Contaminated onboard water tank

[medenview]

Well I've got a result......

Phoned the online company that I got the garage through, http://www.garages4you.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and spoke with the owner. He offered to phone the garage for me with a view to trying to find out what was put in the tank. Before he had phoned them, he offered to give me a discount voucher as a gesture of goodwill from his company.

He called me back and stated that the garage had offered to get the tank cleaned out free of charge and I was to phone the garage to arrange it. I phoned them, arranged to take the campervan down with the replaced filler hose. The garage owner said he was 90% certain that it was the fuel additive that was put in the water filler, which is on the opposite side to the fuel filler.

He is going to get hold of some cleaner and if that fails will replace the tank.

Not bad eh?

[72BUG]

Good on ya mate. Well done.

[Fozzie]

Well I've got a result......

Persistence rewarded! Well done.

[boatdog]

good result for you but isnt it a pity that they couldnt just admit what they had done so at least you knew the substance you were dealing with and had a better chance of removing it. or knowing that a tank replacement was the only answer. as i said earlier in this post i nearly got 8 gallons of unleaded in my water tank, i think they just see the first cap and presume its the fuel cap lets face it most cars etc do only have one so you cant usually be wrong lol

[Cafnod]

Brilliant, glad its worked out for you.
I took my Bedford RL recovery truck into a garage where they KNEW the truck and while I was inside filled it with petrol for me. Shame it had a Perkins 6354 Diesel in it. On wrecked set of fuel injection equipment later...............Still at least it didnt kill the Perkins.
Garage paid for that. And the heavy recover cost to get the truck moved.

[medenview]

Yesterday, I received 2 x 500ml bottles of double strength BioMagic from BioMagic UK Ltd, http://www.biomagic.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have already put half of one bottle in the tank and filled it to overflowing, but there was still a smell of something
like white spirits. It's not as bad, but it is still there. I've done another treatment that will be left overnight but it's
getting more likely that I'm going to have to replace the water tank, pump and all associated pipes.

Will let you know if Biomagic eventually works

[medenview]

Final update to this problem.....

I visited the garage a couple of weeks ago and the owner said that he was 90% certain that something may have been
put in the water tank. This was after I showed him the position of the water filler, opposite side to the fuel filler.

Anyway, he said that he would find out what was used in another van that had drinking water problems and would ring me. He didn't.

After the two weeks of cleaning the tank since my conversation with the garage owner, the smell was still there. I paid £57 to replace the pump, inline filter and purchased some water purification treatment called Elsil. There was still the smell in the water.

Enough was enough. I phoned the garage and said that I was going to replace the water tank and would he pay for it. He agreed to pay for the tank or offset what it cost against any further work I have done, which could be handy as there is a leak near the diff and the MOT is due early next year.

I ordered the tank from CAK Tanks Ltd based in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. The tank came complete with the fitting kit which included two brackets, drain tap with kit, filler with white lockable cap, hose for filler to tank and four jubilee clips, everything needed to fit it at a cost of £136 incl VAT and delivery. On ordering, I was informed that the tank would be delivered within two weeks. It arrived two days later. Their website is at http://www.caktanks.co.uk and I would certainly recommend them to anyone.

I ordered the pump from Bradtech Ltd of Stafford. Website is http://www.bradtech.ltd.uk
Alison at Bradtech was really helpful, sent the pump which was received two days later. After I had installed the pump and subsequently failed to remove the odour from the water, I asked Alison if she could supply another inline filter and non return valve. She did, and didn't charge me anything, despite it being sent 1st class.

So I now have a brand new water tank fitted (by myself), together with new filler pipe and filler cap, new inline filter and non return valve. The only hose that hasn't been replaced is from the pump to the tap and as this runs behind the kitchen units this would be quite hard to do.

I currently have a tank full of water with Elsil purification treatment in it for the night. This will help to sterilise the new tank and clean through all the pipes.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and it isn't a train coming towards me.

Big thanks go to CAK Tanks and Bradtech and to all of you that posted help on this topic. Thanks.