Blog
Tanks a lot
Thursday 4th May 2017
The wedding season has started but the car maintenance carries on. The blue car has been suffering with an intermittent fuel supply problem for a while now and I have taken it out of service for the time being. In the past, I have taken bookings for both white cars and used the blue car as a reserve. But this year, I have decided to play safe and reduce the number of bookings and use a white car as reserve. In the meantime I have been investigating the blue car's annoying little fault.
Occasionally, the car cuts out and an inspection of the carburettor revealed that, on these occasions, no fuel is getting through to the engine. I tracked backwards, checking the fuel pipes for blockages but these were all clear. Then I checked the autovac, which is a vacuum device that sucks petrol from the tank and feeds the carburettor. This was working, but the integral filters were clogged with particles of rust. This muck is surely the cause of the problem and the only place it can be coming from is the fuel tank. So, with some help from my son-in-law, Karl, I removed the tank from the car and by shining a torch inside I was able to see the accumulation of rust which has built up over the years.
A company which specialises in car restoration supplies sells a kit for cleaning and re-lining old fuel tanks. So I now have one of these kits and I am in the process of regenerating my tank. The kit is a virulent cocktail of toxic chemicals and comes with all sorts of health warnings but hopefully it will do the trick. I'll let you know in due course.