simon_wall69
Senior Member
Apologies - it's a bit of a long story.
Driving up the M6 last weekend and the w124 conked out on the hard shoulder, I had a look under the bonnet and there was lots of air in the fuel lines. I called the RAC who turned up promptly.
I explained the problem to the patrolman and told him the car was running on veg oil/diesel mix (50/50). He towed the car up to the next services and disconnected the fuel filter and cranked the engine and said that the pump wasn't pumping enough fuel through so either the oil is too viscous or the pump is knackered, so first port of call would be to get the fuel drained.
I asked him to check the strainer in the fuel tank as I said that there could be a blockage. He disconnected the fuel pipe from the fuel tank and said that little fuel was coming through the tank because of the viscosity of the oil and there was no fuel strainer in the tank.
I followed his advice and got towed to a garage who drained the tank (£220!!!!!!!) They also replaced the fuel filters. I carried on with my journey and then conked out again 5 miles later with a recurrence of the original problem.
Got towed back to the original garage; left the car there and went home. Phoned the garage today, expecting them to say that the pump was indeed knackered; but, no! Was told it was merely the fuel strainer blocked - the very one the RAC told me wasn't there!
Have I any recourse back to the RAC? His poor advice has cost me a lot of money to get the tank drained unnecessarily as well as the fuel costs of putting more diesel in the tank and the wasted fuel that was in the tank!
Driving up the M6 last weekend and the w124 conked out on the hard shoulder, I had a look under the bonnet and there was lots of air in the fuel lines. I called the RAC who turned up promptly.
I explained the problem to the patrolman and told him the car was running on veg oil/diesel mix (50/50). He towed the car up to the next services and disconnected the fuel filter and cranked the engine and said that the pump wasn't pumping enough fuel through so either the oil is too viscous or the pump is knackered, so first port of call would be to get the fuel drained.
I asked him to check the strainer in the fuel tank as I said that there could be a blockage. He disconnected the fuel pipe from the fuel tank and said that little fuel was coming through the tank because of the viscosity of the oil and there was no fuel strainer in the tank.
I followed his advice and got towed to a garage who drained the tank (£220!!!!!!!) They also replaced the fuel filters. I carried on with my journey and then conked out again 5 miles later with a recurrence of the original problem.
Got towed back to the original garage; left the car there and went home. Phoned the garage today, expecting them to say that the pump was indeed knackered; but, no! Was told it was merely the fuel strainer blocked - the very one the RAC told me wasn't there!
Have I any recourse back to the RAC? His poor advice has cost me a lot of money to get the tank drained unnecessarily as well as the fuel costs of putting more diesel in the tank and the wasted fuel that was in the tank!
