Simon
Free Member
- Aug 29, 2014
- 287
- 426
- Funster No
- 33,102
- MH
- Swift Kontiki 600
- Exp
- First year under our belt!
So, I happened to read somewhere on here that many people put 2-stroke oil in their diesel at a tiny ratio of 1:200. Reading up on this from various reputable-ish sources I found it's suggested that this can be beneficial, especially to the older type engine that can run quite happily on beef dripping sandwiches, and has been done for years. It certainly wouldn't do any harm anyway, so I considered it worth a try.
There was about 200ml in the bottle in the shed so into the half-full tank it went yesterday.
I'd planned on filling the ol' bus up to the brim anyway to pre-empt the inevitable massive price rise before we go off gallivanting in May, and I thought this activity would also give the 2 stroke oil a good mixing-in, so off we went today to do that very thing. On the way I noticed the windscreen had got quite dusty so I gave the wiper stick a flourish. Nothing. I pulled it toward me for the squirters to squirt. Not a drop. Bugger.
Checked the fuse box - the wiper fuse also protects the windscreen washer pump, the temperature gauge, the interior heater fan, and other stuff, most of which still worked.
I had recently taken out the radio to install some new speakers so maybe something had been disturbed in the massive bundles of wires behind the interior plastic bits? Lots of quite painful upside-down-under-the-dashboard testing proved that no, it was all fine. Must be the 2-stroke oil then! I've cursed the electrics by feeding the engine stuff it wasn't expecting! Like many children these days it's a fussy eater and is going to cause havoc until it gets exactly what it wants! 2-stroke oil is obviously the Brussels sprout of the Fiat engine world.
Or... more realistically, maybe it's the wiper motor? Or a dodgy earth? Or something? All the spiky little bundles of earth wires I could find were checked but they seemed ok. I even took out the speedo/gauge module and unplugged everything in there, then plugged it all in again as I read that this is another weird thing Fiats like to happen quite regularly or random things stop working.
Finding the wires attached to the wiper motor was a challenge as they're hidden behind metal things, but undoing a few little bolts had the thing out. I unplugged the motor and plugged it back in again a few times, went inside and wobbled the switch. Mrs Simon reported movement so I put it all back together again and it works fine! Did the same with the washer pump connection and that now works fine too.
It seems Italian electrical connections like to be taken apart and put back together occasionally. They must get bored and crave attention. If only there wasn't so many of them.
Fiat - fix it again tomorrow! At least it was sunny and warm, which makes a change when things like this happen.
There was about 200ml in the bottle in the shed so into the half-full tank it went yesterday.
I'd planned on filling the ol' bus up to the brim anyway to pre-empt the inevitable massive price rise before we go off gallivanting in May, and I thought this activity would also give the 2 stroke oil a good mixing-in, so off we went today to do that very thing. On the way I noticed the windscreen had got quite dusty so I gave the wiper stick a flourish. Nothing. I pulled it toward me for the squirters to squirt. Not a drop. Bugger.
Checked the fuse box - the wiper fuse also protects the windscreen washer pump, the temperature gauge, the interior heater fan, and other stuff, most of which still worked.
I had recently taken out the radio to install some new speakers so maybe something had been disturbed in the massive bundles of wires behind the interior plastic bits? Lots of quite painful upside-down-under-the-dashboard testing proved that no, it was all fine. Must be the 2-stroke oil then! I've cursed the electrics by feeding the engine stuff it wasn't expecting! Like many children these days it's a fussy eater and is going to cause havoc until it gets exactly what it wants! 2-stroke oil is obviously the Brussels sprout of the Fiat engine world.
Or... more realistically, maybe it's the wiper motor? Or a dodgy earth? Or something? All the spiky little bundles of earth wires I could find were checked but they seemed ok. I even took out the speedo/gauge module and unplugged everything in there, then plugged it all in again as I read that this is another weird thing Fiats like to happen quite regularly or random things stop working.
Finding the wires attached to the wiper motor was a challenge as they're hidden behind metal things, but undoing a few little bolts had the thing out. I unplugged the motor and plugged it back in again a few times, went inside and wobbled the switch. Mrs Simon reported movement so I put it all back together again and it works fine! Did the same with the washer pump connection and that now works fine too.
It seems Italian electrical connections like to be taken apart and put back together occasionally. They must get bored and crave attention. If only there wasn't so many of them.
Fiat - fix it again tomorrow! At least it was sunny and warm, which makes a change when things like this happen.
