The matter of the Motor Caravan that smoked like a factory chimney has been resolved and the first thing I need to do is to thank all of those who offered advice. Thinking about this affair bought back memories of my dear old Granny who was prone to offer me advice on any matter from how to make Ham and Pea Soup to the choice of wife. The most important advice my dear old granny, who was born in 1890 uttered to me was, speak the truth and shame the devil.” My mother who was not so religious used to add, “Especially if you’re liable to be found out”. And so I will tell the truth and there is a moral in this story.
The first question I was asked on this forum was, “are you sure you didn’t put petrol in the camper? A suggestion that I immediately denied in the sure knowledge that in the sixty plus years I have been driving I had never done it before so why should I do so now. The result was an assumption based on the arrogance of self-belief that I could never have used the wrong fuel. After all, I have refuelled vehicles from a 1936 BSA Sloper to a Centurion Tank.
Then, last night in a conversation between my wife and eldest son she told him, “It was quite strange but when I opened the fuel cap today there was a sort of whoof of air escaping”. “Hang on” my eldest son replied, “What did it smell like, go outside and give it a sniff.” And so we discovered that the camper tank was indeed full of petrol.
I had made three mistakes, firstly somehow or other using the wrong nozzle at the garage, unless of course a garage in Bridgewater has a Diesel tank full of Petrol and secondly making the assumption that the camper was full of diesel rather than petrol without really checking and thirdly assuming that because I had driven 114 miles home without a hiccup all was well.
Anyway, now it’s drained of the petrol and refilled with diesel and it’s running smoothly so beware all who read this and do what I will now be doing in future, make especially certain that the correct fuel nozzle is picked up.
A) It will show you whether you filled up with petrol or diesel.
B) If it says Diesel but there's petrol in the tank (or vice versa) you have something to hit the fuel station with, when seeking compensation for them having the wrong fuel in their tank(s).
Quote: Originally posted by Balliol on 25/7/2017
I looked and could not find any possible because I did not use the correct description which I'm still not clear on.
My son keeps asking if I'm sure that I didn't put petrol in the tank and of course once someone asks that sort of question one simply just can't be sure. Having said that surely one wouldn't be able to drive over a hundred miles without the vehicle blasting out clouds of smoke.
... Sons can be quite useful sometimes ... :-)
And double respect to you Balliol for giving us the full low-down!
P.s. AKA anagrams: 1. Boil-all 2. Ball-oil!
------------- The older I get the better I used to be.
Good to hear your sorted.. only last week I was paying for a fill up and this guy came in all flustered asking for a push off the pumps as, he'd put the wrong fuel in his tank.
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Topic: A smoking diesal!
