I’m not sure how much detail is necessary here, so I’ll just briefly mention the car maintenance things and cost we had on the road in the order that they occurred. The price in $ is worked out at the exchange rate at the time and can obviously change quite a bit.
South Africa:
I’ve written about the wheel bearing palaver at length, but the basics are that we lost a seal in week one. It took a few days to get a part and at the same time we discovered the rear break shoes were finished. So they got replaced as well. R900 ($120)
As we drove out of Springbok where we had that fixed the aircon stopped working. Later inspection showed that it was just the fan belt and we bought a new one in Cape Town for R60 ($8)
Our first puncture happened in the Tankwa Karoo National Park. Admittedly I was driving too fast and the car was very heavy. A rock sliced a hole in the tread. I did try to fix it, but my tyre repair kit was not up to the task. In Cape Town we had it fixed by an expert. At the same time we also discovered the front brake pads needed replacing, a front shock absorber bush was worn out and we had a hole in the exhaust. Total price for all that was R950 ($127)
Just before we left South Africa we had a normal oil service. The cost, including parts was about R1 000 ($133)
Our total distance in South Africa was about 9 300km and total car fixing costs were about $0.04 per km.
Zimbabwe:
All was going swimmingly until I hit a large pothole at speed on the Binga to Kariba road. I heard a crack and a quick inspection revealed that the exhaust pipe broke where it went into the silencer. That night we stayed at a fantastic lodge on the lake and the manager helped to weld it all back together. No charge!
Driving into Mana Pools I mistakenly opened a window to look at some birds and let a million Tsetse flies into the car. In an attempt to kill one I hit the windscreen so hard that it cracked from corner to corner. The fly survived.
Leaving Mana Pools national park I heard a rattle on the front wheel which ended up being caused a shock absorber bush that was totally worn out. I thought I had a spare, but later discovered that the monkeys stole it. (Long story) I tried to undo the retaining nut at the top of the shock but failed miserably. Whoever installed the Ironman shocks over tightened them so much that hand tools were simply not up to the task.
As we were approaching the Zambia border I smelled burning rubber. We stopped and had a look, found nothing and carried on. The aircon stopped working again. While filling up with fuel I had a quick look and found that the belt had broken… again. Not only that, but it took a chunk out of the cooling fan, dented the bonnet from the inside and ripped a hole in the timing belt cover. I had a spare aircon belt in stock, so did a roadside repair.
According to our GPS we drove 3835km in Zimbabwe and didn’t actually pay for any car repairs. The fixing happened in Zambia.
Zambia:
We were allowed to rummage through a waste bin at a tyre place and found some shock absorber bushes. I still could not get the retaining nut off, so it didn’t help that much.
We found a guy to repair the leaking silencer again. He was a total scammer who simply removed the pipe and took it to a welder to get repaired. He over charged us by a hell of a lot and when he put it back on he did not tighten the bolts properly resulting in a gasket being destroyed. The cost was ZKW 175 000 ($35).
We eventually managed to replace the shock absorber bush after employing the help of a big Afrikaner and a pipe wrench. That was no charge. We also replaced the windscreen in Lusaka for Kws 600 000 ($120) and bought a new cooling fan in a spares shop for Kws 390 000 ($78) Catt expertly fixed the timing belt cover with a Nestlé Hot Chocolate container and some silicon.
In South Luangwa National Park I ripped a plastic wheel arch off while mistakenly thinking I could drive through quicksand. I was sure that it could be repaired, so I picked up the pieces and stashed them away. I also serviced the car myself. I had filters and bought oil for Kws 240 000 ($48)
On our way to Malawi we stopped to help someone next to the road. When I wanted to move our car I discovered that the keys were in the ignition and the doors were locked. Trying all the doors I violently janked on the one in the back and managed to brake the plastic handle. Eventually I used a wire to turn the key to the off position which made the car unlock itself again. I temporarily fixed the door handle with the same wire.
Our total distance in Zambia was 4 572km and total car costs worked out to $0.06 per km.
Malawi:
We paid to have the tyres rotated: Mkw 2 600 ($17) and bought some trim clips to put back the wheel arch plastic for Mkw 760 ($5)
I had to replace the door handle which cost Mkw 241 180 ($158) OUCH!
