I had completed a few short trips in the Perentie, just around Hordle and to New Milton a couple of times with no drama. Planning a longer drive to speed up the bedding in of the brakes, I headed to the Fuel station at Ampress in Lymington, to top up the Diesel, as I was about 1/4 full. I had added fresh fuel during the Spring via a Jerry Can.
I started filling up and noticed the Diesel was £1.40 a litre and that was not the posh stuff! I stopped at £20 and decided that I would head for Tesco in New Milton to complete the fill up as it would be cheaper……………….I needed to go for a drive in any case.
Anyway, out on to the Main Road and I sensed a lack of power, then very quickly it started to stall as the revs dropped. Lots of revving got me over the roundabout but it still stopped on the main road. I would start but stall as the revs went on.
Its never a good time to breakdown, but it was school pick up time and busy, I was soon causing a traffic jam. Luckily 2 guys in a Discovery stopped and with the car half starting and spluttering we managed to get it off the main drag onto a service road. It was clearly a fuel problem, so I decided to bleed to system through to see if that cured it – luckily I had stacked the emergency tool kit. However, manual pump on the (new) fuel pump had seized and there was no way I could loosen it.
Now this is where a shakedown is critical…….preferabely near home! My phone was running low on battery, no problem I thought, plug it in to the onboard USB. Didn’t work, which was odd as I had tested the sockets – later it turned out that the lead I had got from an authorised Apple dealer would connect to a computer, but not charge……………
So I called Benita who came to rescue me, lucky I was only a few minutes down the road. Double lucky as I had just changed my insurance and thus the breakdown cover; and although I thought I had, I had not programmed the number into my contacts on the phone, so i couldn’t call the breakdown anyway.
Back at home, I charged to phone a bit, and called the breakdown. In the meantime I called Darren at Milford Motors to say that I was dropping the car down, only to be told that they were closed for a while……….Oh No!
Ever helpful, Darren gave me the number of Arron at AJH Motors in Sway, a mate of his. Arron said I could drop the car down and come down with the keys the next morning.
Luckily the breakdown called out was Forrest Rescue in nearby Milford on Sea, so we got the car to Sway and I was back home in less than an hour – just in time for a G & T.
Although I could have tried to sort the problem, the small print on the insurance company paperwork, basically said that they would take a dim view of a call out for a similar issue, if you could not prove that you had taken steps to sort the problem. i.e. they might not come and get you! So I needed proof.
I called to see Arron the next morning and ran through the issues, making sure he knew about the hidden filter in the fuel line Banjo bolt in the inlet side of the fuel pump. Luckily, Arron said he look at the car immediately.
The diagnosis was water in the fuel, Arron cleaned the sedimenter, cleaned the hidden filter, which did have some debris in there and changed the fuel filter. I assumed that the water had got in during the winter, often the bonnet was open when it was raining, as I was doing other jobs. Odd though, that I had completed a few previous journeys with no problem.
A few days later with the Perentie running perfectly, I saw Neil Reid in New Milton when I was getting my heater sorted. He asked how it was going and I told him of the breakdown, but not the reason. Anecdotally, he said that he too had had an issue a few days previously as well. He had topped up with diesel at Burley Services and had stopped a mile down the road with symptoms the same as mine.
He had got a Mac Donalds at the services so he just sat for a while and enjoyed his food. Then his van started, no problem and he drove home. These stations are near and any delivery truck may well have visited both – dodgy fuel anyone!
48 States of Gray 