else except, possibly, at a Mercedes or Dodge dealer for an exorbitant price. My plan is now to reinstall the old one and hope that the problem was the EGR valve being dirty.

I reinstalled the fuel filter this morning (Sunday, October 7th) and it went very smoothly except for the clip that holds the water drain line on the filter. Because the clip was made of very fragine plastic and broke immediately, I used a paper clip like I learned on youtube but took a while to realize that only one side of the clip was necessary, versus two sides of the U-shaped clip originally used.  I am glad that people work so hard to help others.