Extraction
Getting a hose and myself out of trouble
Not wishing to rub it in, but it does get rather warm here in Gran Canaria. Life without air conditioning - in the car at least - is quite unpleasant. And not wishing to further arm she who must be obeyed, I decided it was in my best interests to fix the lack of cold air pronto.
The first job: to remove the ruptured compressor-to-condenser hose. To reach it, one must first access the condenser, which (unsurprisingly) lurks behind the grille. And to remove the grille? You guessed it: you have to remove the bumper.
With only one car at my disposal, this posed a logistical challenge - I had to reassemble everything just to drive the holed hose to a local artisan for refurbishing. Finding said specialist isn’t easy, hence the need to show them the part in person... especially given my pigeon Spanish.
Thankfully, this wasn’t my first rodeo. I’d removed (and reinstalled) the bumper, grille, and that very hose before, so I thought I knew the drill. Famous last words. Out of habit or sheer stupidity, I still undid the bolts securing the vanes inside the grille shell - completely unnecessarily. No harm done, but a reminder that my memory is even less reliable than Bertie!
Keen-eyed viewers of the above video will spot the inevitable interruption that comes when working on Bertie. A lovely Polish chap wandered over for a chat, blissfully unaware I was mid-recording. He probably thinks I’m terribly rude for not pausing to discuss Bertie’s latest misdemeanour!
Anyway, if I can’t get the hose fixed I do have another solution…