Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
We were told to go to a specialist by one of the two local garages we use who said that there was a risk we'd get "passed from pillar to post" otherwise, also yes, it was just the drain plug we used.
We've been kind of working on trying to get it back on the road off and on for a while now, but things keep cropping up to prevent it from happening.
Thanks
Also for reference, this is a summary of how things have more or less gone in our attempts getting it to start.
- To my knowledge, the last time it was used was November at its' MOT.
- We tried to get it starting (maybe May? - I forget now), but we had no dashboard lights at all.
- Charging the battery worked, dashboard lights on, engine would turn over but not start.
- Discovered the larger battery had failed (would drop to just 2 volts within an hour of a full charge), so replaced this.
- Also charged primary battery for good measure.
- Still no luck and we read the sediment tank being full could cause this,so we drained it (it was pretty full of water on emptying, so probably would have needed doing soon anyway).
- Tried again, the primary battery drained in 4 turns of the key, again just turning over, no engine firing.
Things then happened (many vet bills and a sad loss), and only in the last few days have we been able to get back to this.
- The primary battery had drained, so we charged it back to 12.7v
- Secondary (new) battery was still at 11.8v
- Got a 5L can of diesel (tank not empty, but figured it worth trying in case).
- Managed 7 attempts at starting, remembered this time that I *think* you're meant to start with the accelerator slightly down (vague memory of this being mentioned somewhere) - I wondered if this is why on this occasion the primary battery didn't drain but only dropped to 12.5v?
- Called breakdown people who diagnosed it as air in the fuel caused by the fuel lines which looked old.
Even if it did start, I presume it wouldn't be safe to drive anyway since if it's the fuel lines presumably they must be leaking as well if they have holes in that air can be sucked into?