Heating oil tank (green plastic, 2000 litres) sprang a leak yesterday

[JimK]

/Not just near a water course, "above ground level" triggers the must as well.

/Q

That appears to be at odds with both Oftec and the Building Regs....

Jim K

[MM]

The current tank was installed in 2004 when the 40 properties were constructed. It is a "Harlequin 2100HZ Horizontal L 2120 mm W 1240 mm H 1260 mm", according to the label on the front face. (Round cross-section)

MM

[Andy Burns]

Try tanksandtubs.co.uk, not too far from you ...

[MM]

Pic #4 on this page

shows an almost identical crack to mine and in a very similar place. Mine wasn't as big though.

MM

[MM]

Jeez! That's cheap. I imagined they'd cost a couple of hundred quid or thereabouts.

MM

[MM]

Yeah, I'll take a look. I'm truly knackered now, having been up half the night, calling the fire brigade, waiting for the heating engineer, getting the pumping out started. It all takes its toll on the old stress levels, and I'm not so young any more. Getting to the point when I'd quite seriously consider a care home with everything done for me. But I could never afford one.

MM

[MM]

Yeah, I saw that too, after the event! Must be some kind of chemical reaction. The fire brigade people used Dammit, which they said they use a lot when lorry fuel tanks develop a leak. It certainly held up in my case for over 12 hours and probably could have gone another six, although it was dripping slightly by the time the heating engineer arrived.

Is it even wise to consider a VW now? Or Seat or Skoda? I have the feeling that this scandal is going to haunt them for YEARS. The Diesel versions are probably worthless now, if they don't comply with the regs. Just like failing the Diesel MoT, but permanent.

I have ~never~ wanted a Diesel car. It's been petrol for me since

1965-ish.

MM

[charles]

or Audi!

The diesel engine in my Seat (owned from 1996 for 6 years) was developed by Audi

[Adrian]

Fuck that. I'm seriously thinking of buying VW shares.

[Adrian]

Umm, it was developed by VAG.

VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda - all just brands of VAG - as are Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati, MAN...

The platforms are the same, the mechanicals are the same, the electronics are the same, the factories are the same.

[Dave Liquorice]

Why permenant? The ECU's can either be reflashed with new firmware as part of the next service or the ECU's swapped out, factory reprogrammed and sent back out.

This does assume that either the car can be made to meet a given emmisions spec or they simply alter the spec of the cars to tell the truth. Maybe offering a "buy back" deal for owners who no longer want the "re-speced" car.

[S Viemeister]

That was suggested by the people who put in our new boiler - as a stopgap, of course.

[Dave Liquorice]

ICBA'd to dig through the half dozen or so bits of legislation/regulations that might apply. I saw over 200 l, over 350 l, under 2,500 l, under 3,500 l all in various contexts that might (or might not) apply.

The online Building Regs ought to be right but note the date in the quote.

[Dave Liquorice]

So? One could reasonably expect something with a ten year gurantee to last 20 years. As you apparently have evidence that a number of these tanks all installed at the same time have all suffered similar failures that indicates a problem with the tanks.

As I said "if you don't ask, you don't get".

Or they get a new credit card with 20+ months interest free credit and pay it off slowly. Or Stooze the card, ie use it for all purchases, only pay off the minimum each month and bung the cash that would have gone to the card into a high interest account (or better mortgage offset account) to earn interest for nearly two years. Needs a bit of discpline to absolutely put the money aside and not touch it and big notes in your diary to fully pay off the card just before the interest free period ends.

How much is a new 2500 l bunded tank? I am sitting down. B-)

[MM]

Well, I would think this scam is a fairly recent thing, perhaps to coinicide with the most recent and stringent US regs.

Before I bought my first Suzuki Alto in 2011 I test drove a VW Polo (might have been a fox). Okay-ish, but when I discovered that the road fund licence was £125 a year, every year, I backed away immediately. The Alto was free for the first year and £20 after that. The *new* Alto I bought in March 2015 is permanently free. (Hope they haven't fiddled the figures either!)

Back to VW for a moment, and I simply cannot understand what possessed management to condone the software tweaks. I can only explain it by suggesting that it was a moment of blind panic by the VW top management, something like this possible, but unlikely scenario:

CEO: "We gotta comply with the newest US regs! We simply gotta."

Chief designer: "Can't be done, old fruit. The engines, injection systems, electronics, practically everything under the hood would need from-the-ground-up redesign to meet those US values."

CEO: "How long?"

CD: "Five years, minimal, for all models."

CEO: "So what you're saying is, for five years we won't be able to sell any vehicles in the US as none of the current range meets the regs?"

CD: "Pretty much, yeah."

CEO: "Well, what if we tweaked the emissions values electronically on a very short-term TEMPORARY basis while we rapidly redesign all the gear asap?"

CD: "Probably could work, but what if we got found out?"

CEO: "I resign and you'll carry the can!"

CD: "'Twas ever thus!"

MM

[MM]

Because the vehicles cannot achieve the required values without "help" from the software. The designs are old and tired. They should have been keeping abreast of what regs were due. With their current designs they could never meet those regs.

But the truth, i.e. failure to comply with the regs without cheating, will kill the VW market in the US (and possibly in Europe, too) stone dead. Used cars will become worthless if they were subjected to the tweaks, as they won't be able to meet MoT requirements, or equivalent in other countries. Basically, VW is well and truly f***ed, and how they ever thought it would never come out baffles me. I am gobsmacked. Every time I switch on the news, there's further revelations.

MM

[Andy Burns]

Mine didn't have any problems getting through two MOTs, I doubt the warmup they use in the test centre is sufficiently to trigger any "cheat" mode.

Yes it's a problem for VW, I don't see it as a problem for owners.

[MM]

When I first noticed the leak I have to say, I panicked. Just did not know what to do. I rushed indoors and grabbed the first thing I thought might work, which happened to be that blue gasket gunk in the yellow tube. Utterly useless. Never in a million years would I have guessed soap!

Stages were, in brief:

1. Used potter's clay and duct tape. Held till fire brigade arrived 1 hour later.
2. Fire officers used Dammit and the roll of duct tape and made a much better seal. Lasted till the next day, though by the time the heating engineer arrived it had started to drip once every 3 seconds.

I had placed a square plastic bowl underneath the drip, and the total amount in there when finally we had pumped out enough oil to relieve the wall pressure and the drip ceased was about 2 litres.

However, that fuel was contaminated with rain water as it had started to rain during the night. Has anyone got any suggestions for proper disposal of this "mix" of water and kerosene?

MM

[Big Les Wade]

MM posted

You just let it settle until the oil is floating on the water. Then pour off the oil into a separate can (filter it through gauze if you like) leaving the water behind, and it's ready for transferring back into the tank.

[Adrian]

Rather more relevantly, the MOT emissions test doesn't check for NOx, and doesn't require anything even in the same order of magnitude as the emissions standards.