more problems

[wackoffwiththebear]

very strange happenings this morning, cruising along the a21/m25 interchange, light drizzle, usual heavy traffic, suddenly loose power. the thing will only run on a very light throttle about 50 mph. manage to coax it up the hill (u know the scenario, very large truck right behind you) and exit the m25 asap. dies at the junction so i paddle to the side. reluctantly starts again but wont idle and is missing like a bastard and wont take any throttle.
fuel light not on although must be getting close as its done 270 km since last fill. struggle on at abt a max of 40 mph. pull in at the first fuel stop and take a look over it. fuel ok, nothing obvious to see at all. make a few calls gonna be late to work, etc, where can i dump it, decide to put a little juice in and limp the monster to my parents place. start her up and hey presto, idles perfectly.
wack it into gear and everything running smoothly.

no idea what that was about, initially thought electrical, but having put a splash of fuel in it goes again. but it definatly hadnt run out. the light came on just b4 i got to the petrol station.
my faith in this one is faltering. first the gearbox now this little
episode, nothing terminal just niggling at the confidence!

 

[Droopy Dick]

This may not be relevant, or even right, but I had a very simiilar thing happen to me a few years ago in my car.

I alos managed to limp to the garage, opened the fuel cap, and filled up with fuel (it had been low).

When I spoke of it to a pal who knows how car engines work, and what makes thm break down, he simply looked at me asnd said 'Ait lock'. 'Eh?', I replied, thinking he was being rude to ma again. 'Air lock', he repeated (at least I knew what kind of -lock he wa stalking about then. 'Happens all the time', he said. ''You get a tight seal at the filler cap, and as the fuel is drawn into then engine it leave a vacuum. This eventually gives the symptoms you described. As soon as you take the filler cap off and air gets into the tank, fuel flow is restored and everything is hunky-dory'.

So, question is, did you have a vapour lock in your tank?

 

[KOTM]

Thought thats what the breather pipes were for, or are they kinked/trapped?

 

[The Mechanic]

The problem is ......

Bloody Mechanical Wilderness.......

More likely your mechanical genious was up a gumtree! You certainly wouldn't get an 'air lock' in a fuel injected beasty, and most will give a suck in of fresh air when you open the filler cap...thats normal.

Try the fuel filter, as you seem to suggest in your thread that you run down to the reserve area fairly regularly (with fuel at its current cost who wouldn't). The build up of sediment (fuel dispensers are not all they ere cracked up to be) will gradually build up and slowly stop the fuel getting to where its supposed...hence the gadual slowing down. You pull over, switch of to investigate and as everyone always does they try and re start the beast..hey presto it runs ....or at least until the filter 'backs up' with sediment again.

You'll not beleive the number of 4 wheel tins that breakdown for this reason.