Our deep cycle battery gave up the ghost and we invested in a new one for Mkw 27 000 ($177) Double ouch!!
We only drove about 3 000km in Malawi making our car costs a whopping $0.12 per km.
Tanzania:
We had puncture number two. Actually, it was still puncture number one that started leaking again. We knew someone in the tyre industry and Dar and managed to get that expertly mended, again, with no charge.
In Arusha we took our baby to a Toyota dealer for a well deserved major service. After taking four hours to inspect the car the garage recommended work to the tune of about $4 400. Oh yeh, the windscreen we replaced in Lusaka was leaking and they wanted to fit a new one. They also wanted to replace the timing belt which we actually replaced before the trip started. I laughed and started crossing things off the list. So in the end we replaced all filters and oil, they replaced the exhaust gaskets after welding the silencer again and gave the car a jet wash. Tsh 514 000 ($ 342)
Just as a note here: They also could not tighten the bolts on the exhaust properly so the new expensive gaskets blew out in half a day and I had to revert to silicon and over tightening of bolts.
Through Serengeti we lost yet another shock absorber bush. By that time I was an expert with the tools we carried and replaced it with a spare I already had.
In fairness I will ad Rwanda and Uganda to this list as we did not have any car costs there. So the total distance for the three countries was 6924km and the car costs worked out to be $0.05 per km.
Kenya:
Right, hold on to your hats, here we go:
Our second day in Kenya I managed to rip our plastic wheel arch off again. Not my fault, honest. It was an insanely muddy and challenging track up Mt Elgon and I don’t even know where it happened. I still retrieved the bits though.
In Eldoret we met a fascinatingly strange man by the name of Raj from the Naiberry Camp who insisted on solving all our car problems. That silencer we spent an absolute fortune on fixing ended up being a catalytic converter that some idiot installed on our diesel Land Cruiser. So we had that cut out completely and replaced by a straight pipe. Ksh 1 000 ($12.5) We had the plastic fender repaired by a panel beater for another Ksh 1 000 ($12.50) and bought some more shock absorber bushes because ours were failing again: Ksh 140 ($1.75) We also had the leaking windscreen looked at. It didn’t work in the end, but it still cost us Ksh 300 ($3.75)
Our cranking battery decided to die on us and had to be replaced. That was Ksh 9 800 ($122.50)
We went through a little bit of a frenzy with shock absorber bushes which I could not understand. I thought that perhaps the ones we were buying were just really bad quality as the same one broke almost daily. So we bought a few more, but heavy duty ones for Ksh 400 ($5).
On the way to Lamu Island we hit a few potholes and guess what? Not only did the new shock absorber bush disintegrate, but we cracked the exhaust again. I replaced the bush with ones we had while some roadside welder fixed the exhaust for Ksh 250 ($3.15). You get what you pay for…
Back in Nairobi we decided to spare no expense and have our car problems seen to once and for all. We had an expert (A real one) re-seal the windscreen. That actually worked and cost Ksh 1 000 ($12.50). We also had an expert (a real one) look at our exhaust problem. He all but rebuilt the whole system and installed a few more and better supports. We had also started having overheating problems and found out that our cooling fan from Zambia was smaller than the standard one. We replaced that with a proper Toyota one. Marcio, the trusty mechanic solved the shock absorber mystery as well. The centre washers were finished. He gave us new ones and new heavy duty bushes for the problem areas. That venture hurt at Ksh 36 030 ($450.37) but all his fixes lasted to the end of the trip.
We had the car serviced at Jungle Junction and replaced only the oil filter. The fuel and air filters were still good. We also discovered a small leak in the rear dif pinion seal and replaced that at the same time. Parts, labour and consumables included the total cost was Ksh 9 200 ($115)
We seemed in perfect shape when we left Nairobi and started heading to Ethiopia. However one day we heard a hissing noise coming from the front of the car and when looking for the cause found a leak in the aircon pipe. A small metal pipe ran through the main battery holder and just simply rubbed up against it until it wore through. To fix that, including a full aircon service was Ksh 13 340 ($167)
We did spend a long time in Kenya, and we drove 6 390km in the end. Still our car maintenance worked out to a scary $0.14 per km.
