Urgent Help needed for a dying band in a van...

[thehighwaychildren]

Right..this may give you a headache..

I am in a traveling band who has been on tour for 6 months in Europe..we play money on the street for money so we haven't got much of it...

Anyways..about 5 days ago our van ( a N reg semi high-top transit with about 90000 miles on it) ran out of petrol on the motorway in Paris..we had to rag it a bit to get it to the hard shoulder to save us from the french drivers and ever since we filled it with petrol it has been making unfavorable noises. It started with sounds like it was revving too high in low gear and has now settled into a steady very loud noise..the engine feels fine and isn't having any trouble because of it...low gear is far worse but it still makes a lot of noise when you get higher...it sounds vaguely like something is spinning too fast or something is slipping and then spinning too fast...we are holed up in a flat in Rouen at the moment scared to move her because we have a ferry to catch on the 5th of January home to see our families...

I know a little bit about engines and mechanics but nothing really that useful I have discovered.

I am looking for any advice things to look for..ideas..hunches...anything that might be able to help us out...

thank you all very much and if there is any more information that anyone needs I will be here night and day trying to figure it out...

Thanks alot
alex
uncle meat and the highway children

[GBBiker]

Sounds like the carb may want a clean out.

[MrMPuk]

Sounds like the carb may want a clean out.

Good luck finding that.

[Muttley]

What did you do to get it on the hard shoulder? From your description it sounds like the clutch is slipping. Does it accelerate normally or are the revs rising without the speed increasing? I cant think of anything that running out of petrol would do to make a noise

[GBBiker]

Sounds like the carb may want a clean out.

Good luck finding that.

Why?

The OP said he ran out of PETROL

[MrMPuk]

Sounds like the carb may want a clean out.

Good luck finding that.

Why?

The OP said he ran out of PETROL

It's injection.

[madmark]

a carb whats that????????
96 was dohc inj

[GBBiker]

It's injection.

In all fairness, neither of us know that until the OP clarifies. It may not be standard

[captain hook]

It's proberly a Deisel and airlocking

[thehighwaychildren]

It is a petrol...when we ran out of petrol we put it into gear and tried starting to lurch the van a little bit forward...

when we bought the van about 8 months ago we were told it was a brand new clutch, we have had a bit of trouble getting it into first gear sometimes but it always goes in and it has never really been an issue..the driver says he hasn't noticed any acceleration problems but i'm pretty certain that it has been suffering a bit...

thanks to everyone who has responded...at least i've got something to start learning about..

thank you
alex
uncle meat and the highway children

[thehighwaychildren]

could it possibly be the exhaust coming detached somewhere..i had a look and couldn't see anything immediate..but it was dark and i didn't really know where to look..

thank you all!

[AlanN]

If you used the starter to wind it on to the hard shoulder, then I think the starter is on its last legs... usually damages the shaft.

[darkbluevanman]

It's proberly a Deisel and airlocking

It's prolly a diesel and they put petrol in!

[ake]

The exhaust would certainly account for an increase in noise

[thehighwaychildren]

It's proberly a Deisel and airlocking

It's prolly a diesel and they put petrol in!

hilarious...ta..