Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Edwin
The RAC have a by now long history re battery sales yes. A patrol tried it on me about 20 years ago. The BBC exposed them. They have fairly recently re-launched battery sales in an overt way.
Re the car, I am glad the cause appears to have been found. I was cogitating overnight that there must be SOMETHING that is not known or not been considered.
Perhaps there is a tendency to consider electronics, or water in the petrol tank, &c. And overlook or discount the fundamental test, does the fuel pump actually pump fuel? Or does that need a fuel pressure gauge nowadays?
That shredded alternator belt is still a mystery.
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It's a very simple ploy - turn up to a broken down car, put the voltmeter and then battery tester on and "prove" the battery doesn't have much capacity in it.
Of course it doesn't - the poor owner has been stranded by the roadside for hours, initially trying to start a broken down car in the vain hope it will fire and keep running long enough to get off the hard shoulder before the powers that be change the hard shoulder to a commuter lane and during all this, the hazard warning lights have been running (running the battery down!) to alert other motorists of a dead vehicle in the hard shoulder/commuter lane.
The fuel pump (in case you missed it in the thread Stephen) was considered but discounted as it could be heard running. A fuel line pressure test is the only way really to prove whether it's delivering fuel.
Usually with a fault like this, it is something obvious and normally, all the evidence is there from the start. This time though it seems a partial failure of the fuel pump caused a few red herrings because it could be heard running at times although not hard/fast enough to deliver fuel it seems! Often motors will give a hum/buzz when jammed/stuck and to the "untrained" ear, this can sound like it's running - one of the major drawbacks of remote diagnostics via a forum sadly.
Thankfully this RAC guy seemed to have his head screwed on and gave the pump a whack (presumably by banging the bottom of the tank in the right area) and it came back to life. I'm guessing he heard the buzz/hum/whirr of a stuck pump, recognised it and acted accordingly with percussive maintenance.
I wonder if the shredded alternator belt was the wrong profile? Volvo belts have a very specific profile, although most of the time others will fit and work fine, occasionally the pulleys are worn to the correct profile and can shred an incorrect profile belt because it sits deeper in the pulley groove. Usually they last longer than 20 miles though!
