Last summer we had a problem where we lost power on long motorway climbs. Happened four times. Mrs A became so worried that we would grind to a halt in a long Alpine tunnel, that we've avoided motorways since. Got taken off the motorway by the police (that wasn't cheap), you're not allowed to breakdown on Swiss motorways, and running out of fuel is an offence, really. I mistakenly told the police that we seemed to have run out of fuel, even though the gauge said 3/4 full. The second time, the rescue guy got to us before the police, he worked for a vintage car garage (what were the chances of that), and took us there. He and his mate gave the van a good going over, but couldn't find the problem, other than fuel starvation, but it worked fine once we were off the motorway. Clean filter, pump worked, all very confusing. The only thing I could think of, backed up by threads here about similar issues, was that there was something big in the tank. I've been putting off inspecting the tank, didn't want to remove the engine first. Then a thread about our random petrol gauge inspired me to cut a hole above the sender and look into the tank that way. Having done that, this is what I found in the tank: When it was swimming around in the petrol it looked like a small fish: A lump of mastic, someone had put mastic around the seal on the sender and a large lump had fallen in... Why would the do that, and cause us so much angst? I suspect on the long hills it had drifted over the hole in the tank, blocked the petrol and got stuck by the vacuum from the pump. Blowing back up the fuel line had fixed it a couple of times. Fished the mastic fish out with a length of garden wire bent in to a loop. As far as I can tell, there is nothing else loose in the tank. So hopefully we've sorted the fuel starvation issue, and we'll be allowed back on roads that go into tunnels. But why would someone put mastic around the sender? I removed all the old mastic, and am hoping the greenish washer has made a good seal, but I'm not convinced of that when I put it all back. It also explains our random fuel gauge, late sender, early gauge.
Fished the mastic fish out with a length of garden wire bent in to a loop. As far as I can tell, there is nothing else loose in the tank. Do you think it’s possible that a previous owner or their friendly garage also had issues with your fuel guage and rigged up an impromptu damper to quieten your fuel guage? Does your fish look like it may have been anchored at some time to your float?’ Ozziedog,,,,,,,, just a thought
Looks to me as though a bead of mastic was applied to the outer surface of the tank, around the sender hole. When the sender was twisted into place it pushed the excess mastic into the tank, and made a neat cut on one of the 'teeth' that the sender engages with. That might explain the neat cut surface on the 'head' end of the fish. I suspect it just held on to the tank or sender, then fell in just before we started having issues. Before the first time we lost the petrol we'd just left a campsite with a particularly potholed access road, including a very short, but steep, ramp to get out of the pitch. Really nice site, but I thought we'd need help getting out of the riverside pitch we'd been given, just made it having asked the passengers to get out first. Might have been the last straw that knocked it in?
