HI Dave

On Thu, 5 Jul 2007 14:47:22 +0100, "Dave Baker"
wrote:


"Adrian" wrote in message
.. .
(My present [petrol] car doesn't even have a distributor!)

Yes - that's the kind of 'fixed by the dealer only' deal I'm trying to
get away from.

Still smarting from the grief and aggravation caused by the failure of
a £5 fuel sensor on my old Merc A-class. Because the sensor decided to
fail, the ECU shut 'everything' down - at 8;30 am in the outside lane
of the M25 just before the big bridge - en-route for a transatlantic
flight. No 'ah well - we'll just let you limp to the hard shoulder' -
just 'off'. Not good....

There's something to be said for the 'low-tech' approach !

I think low tech cars are just as capable of doing that, maybe more so. I
had an old A reg 1.1 VW Polo briefly as a stop-gap car a few years ago and
it was fine for a hundred miles or so and then began conking out abruptly on
an ever more frequent basis. Usually at speed and therefore usually on a
dual carriageway or motorway in the least convenient place possible. I
remember one time in the outside lane of the M40 in rush hour traffic
leaving me to dart through the other two lanes at 70 mph onto the hard
shoulder with a stone dead engine. 5 minutes later it would start straight
up as if to say "What, me??" and then it would conk again a few miles later.

I spent weeks working through every bit of the electrics and carbs to no
avail. The one thing I didn't look at was the fuel filter because the
previous guy had just put a new one on it. Turned out the petrol tank had so
much rust in it the new filter was already blocked and that was all the
problem was. Let it sit for a few minutes and the crap fell back to the
bottom of the filter and it would start and then as all the crap got stirred
up again when you were driving it would block it back up. I bought a couple
of cheap plastic filters for a quid apiece, changed them over a few times
and cleaned the used one out each time until all the rust had been caught
and it was actually quite a nice little car from then on. Hardly a fireball
but 50 mpg was a considerable compensation.


I had a very similar experience with a 1.8 VW Golf.
Turned out to be a blocked vent-hole in the petrol filler cap.....
eventually !!

Regards
Adrian