My VW Camper van has been giving me grief recently. I’ve had to change the fuel filter every 50 miles or it blocks and the van won’t run.
Last week things got so bad that when I reached the bottom of the road, the engine stopped and wouldn’t re-start. At first I thought the fuel pump had failed but two hours later and a visit from the excellent RAC man with carb cleaner, we diagnosed that dirt had reached and blocked the main jet.
Of course the van would then idle happily for ages. I tried it again yesterday and stalled before leaving the drive. No chance of re-starting either. At least I was n the drive and didn’t need the RAC. My membership doesn’t cover home start, they were very generous last time and didn’t make me upgrade.
I’ve been putting off emptying the tank for weeks. As long as we were running I had better things to do. Changing a fuel filter is a matter of two minutes thanks to all my practise so as long as I stayed out of town didn’t give me too many sleepless nights. However with a one ton sculpture on the drive, I had to get on with it.
The fuel line was pulled from the bottom and petrol decanted into a plastic can. Then through a filter made of old T-shirt (Lands End. Nice shirt but killed by an over enthusiastic washing powder tablet) into a jerry can. I had hoped to do this with less than 2/3rd of a tank.
The result was a lot of rust on the filter. Next job is to pull the outlet (22mm spanner or deep socket – just been out to get one)and change the in-tank filter. The petrol will make the same run though the tank and filter until I get clean fuel coming out. After 10 years of ownership this is the first dose of dirty fuel I’ve had. It started instantly so I hope a dirty fill up or a missing in tank filter caused it.
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