Do you know a good mechanic in north Panama? I do and his name is Marco.
He owns Mechanics with a Mission a shop outside Boquete and he has been a godsend, because as it happens we were in need…
I wanted to change the oil we had changed recently in Costa Rica as they didn’t have the correct grade of oil. It turns out the Costa Rican mechanic tore up the oil plug and the oil change shop couldn’t get it out. Eleazar in Marco’s took half an hour but he got it.
Rusty ignored the banging hammer as usual and made himself at home.
I could hardly believe when that damned plug finally yielded to Eleazar’s impact tool.
Luckily I had gone by the Jeep/Ram dealer after the first failed attempt to remove the mashed plug. The dealer took the VIN from GANNET2 and got me the correct replacement; this despite the fact Promasters aren’t sold in Panama. However the van does use the Jeep six cylinder engine. Useful.
Then we moved on to the brakes. Lately I’ve felt the steering wheel judder when I brake at speeds over 50 mph. It turns out the very steep hill in Costa Rica glazed the rotors and pads so they need to be resurfaced today and we will be changing the brake fluid as well.
The brakes will get the treatment today, Thursday and then we will be good to go explore Panama. However Christmas is approaching and we have plans for the holiday this weekend.
It was such a relief to know our apparently insurmountable problems could be dealt with by a competent shop.
At the end of a day of hard labor, shopping for us and wrenching for the mechanics we went back to the first campground we stayed at on arrival in Panama.
$10 a night, cold showers, power to charge our batteries and grass for Rusty to roll on. Oh and a cold swimming pool for us as we love to swim.
It’s a good place to relax after our mechanical worries.
The good news is we dealt with it one step at a time not getting too worried. Well done us.
