Wanted: Toyota for px with Land Rover, anything considered

There's good news and bad news.

The good news is that we got the 101 back from Salamanca Land Rover, at last.  It's had new inlet manifold gaskets, crankshaft oil seals, and clutch (which was partly contaminated with oil).  Like an enormous duck, we now have an unfeasibly large bill.  The 24 hours of labour wasn't unreasonable, but personally I still think €200 for a top-up of oil is a little on the steep side.  I'm sure the Maserati owners don't notice the cost, but I could have filled it with Chanel no5 for that!

The bad news is that it's still leaking oil.  It appears that it's coming out of the inlet manifold seal still.  Current suspicion is that the engine is breathing and pressurising the oil, so short of a complete rebuild there's not much we can do.  On the bright side, the crankshaft oil seal now seems OK, so it shouldn't harm anything else.  I think we're just going to have to stick some oil in every day or so and put up with it.  Annoying, but it shouldn't develop into any more major a problem.

There was intermediate news as well.  After we'd left the garage I noticed the oil pressure gauge and water temperature gauge weren't working.  And once we'd parked up, I also noticed the diff lock was on, but the light wasn't lit.  The oil pressure I could live without, the water temperature would cause concern, but we're sure going to need the diff lock.  Grrr...

After I checked out the diff lock vacuum switch with my handheld vacuum pump and it all looked OK, and also found no problems with the water temperature sender, it dawned on me that these 3 problems might not be unrelated.  Sure enough, it turned out to be a fuse, and despite having over 150 fuses with me of 4 different types, of course it was a type and rating I didn't have!  How we laughed.  Fortunately, the couple camped next to us did have a spare, so we're getting back to normal now.

Incidentally, the couple next door have a Range Rover which had a head gasket fail on the way down, when they were headed for Morocco last week.  (They'd just had the engine rebuilt, and the mechanic hadn't tightened up the bolts on one side...)  So, like us, they spent all last week mooching round the Costa del Sol whilst a garage not far away from our one sorted out their Range Rover.  Unfortunately for them, they're going to have to head back home to look after their kids, so they're not even going to see Africa.

We've bought tickets for the ferry tomorrow morning, so hopefully we'll be in Africa before long now.  Call us pessimistic, but we paid €8 extra for a return ticket, just in case!