Yup, it was expected that sooner or later something will go wrong. As we were driving through a rather long tunnel without a hard shoulder, the little, red, “you’re loosing coolant mate” light started flashing disco style on the dashboard. We knew right away what the problem was as it’s a re-occurring fault that got us twice before on the English soil. One of the rubber coolant hoses loosens and pops out of a pvc pipe that connects it with the radiator at the front of the van.
Easy to fix, but to do so one must unload the bikes, the bike rack and everything from the back of the van to get to the engine compartment. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to do this in a tunnel somewhere in a middle of a mountain. Luckily, we managed to roll out of the tunnel without overheating the engine. Miraculously there was a large lay-by at the exit where we quickly pulled over. We unloaded the van, replaced a jubilee clip once again and this time added a second one for a good measure, tightening them both really hard and topping up the coolant. After an hour of sweating in the Italian midday heat we were back on our way, glad that this didn’t happen on one of those steep, windy mountain roads we were driving through previously. Hopefully the double clips will hold the hose in place properly for the remainder of our journey.