Had an experience on Sat. night which left me feeling a bit embarrassed.
Dropped the wife off at Coolangatta airport departure drop-off area, walked back around the Disco to the driver's door and thought, "I can smell diesel." Looked down to see the dreaded puddle oozing out from under George. Inspection revealed lots of dripping diesel. Couldn't see where it was actually coming from in the dark and I was reluctant to start it, but I assumed a fuel hose had split.
By this stage security was asking why I hadn't moved off, so I showed them, which started a bit of a ruckus. Next thing a bloke appears with a bucket of sandy stuff to soak up the diesel, while making rude remarks about LRs 'marking their spots' and how diesel could dissolve bitumen.
Then two police wander up for a friendly chat. Meanwhile I'm on the mobile to the RACQ, who say their patrolmen can't fix fuel leaks (???), but confirm yes I can get 100km of towing under my membership, which will get me back to Brissie, but first they insist I get the fire brigade to confirm the vehicle is safe to tow, even though its diesel not petrol.
So after a few minutes the local fire brigade turn up in a massive truck and 4 guys stand around and the leader was quite surprised that they were called by the RACQ because of a fuel leak in a diesel vehicle. Anyway, he says its OK to tow and they depart. RACQ says a tow truck will be here within 90 mins, so I wait.
Around now the security officer apologetically says she has to give me a ticket, but she'll write on it that the vehicle was broken down and couldn't be moved, so if I ring up on a weekday the ticket will be cancelled. Not happy Jan, but what can you do?
The police tell me by law if the vehicle cannot be moved for a safety reason the ticket will be thrown out if I challenge it in court. They have a laugh and move off.
So, after almost the full 90 mins the RACQ truck arrives, George is loaded on, still dripping diesel on his shiny truckbed, and off we go. Along the way we have a friendly chat about living overseas and he recounts his experiences with his Filipino girlfriend.
When we get home he mentions its a good thing I have 100km of towing with the RACQ or the trip would have cost me $372
As a followup, I drove it to Rovercase at Slacks Creek on Monday and they fitted a new fuel pump, because the fuel was pouring out of the pump. Total cost about $280 including labour, but not GST.
Incidentally, the wife's plane back has twice been cancelled because of ash clouds and she's still stuck in Sydney.
Life is never simple.
Wizard
You serious? It was clear you could not move the carAround now the security officer apologetically says she has to give me a ticket, but she'll write on it that the vehicle was broken down and couldn't be moved, so if I ring up on a weekday the ticket will be cancelled. Not happy Jan, but what can you do?
What the hell is going on it this country?
Camo
2004 Black Range Rover L322 Diesel
Master
Surprised you weren't tagged as a would be terrorist, you with your IED
ForumSage
Hi DiscoMick
This reminded me of the story of the drunk farmhand outside of the pub, wanting to drive his petrol engine tractor home, in the dark, after an extended drought breaker session.
Meanwhile some thoughtful person had drained his tank to prevent him driving home and coming to harm !!!!
Now, as he tried to crank the motor and the tractor wouldn't start, he must have got an idea that it was lacking of fuel.
The hand had another problem, he couldn't see, as the Pub had lights on inside and this old tractors didn't have any that worked, so he lit a match to see the level of the petrol in the tank.
As we all know, a empty fuel tank isn't always empty! and it still can contain fumes at about the right mix with air to cause an explosion. So at this point of brilliance by the hand, the tractor made a rumpus which emptied the Pub entirely of it's reveler's.
After a search, they found the farmhands, soul less body, well down the road.
The moral of this story is: don't match petrol with alcohol.
Cheers Arthur
Just an update. Rang the airport and they're going to cancel the ticket, but they confirmed the security officer had correctly followed the procedures. Seems a bit stupid to me, but that's the way it is, apparently.
Hope to go back to the airport tonight if the wife's flight isn't cancelled because of ash. Hope George doesn't mark his spot again.
Wizard
You have nothing to be embarrassed about mate. The RACQ and airport security should hang their heads in shame though.
Wizard
SubscriberDiscoMick, are you me?!?
Sounds like my sort of 'Simple task' that spirals beyond sense ; ))
Dave.
ForumSage
I thought you were going to end by saying the truck behind you was leaking or you'd overfilled the tank or some other silly story.It all sounds legitimate, don’t be embarrassed. As for the parking officer, unfortunately they were probably just following procedures. It’s the bureaucrats that refuse to give their staff the ability to use discretion that p's me off. I am sure they will cancel the ticket, seems like a waste of time and surely could be just as easily explained by the parking officer making a report rather than having you buggerized around.
Yeah, when I rang up the woman confirmed what the female parking officer had told me, which was that she didn't have any discretion because they want to ensure there is no corruption with people offering money not to be booked. She said in this case there was no issue as a senior officer had seen the vehicle was unable to be moved and the fire brigade had inspected the vehicle, so the fine would be cancelled, but the airport had to have an email or letter from me to back up the cancellation or the department in Canberra would question its action in cancelling the fine.
Incidentally, I survived my return to the airport last night, but the security are quickly onto vehicles which can only stop for 2 mins to pick up people and can't park.
On the drive down George twice felt like he was having a bit of a fuel surge, but then settled down, so I don't know what that was about. Hope the new fuel pump isn't faulty.
Just to hopefully wrap up this saga, the Disco has been running funny and making odd intermittent noises since the fuel pump was changed. All the belts and fan etc seemed fine, so we were puzzled. Got a mechanic mate who works on diesel engines to have a look. First thing he did was check the engine oil, which was WAY above the high level, and I mean WAY above it. And he pointed out the oil smelt of diesel. So he drained it down to halfway between low and high, we drove it home, and I've just dumped the 'oil' and given the old fella a fresh bellyfull of Penrite 20-50. Now George is idling very happily.
The 'oil' that came out certainly smelt and looked different to the fresh stuff that went in. And I had only changed the oil about 2000km ago, so it certainly wasn't old. I estimate about three litres of diesel was mixed in with the oil.
Not being a mechanic myself, I didn't realise a failed fuel pump could let fuel into the engine oil, but apparently it did. Still don't know how. You learn something new every day.
My mechanic friend reckoned the mechanic who changed the fuel pump should have checked the oil, but that may be a bit unfair as I hadn't told him anything about any funny noises.
How could fuel get into the engine oil? Anyone else had this happen?
Posting Permissions
| Search AULRO.com ONLY! |
Search All the Web! |
|---|
|
|
|
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks