25th of June 2018
Pauline and I were up early and walked down on a very frosty cold morning to meet with Patrick the Service Manager at Maseru Toyota by 8.30am. He introduced us to Henry the mechanic who was assigned to the job and had already started work on it. He was going to work his way through the fuel system first and then go on from there. Looking at the large workshop I could see that it was immaculate and all the mechanics looked very smart in their uniforms.
With time to kill we went off and did some shopping and then went back to the hotel to await the call from Henry, who was going to let us know what the problem was. At around lunchtime he rang with news that the DPF unit was fully blocked. In Australia we have a much more refined quality of diesel at around 15ppm Sulfur where in Africa you have two choices either 50ppm or 500ppm. I had filled with 50ppm but that is still way more than back in Australia. So the DPF was always going to struggle to do its job.
If you want to know what a DPF is and does have a look at this link.
Henry was going to see if he could order a replacement in but in the end was not able to get one in Africa because they have different standards here compared to Australia. So we had three choices
1. to attempt to clean it out and put it back on but it would more than likely block up again.
2. Get a new DPF freighted out from Australia but again that would more than likely block up as well or
3. Cut it completely out and weld a section of pipe in to join both ends.
So our decision in the end is to take Option 3 and we should have it back tomorrow sounding a bit more throaty and blowing a little more smoke! When we get back to Australia we will deal with a new DPF to comply with their standards.
So we hope to head back into the Lesotho mountains either tomorrow or Wednesday to pick up our Karavan in Mokhotlong and continue our magical holiday in Lesotho.
Hooaroo!
Crickey.......we're in Africa! 
Good to hear
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Your poor truck. Forward ho…x
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All good 👍🏼 Part of the adventure xx
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Yay to be back on the road tomoz 🙌
Henry (and Toyota) has been absolutely fantastic with helping us out and is a true gentleman
I’m ready, ready, ready to be back on the road, and exploring this gorgeous area.
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Hi Pauline and Marcus. What an adventure before the real one starts! All part and parcel of your trip. Thanks for great blog. Love reading it. Take care xx Jan F xx
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Good to hear you’re almost back on the road!!!! It’s usually the tines of difficulty that make memories that last. Lesotho will be right up there in the memory bank 🙂
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Hi Marcus Google “Mr Funnel” and see if you can get one over there. They are fantastic fuel filters, it will pay for itself in the first tankfull.
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Thanks Gaz, the fuel filters primary and secondary did an excellent job it was more the quality of the diesel here is not compatible with our DPF units. We are now running with no DPF as it was cut out and a section of pipe welded in!😎
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Hi Marcus, glad to here you will be back on the road. One would not have had the pleasure of making new friends if certain situations did not present themselves, everything works out to make us better and stronger. Sometimes its hard to see the silver lining as it can be so well hidden. Look forward to seeing you early next year and following your journey. Trish & Willem
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Thanks and yes we are off in the morning heading back to Mokhotlong to pick up the trailer.🤪👍
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👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
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I’m geography illiterate so can’t work out where you are in relation to my IG friends bakery but here’s the link to their site. They sing and dance as they bake and it looks amazing. 🙂 http://www.thebreadgypsy.co.za/index.html
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We should come back down this way at the end of our trip so might drop in and sample their bread😜
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Hello Marcus and Pauline. I’m enjoying your blog. You certainly appear to have cool heads in coping with the gremlins that crop up, and caring people who pitch in. I hope you get on top of the technical glitches. Though our cars here don’t need replacing, we won’t until we get better regular unleaded. Currently it has 150 ppm sulphur but EU & parts of the US have it down to 10ppm which matches Euro 6 engine technology. Matching the engine to the fuel optimises performance, economy, & emissions. But you know all that. All the best.
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Thanks Lyndon, it has been a steep learning curve for me let me tell you! All good now though.
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