Van Lights & Nights
August 2021
There are so many stories about VW van breakdowns that I am hesitant to add another. Our 86 VW Westy has been in our family since my parents bought it new in April of 1986. It has provided an endless source of “entertainment” in how it breaks down. I decided to take the VW from Vancouver to Alberta instead of the Tesla as I would been staying in Central AB with unknown access to recharging and many gravel roads that may not be great for a new vehicle. I quickly missed the AC, very quiet interior and self driving but the unpredictability of the van is always the unknown factor. It reared its head quickly on the trip. I started driving at 5 pm from Vancouver en route to Hinton and just decided to see how far I would make it. I knew the whole journey would take about 10–11 hours of driving and thought I would stop somewhere to rest. Having a van always gives you the option to stop and sleep at a rest stop, but it is not always where one wants to wake up and “wash up”. I was in Kamloops by 11 pm and it was dark. Shortly after passing through the headlights briefly went out on a dark stretch of road. Try shutting off your headlights while driving at night and see how that feels. I knew if it happened again or persisted I would not be able to go on. I kept driving through the night and it happened three more times for just a few seconds and every time I was ready to stay the night if it persisted. I made it to Hinton at 6 am and the night driving was done for that leg of the trip so I didn’t worry about it. You learn not to take the van’s occasional neurosis too seriously.
A couple weeks later I was driving through central Alberta and headed back to where I was staying in Hanna about 1.5 hours away at around 10:30 pm. It was dark and hazy due to smoke but a nice quiet Sunday evening. The biggest problem would be a deer jumping in front of me so I was on the lookout. Half an hour (35km) from Hanna the headlights went completely dark and nothing I did helped bring them back. I put on the hazards and parked on the side of the road. I ran through the diagnostics, fuses, playing with switches but within 5 minutes blue and red lights are flashing behind me. Actually, two police vehicles were stopped and checking on me. They were just seeing what happened and after telling them they offered to escort me to a stop off the highway ahead. I accepted and one police vehicle in the front and the other behind us escorted me 10km closer to Hanna. I contemplated asking them to escort me the whole way to Hanna as it was already almost midnight but I thought maybe a quick fuse change would solve the problem. They escorted me to a ghost town on the side of the road. I thanked them for the escort. Sitting under a sole street light with the ghosts of a lost settlement watching to see what I was up to, I tried to fix the problem. Nothing helped. I could have called a tow truck but I was uncertain how that would go so I decided to drive slowly without headlights for a bit and see how it goes.
It was dark and desolate on the road with the occasional vehicle going by. I had the hazards on slightly illuminating the road with a flashing orange hue on the road giving us about 2m visibility. A transport truck even put on their high beams when heading towards me blinding me especially because of all the dead bugs on the windshield. I quickly realized this was not the best idea. I would not see deers or any turns or hazards on the road in time to stop. Ok new plan. I stopped on the side of the road and waited for a vehicle to go by and then get behind it and catch up to it and drive behind. A transport truck flew by and I raced to catch up as fast as a VW Van can race to catch up to a 110km/hr vehicle from a dead stop. I managed to do it and though it probably looked weird to have a hazard flashing van behind them they didn’t seem to do anything. It went well until they decided to turn off 9km from my destination. Driving for a little bit again unescorted quickly showed it was not a good idea so I stopped again and got behind a truck soon after stopping. I made it to the Hanna turn-off and decided to avoid driving by the RCMP detachment so as not to get in trouble for driving without lights which was on my mind the whole time. I made it home with the few cars I passed probably wondering what the heck I was doing. If they were ex-VW Van owners they would understand and know not to ask questions.
I made it to where I was staying at around 1 am, happy to have made it without incident. Chalk that up to another VW story, they seem to never fail to give their owners/drivers “entertainment”. The next day I spent a little time trying to diagnose the problem and it looks like the ignition switch failed. I have ordered the part and we will see if it solves the problem. (It did solve the problem.) They asked at the time of ordering the part if I need any other parts and it flashed through my mind to order at least one of each of the 5000 parts in the VW as a precaution to avert the next incident. I answered I am ok for now and we will see what is the next issue. I recently rewatched the movie Little Miss Sunshine and found out that the movie events and stories were not autobiographical at all except the VW stories which had all happened to the writer. I was not surprised. All those stories had happened to this van in one way or another.
