With a leaking compression pipe Lipstick now operates in “Limb mode meaning slow acceleration and top speeds not exceeding 120km/h….
Those symptoms will always manifest to some degree or another, but turbo control systems and computers can use any number of approaches to help compensate for a boost leak.
If the leak is fairly small, your turbo wastegate — the exhaust bypass valve — can help to keep boost pressure in the green zone by increasing turbo rpm.
In cases like this, you may notice nothing more than a bit of lag upon acceleration and some extra turbo whine.
In more severe cases, the computer will respond to the rich condition by going into its failsafe “limp home” mode, which is designed to make the car nearly undriveable by dropping power and restricting rpm.
The boys were glad that Lipstick was at least driveable although at low speed and with very little power when accelerating.
The decision was to pull through to Toyota in Port Augusta to have the leak repaired and the first stop of the day would be Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. In the 2016 Census, there were 1,762 people in Coober Pedy….
The harsh summer desert temperatures mean that many residents prefer to live in caves bored into the hillsides (“dugouts“). A standard three-bedroom cave home with lounge, kitchen, and bathroom can be excavated out of the rock in the hillside for a similar price to building a house on the surface. However, dugouts remain at a constant temperature, while surface buildings need air conditioning, especially during the summer months, when temperatures often exceed 40 °C
Miners first moved in about 1916. By 1999, there were more than 250,000 mine shaft entrances in the area and a law discouraged large-scale mining by allowing each prospector a 15.3 mclaim.
Opal Mining seems to be all over, and warning signs advise to avoid falling into mine shafts.
From Coober Pedy the boys limbed along down the Stuart Highway towards Port Augusta and on the way passed many salt lakes …
When full of water during the rainy season the lakes have an almost pinkish colour
However, when the boys arrived the lakes had no water and they could walk on the salty crust
After having spent some time around the salt lakes the boys headed straight down to Port Augusta and arrived there shortly before 3pm
Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a seaport, it is now a road traffic and railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf’s head and about 322 kilometres north of the state capital, Adelaide..
Other major industries included, up until the mid-2010s, electricity generation. At June 2015, the estimated urban population was 14,214.
Port Augustamarks the end of “The Track”: from Darwin down south.
The boys headed straight to Northpoint Toyota in Augusta and were greeted by very friendly staff who immediately inspected Lipsticks problem regarding the loss of power and confirmed that the lower compression pipe had a small leak which explains the oil spills and the lack of performance from the Turbo charger. Unfortunately, they did not have the right hose to replace and would only get one from Melbourne in 3 days’ time but assured the boys that it would be safe to drive but of course with limited power and top speed.
Not willing to hang around in Augusta Team Lipstick decided to push through to Adelaide and before doing so they phoned Toyota in Melbourne and ordered the correct part and arranged that this would be available on Monday morning (its Thursday today)