Ethiopia:
After the mass expenditure in Kenya we really hoped that our car troubles would be over… However the rough tracks and bad roadworks took its toll. It is difficult to pin point where everything happened exactly. In fact, some of the problems may have occurred in Kenya still, but as we fixed it in Ethiopia, I’ll ad it on to that country:
We had another puncture. Our tyres were in really bad shape and we were trying to debate all the options. That one I managed to fix though, so we were good for a while. On the way to the Bale Mountains we had another puncture and actually destroyed the tyre completely. The rear brakes were also over heating and after removing the wheel and drum I saw that they were totally worn out. There was a safety pin that had fallen out, so I deduced that that was the cause. Lastly I saw that the inside fender on the driver side had a crack in it.
So we limped into Addis Ababa after another puncture and found Giorgio, the Italian mechanic. He took one look at the car and told me that the shock absorbers were finished!
So Giorgo sprang into action and: Replaced both rear shocks. (The front ones were still good), welded the cracked fender and totally broken battery mount, had the rear drums skimmed and replaced the shoes and found a small leak in the power steering pump which he did not fix. His total bill came to 4 250 birr ($265.62)
It was time for a service as well. A trip to Toyota also yielded a power steering seal kit. So that, Oil, filter and labour included cost for the service cost 3031 birr ($189.40). The pump seals were never replaced.
While debating the tyre situation we had another two punctures and destroyed another tyre. So the decision was easy. However much it hurt, we had to replace all 6 tyres. We stuck with Bridgestone but changed the model to All Terrains. 20 080 birr ($1 255) Triple OUCH!!!!!!
We really did think that our troubles were over then. Only in the Simien Mountains we lost the bottom shock absorber bush on the passenger side. That was a fist. We did not notice it straight away so the thing also destroyed the centre washers as it broke out of the mounting. In Debark I found old rusted washers that were the wrong size. Fortunately I also had heavy duty bushes that were the wrong size and between the lot of them I could make it work. That cost 50 birr ($3.12). I also fixed another puncture… in our brand new tyres!
A few days before leaving Ethiopia we decided to unpack the whole car and clean everything. During that little mission we saw that our very expensive Frontrunner packing system had cracked in two corners. It was an easy welding fix though and only cost 30 birr ($1.87).
We drove 5128km in Ethiopia and if I include the tyre cost, which is a little unfair, the maintenance costs were $0.33 per km. If I don’t we totalled $0.09 per km.
Sudan:
The roads in Sudan were fantastic! When we did go off road we went into the desert on soft sand, so the wear and tear on the car was almost nothing.
In Khartoum we did however visit the friendly Toyota agent to solve our shock absorber issue once and for all. We bought Toyota own centre washers and replaced all the old ones with them. They were not cheap, but touch wood, they are lasting! Sdg 158 ($52.30)
Through our time in Sudan we also magically managed to get three punctures. They were all caused my nails and screws. I was running our of tyre repair stuff so invested in some new ones for Sdg 5 ($1.75)
That was it…. 2471km and a cost of $0.02 per km. That was more like it!
Egypt:
Just for good measure we managed to get two more punctures on the barge from Sudan. I fixed that myself.
The roads in Egypt were all fantastic and the only time we went off road was in the desert again. So bizarrely, although we spent 47 nights in Egypt and drove some 5030km, we had no maintenance cost at all. I probably should have done a service there, but the Egyptians are so incredibly dishonest that I decided not to go though the ordeal or trying to get new oil and pay for a decent service.
The conclusion:
Over almost a year and more than 46 088km we forked out some $3 951 to maintain our car which translates into $0.09 per km or a shade over $10 a day.
Now, through violence and stupid decision making we wasted at least $565. That includes the windscreen, the door handle, the wrong cooling fan, the bad shock absorber washers and the mountain of money spent on welding an exhaust part that we never needed. So my advice to anyone: Don’t try and save money on car stuff. Find an expert that is not an agent and pay good money for good quality workmanship.
Lastly: It doe not matter what brand of vehicle you drive. It is not a question of “if something is going to brake” but rather a question of “what will brake and how easy will it be to fix” Current published books paint a fairy tale picture of how much a Trans Africa trip costs. The reality in 2010/2011 for two people in one vehicle was about $105 a day… every day.
