Monday, June 11, 2012

Back in Banbury with diesel bug!

About a week ago the engine was difficult to start, ran lumpy and smoked. We moved up the lock after getting water and found a space near Toolies. They were not open till Noon when we asked for an engineer. He came late afternoon and checked the heater plugs which were OK. We will have to wait till Monday before he could check out the diesel supply.
So we find ourselves in a situation we do not like, a loss of freedom. Need to chill out in Banbury. We went for a walk round the park where there are signs of activity. A fair was arriving, as it is to be the Banbury Show on Sunday. Crowds of people turned up walked round and back out. At least it was a warm sunny day for the summer event. We had a look and saw that the arena was setup for a dog show to happen soon. After walking round the stalls we were told that the next event was not the dogs. Then it got cloudy and cold so we decided to leave. On the way out we saw Del n All on Derwent 6 and had a quick chat before returning to the boat.

John the engineer arrived late in the morning. The water trap was full of water and brown gunge. The diesel filter was also contaminated. It is the dreaded diesel bug. The system was last checked back in October and was OK then. Our last top up was at Sovereign in Banbury a week ago. Anti bug treatment has been put in the tank and now we wait 72 hours for that to kill the bugs. The ‘fuel set’ that we use regularly does not kill the bugs. Now that we cannot use the engine we have been offered a landline for power. Later we will get the tank cleaned out and the diesel ‘polished’.

3 comments:

Sue Hunter said...

coicidence?
We've only had diesel problems once, that was a couple of years ago, but we had filled our heating tank at Sovereign!
Dave n.b.Beefur

Sue said...

Yeah, sounds like you have picked up a tankfull from somewhere Chas.

It was only when I filled up with diesel for the second time at the Little Ouse Moorings that I was told "Not sold much diesel this year as there are no boats coming to East Anglia"

I then wondered how long he has had that diesel in his tanks.

Hit and miss somewhat isn't it? Good luck with getting it fixed, a costly fix it will be too I guess.

Geoff and Mags said...

Hi Both
Sorry to hear about your troubles. And Molly didn't get to see the dog show either!
Seriously, it'd be good if you could post about what's done to sort out the problem, what additives used and some idea of costs. It might be useful to the rest of us to be prepared!
Keep well, see you soon.