Re:Tonka's poorly

Look at the white end of the cap and you will see a spring and a perforated disc. This is the one way valve that allows air to enter the tank to replace the fuel that has been used. The degree of vacuum that the valve will allow to accumulate in the tank will vary slightly from valve to valve but as your system is working ok, I wouldn't worry about it.

Roger

GeorgeC wrote: Looks like you have nailed it, Roger.
I am going down the 0W-20 'Oil trail' on Tuesday, after Martin's Tutorial on the Gen4 Alternator last Saturday.

Yup, sorted! The Alternator now charges the Battery, I hope he can afford to pay!

Took Tonka for a run this morning and covered about 90 miles without issue. Last problem was 7 days and 200 miles ago.
Was it a simple glitch that sorted itself?

Roger

Roger Fairclough wrote: Took Tonka for a run this morning and covered about 90 miles without issue. Last problem was 7 days and 200 miles ago. Was it a simple glitch that sorted itself? Roger

Hi Roger. Thank you for the feedback.
I'm now planing on doing a long drive once a month as I have some confidence back in the vehicle.

Just for curiosity, how long ago, time/distance, since the last oil change? And what grade of engine oil did they use?

Hi George.
Reliability has to be the no.1 priority in any car. After the issue at Worcester I didn't drive the car for 3 days as I wanted the technician to look at it. He said he couldn't find anything wrong but it did it again, briefly but since then and 200 miles it has behaved itself.

Tonka is 5 months old with 2200 miles on the clock, so no oil changes yet and everything as per factory specs.

Roger

Roger Fairclough wrote: Hi George. Reliability has to be the no.1 priority in any car. After the issue at Worcester I didn't drive the car for 3 days as I wanted the technician to look at it. He said he couldn't find anything wrong but it did it again, briefly but since then and 200 miles it has behaved itself. Tonka is 5 months old with 2200 miles on the clock, so no oil changes yet and everything as per factory specs. Roger

Hi Roger, Well, it wasn't the oil as it all went bad again this morning.
On the return journey, not just lo-Volts while driving (12.2 V), but the Air-Con Clutch and Thermo-Fan were cycling on/off.
When locking-up the car at home, just by touching the tip of the key on the door Escutcheon, it locked!
A battery check, five hours after driving, 12.69V, the car is now relying more on the battery for power than it was after the service last week.
I have sent an email with this information to the Service Manager, I hope that helps to solve the problem.
cheers George

GeorgeC it's sounding more and more like you have an earthing issue somewhere. Have you gone around the engine bay and released and remade all the ground straps from the engine to the body at all? As a bonus I'd release, check and remake all the connectors I could find as well just to be sure it's not a wire not fully in place or corroded.
I use a product called Contralube 770 on any connector I take apart before it goes back together again.

Funny you should mention the dashboard.. I got in the car this morning to go to work, put the key in and turned it on to be met with nothing.. no lights on the dash, no clocks lighting up, no info screen between the clocks?? I opened the door (I have fitted a second immobiliser that has a door contact connection to spur it into action) and I got a red light on the right hand side clock that warns the doors are open but nothing else.
Turned the key off, removed it and tried again and everything worked.
Is this something you have experienced?

Catch 22.

Roger

Normally I use fuel from Morrisons as they are just around the corner and when we were purely a diesel family we never had a problem but because of the events of the last few weeks I decided to try BP petrol to see if there was any change. The first fill was not monitored as it was combined with Morrisons residue but I topped up on thursday as we were going out to Broughton Castle, a drive of approx.40 miles. Now previously we were getting around 42 mpg so it was a surprise to get 47.9 for the days run. Now yes I was driving a wee bit slower but even so that is a big improvement. I will be doing the maths when I can do a more appropriate run to see if the improvement is still there as the BP petrol is 5p a litre more expensive.
On another matter I was reading the handbook and near the end it said "do not attempt to brim the tank as this will interfere with the space in the tank that is used to allow for fuel expansion in hot weather".Now I had done this the two times when I had the cut out problem and the weather had been abnormally hot so, was that the problem all along? Certainly I haven't had a problem since!

Roger