So, no real result at the garage but at least he didn't charge me anything - seemed to be guessing the problem. He didn't mention the breather at all but has advised me to keep the petrol cap off to avoid build up of pressure and perhaps release any trapped air. Showed me a way of getting some petrol in but requires taking someone else to garage ( they have to pull a blue tube forward while I put the petrol in..
). Tried it but didn't work and petrol stopped at 2.50
After an embarrassingly slow fill I eventually got a fiver in before giving up.
Garage bloke said he couldn't tell how much petrol was in the tank so it could be a faulty petrol gauge - now I don't know much about cars but would've thought a mechanic could tell how much petrol is in a car? So the final advice is to get a can of petrol, run the car until it stops (yes, so anyone local, this could be half way across the Runcorn Bridge - how practical??!!), put in enough petrol to get the car back to the garage and he could check further. Said he could take the tank off to look but that would be a couple of hundred quid and he didn't think it was worth it for the type of car.
But Grover is a '51 sei with only 11000 miles on the clock and barely a scratch. Was not planning on trading him in as I know they don't hold their value well - always intended to just keep him going and pass him onto my kids when they are old enough. What to do?
Have booked him into the nearest Fiat garage but means driving to Warrington with car apparently running on empty.
One other thing - the petrol gauge went to
below the orange line a few days ago while driving and even tho I didn't put more fuel in it was
on empty when I got it back from the garage. At rest points to seven o'clock (best way to describe it) - looks like it's trying to get it on with the speedo dial
Could it just be the gauge after all??? Also, the empty light doesn't come on anymore even when pointer on empty (except when starting up - always done this).