When Life Gives you a Lemon...

....bust out the credit card and get back on the road!  A brief history of Silas the Sprinter and his health problems.

I'll start off by clarifying that Silas is not actually a lemon.  He's just a finicky character with a lot of miles on him who needs maintenance and upkeep.  He's only truly broken down once, and the rest of the work we've done on him was necessary, but wasn't the result of being stuck on the side of the road somewhere and being forced to visit the shop before we could continue.  Silas is probably the result of a "Flip this Sprinter" type situation-  the previous owner had him only about a year, some cheap repairs were made, a coat of paint was applied over rust, and Silas made his way into my life.  This leads me to one of the more important life lessons I've learned:

Do not impulse buy a Sprinter.

Seems obvious, right?  To an impatient person and a wild dreamer such as myself, it wasn't.  I saw a deal and couldn't help but jump on it.  I actually didn't realize I was that impatient until recently, when someone sent me a Buzzfeed article called "17 Signs that You're Impatient."  I wasn't even patient enough to read the whole thing, but every numbered item was true.  (Side note: I now know that city/working version of me is impatient, but I would still like to think that van life version of me is much more laid back and willing to wait for things.  Working version of me is the one who bought the van.)  Anyway, there are oodles upon oodles of resources for people thinking about buying a Sprinter.  What to look for, what you should avoid, ten things that are a bad sign, etc.  I, however, simply opened up Craigslist, found the cheapest Sprinter listed, took it for a test drive and bought it on the spot. (Another good life lesson: probably don't buy the cheapest version of anything ever.  This applies to cars, whiskey, outdoor gear, and more).  I didn't even look under the hood because I didn't know what I would be looking for.  All I knew is that when I turned it on it started up and it drove.  Those seemed like good signs to me.  I'm sure this is horrifying to read, and I know that my Dad and Grandpa are up in heaven shaking their heads and sighing and saying, 'did we teach you nothing?'  I'm sure I knew better, but at the time I had just lost my dad, had just injured my hand and couldn't climb, and was living in the Bay Area where I felt extremely stifled.  I needed a light at the end of the tunnel, an out, a plan to get me excited.  And the van was the plan.

With Silas in my possesion, things started to take shape.  Building him out was a welcome distraction from my injury, and planning my life as a van dweller kept me excited and motivated.  Soon enough, I was on the road and couldn't be happier.  During the first long trip in Silas, we encountered our first problem.  Our EGR was clogged up and we were losing power.  A few days at the shop in Vegas and that was taken care of, but so were my funds.  Chelsea and I decided that we would need to buckle down and work for a while so we could take a much longer trip.  So it was back to the grind.  I somehow ended up back in the Bay Area, where dreams go to die and where people who belong in the mountains slowly lose their ability to breathe (SO dramatic! I did like my job though!).  I was able to delay this problem by taking weekly trips to Tahoe, but soon realized that driving 400 miles a weekend wasn't really helping me save money.  So I stayed in the Bay and stewed, and learned another important lesson: Never sacrifice your happiness for money.  Even if that money will eventually allow you to reach a greater level of happiness (living on the road while funemployed), you need to find a better way to reach that point.  Eventually, the time came when work was done and it was time to hit the road again.  We had saved more money than ever before and planned to be on the road as long as possible, making it to Alaska during our travels.  It was important to make sure the van was ready for all this, so I took it in for an inspection and some tune ups.  I made the mistake of taking it to Mercedes, where I was given a $13,000 estimate for the work they thought it needed.  I laughed, cried, and eventually found someone else to do all the work for $2500.  I'm not kidding.  

A few months into our trip, we headed for Golden, CO, and a much respected Sprinter specialist.  I had a few more issues I wanted cleared up and knew that only someone who knew these vehicles inside and out would be up to the task.  Sure enough, Dennis had no problem curing our Black Death (a very, very common Sprinter problem, that I would have known about had I read those helpful 'what to look for' articles before buying a rig).  He also found other problems that needed fixing, so it was another swipe of the credit card and a funneling of money into the black hole that is Silas.  It was comforting though, to know that Silas had been taken care of by a proper wizard and we hoped for smooth sailing from there on out. 

About a week later however, we were driving over the mountains between Breckenridge and Aspen when I noticed our fuel gauge plummeting at an alarming rate.  I pulled over to find diesel dumping from Silas.  Any time fuel leaks, the fire department comes, so a few minutes later we were joined at the small town gas station by a full sized engine and six firemen in all their gear and helmets.  They were extremely helpful, popped the hood, crawled under the van, and helped us try to figure out what was wrong.  We were towed to a nearby shop and found out that one of the clips on the fuel injector/fuel line had come loose and we had just dumped about 12 gallons of diesel onto the road.  Sorry environment! We really do feel bad about that.  Another swipe, and we were on our way.  

The next few months passed uneventfully as Silas motored from one state to the next.  He made it through Canada and back, managed to start after spending a night at -15, and bounced up a treacherous dirt road in Oregon with us.  All seemed grand until I was pulling onto the highway in the middle of Oregon and I heard a 'cachunk' noise and immediately lost power.  I tried the age old turn it off and on again trick, but that didn't seem to solve our problem.  We were able to limp the van to Boise, some 200 miles away, at a max uphill speed of 25 MPH.  Unable to find a proper Sprinter expert there, we diagnosed the problem with the help of online forums and the wonderful van community on Instagram, found the part at a reasonable price, and had a shop put it in.  As I attempted to zoom away from the mechanic, it was clear that our problem had not been solved.

At this point, Chelsea and I went into a slight panic.  Every now and then you're reminded that your entire life plan revolves around a vehicle that could decide to stop functioning at any time.  This was one of those times.  We needed someone who knew Sprinters to tell us what was wrong.  We considered limping the van to Salt Lake where we knew of a good mechanic, shipping it to Golden so Dennis could look at it, and leaving it in Boise and renting a car and dealing with it later.  We eventually were able to get the problem diagnosed over the phone by Dennis (I told you he was a wizard).  He also told us where to get the part we needed for a fraction of the price that the dealer would charge ($3000-$5000, which was totally out of the question).  We overnighted the part to Boise, convinced the shop to put it in for us, and just like that, we had turbo power again.  All told, we spent a week in Boise trying to figure out what was wrong, getting the part, and getting it installed, but thankfully we were able to slowly drive around and go climbing and hiking in some pretty fun places around the city.

So that's Silas' history in a nutshell.  If you're considering a Sprinter, know that they are fantastic vehicles, and when they are running properly they are unstoppable.  They have diesel engines that will go up to 500,000 miles with no problem, they have great power, great gas mileage, and handle like a sportscar (maybe that's a slight exaggeration).  BUT, also be aware that there are signature Sprinter issues that every owner will have to deal with, and remember that all the parts are made by Mercedes, which means they are expensive.  Also keep in mind that it is hard to find people who are willing and able to work on these complex beasts, so the more you know about them when you hit the road, the better off you'll be!