STUPID BOY

[Trigger]

We arrived at Estermoz today lovely town, but a large market and Antique sale in the main square which is also the Aire so we drove round to find a perking place and settled at Pingo Dolce Supermarket on the outskirts of town, and had lunch, we then walked to town and toured the market, w very good and lots ot antique junk for sale too. We went back to the van for a couple of hours and then decided the the town square would have emptied out and we would be able to get on the Aire, Fuel at Pingo Dolce was 1.48 a litre so decided to top up before leaving and that is where it all went wrong, I had trouble with the card machine on the pumps and it took several tries to get it working, any way I took 30 litres of fuel and then discovered I had put PETROL in the tank, shit, I had to move the van off the pumps so started the engine and drove about 100 metres and parked up, I called the breakdown and arranged rescue, during the conversation I asked about accommodation should we need it and was told that I was not covered for accommodation on my policy as I had not broken down although they accepted the miss fuel counted as a breakdown for rescue, any way a small transporter eventually turned up and took us to a garage to fix the van but not until Monday and today is Saturday, luckily for us we are out side the garage on a safe place and can stay in our van happily till Monday morning at 9 am when they reopen and will sort the van out, like a lot of you I insured with ABI and took their European Breakdown cover thinking I was covered for accommodation if in need, BUT NO, not in this case, so if like me you thought ABI was good read the small print in your policy and you will find that they are not all they are cracked up to be? Although recommended by Motorhomes luckily We are OK this time but it could have meant we were looking for accommodation at our expense, not what we expected from ABI?

 

[runnach]

Dull one mate, what you should have done is got a tow away from pumps without starting engine, hope you are back in the road soon!

 

[Trigger]

Dull one mate, what you should have done is got a tow away from pumps without starting engine, hope you are back in the road soon!

Well I figured that enough diesel would be in the system to get me off the pumps and I think that was right as the engine ran fine, so I hope no harm done , it took about 2 hours for the breakdown truck to arrive so if I was stuck on the pumps that long I would have been as popular as a fart in a space suit hee hee I have watched a few U Tube videos today about removing contaminated fuel from the vehicle tank and it seems all quite straight foward, in the UK you can call a company out who will do it roadside it seems, the vids show that you just remove a hose from the outlet side of the fuel pump connect a tube to the outlet and turn the ignition on and the pump will empty the tank, bet it is not that easy in real life though??

 

[trevskoda]

If you had syphoned some out and filled with derv all would be ok, in winter years back all truck drivers added petrol to the tank to stop freezing in winter.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Pumps have different seals in them now, diesel in petrol is less hazardous so long as it's not too much Liz has done it twice but they run like shite for a while.

 

[Wully]

One of my workers done the same thing with a Transit about 2 months back van was really low on fuel his son who is 19 put £30 in before he noticed. He phoned me and I told him to fill the rest of the tank with diesel about another 80 quid it started went a hundred yards then cut out I phoned a pal who is a mechanic and he said to leave it a couple of hours to let it settle seemingly the petrol separates and rises to the top. I drove down and it started after turning over a few times about 15 seconds. We drove it home 30 miles and just kept topping the tank up every time it got halfway. That van has 360000 miles on her and has never ran better since this happened the thing goes like a rocket.

 

[Trigger]

If you had syphoned some out and filled with derv all would be ok, in winter years back all truck drivers added petrol to the tank to stop freezing in winter.

I would not be able to syphon the tank as the filler neck has some sort of mesh guard deep down the pipe to prevent a hose being inserted in it ??

 

[Trigger]

Well today Mon 24th April the guys at the garage where we had stayed for 2 nights on a nice grassy area fronting the garage at Estremoz very comfortable and a stones throw from the town centre worked on draining the fuel from our van 70 litres drained off and disposed off SCREAM, and then 10 litres of new diesel poured back in and engine checked over and started all OK 76 euros it cost me bargain I thought, the guys worked on the job for about 3 hours in total so real cheap I thought, really an easy job to do if you know what you are about, they had a small 12 volt pump to start the syphon from the diesel pump, apart from that it was just rubber hose and containers they removed a fuse from the fuse box and fitted a wire link there and also removed a small component
from the fuse box too a relay I think, they checked all by using a phone app I think it was so were really efficient, so we then left Estremoz and drove to Elvas giving the van some whelly on the Motorway to blow the tubes van ran like a dream, spent an hour or so at Elvas and on to Badajoz new aire there but could not get on it as it was full and looked pretty naff any way so P 4 N brought us to where we are now small town called GUADAJIRA in Spain lovely little ton , couple of bars and small shops so really nice after a hectic day. nice aire no services but shady the aqua duct at Elvas

 

[Trigger]

Our new garden on the Aire at Guadajira Spain tonight's stopover day 63 of our Shegan tour

 

[Trigger]

We are now at Merida, New aire here so we went for it NO it is on P 4 N app it is nearly impossible to get on it Barrier won't let you through unless booked, it was almost empty but the computer says NO because CC members have an app so a man told me and they book several days and do not turn up so the pitch is lost also you are booked on for 24 hours and if you leave early your pitch is still blocked till 24 hours is up 72 hrs max stay there all free till December 23 there, so many bad reports on P 4 N about the system any way this aire is on a massive area of waste? Land the market was on it today , every Tuesday so we parked up and went to the market wife loved it, many Motorhomes also parked here, what is happening is that as folks can't access the Aire they
stay outside it, if the pedestrian gate opens you can get in for a shower and water etc madness. After a few hours there we drove to another P 4 N site next to a lovely park and the ancient Aquaduct, had a town wander and explore and are now back at the van resting up before another wander, we have seen lots of Storks nesting here and also large Turtles in the river which runs through the park, nice place to be here.