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When a good day turns bad.
My plan for the day was simple, get up really early and drive to Maryborough. Do one job there then drive to Hervey Bay and do second job. Drive on to Bundaberg and do third and final job. Drive home down inland road. Easy.
It was all going to plan until part way through the drive home. With just over 1/8th tank of fuel left and about 200km remaining I thought it would be wise to stop at Nanango and fill up. That was the exact point at which a day that was going like clockwork turned bad, very bad.
I suspect Murphy may have had a part in this but after putting about 15 litres in the tank my nose suddenly registered something was not right - why can I smell petrol??? By the time my hand reacted I had put 17 litres of petrol in van that has a common rail DIESEL engine........BUGGER!
I went in and paid for the petrol and explained what had happened and was given the OK to push the van down into the paddock below the bowsers and fix it there.
The fuel tank is made of plastic and has no drain bung, I tried to siphon out the fuel but that also failed. Nothing else to do but remove the tank completely and up end it to drain it out. It took me about an hour to get the tank out and another hour to drain it as completely as I could. By the time I went to put the tank back in it was dark and raining but I kept going regardless. I then had to borrow a 20 litre drum from the servo and run backwards and forwards to the correct bowser to put 60 litres of diesel in. Thankfully my tired brain had had the sense not to start the engine after putting the petrol in so the contamination was confined to the tank and no engine damage was done. I was able to start the engine and drive up to the bowser to completely fill the tank.
So far the van has not missed a beat since this happend.
I have to say a big than you to Karen at Caltex Nanango for doing whatever she could to help me, even giving me free cups of coffee.
Some photo's for your amusement;
Tony
