First Equipment Failure

Lockable Water Inlet Cap for Motorhome

Today we had our first technical difficulty – the fresh water inlet has a lockable cap on it (much like old car filler caps), and today it decided that it didn’t want to lock. Couldn’t quite figure out why, something in the locking mechanism not doing its job. It would still fit in the hole ok, just couldn’t lock it.

Fortunately, not long after we set off this morning, we passed a large motorhome dealers, which had a well stocked accessories shop, and they had an identical replacement for €15, which was probably somewhat overpriced but for the convenience, no problem. We had to take pot luck if that was actually the problem, and not something to do with the housing, but when tested for the first time it worked a treat. Job done!

10 thoughts on “First Equipment Failure

  1. Good grief, mal-functioning equipment is another issue to be faced? I thought once you got on the road everything just – worked……and you haven’t taken a photo of the offending object so I don’t even know what it looks like when mine goes wrong!

    p.s. thanks for adding the ‘notify me’ box.

    1. There you go, picture of said item. Replacement works a treat. Now just need to figure out why waste water is dribbling out of the bottom of the van!

      1. Thank you much appreciated. Next question – how do I add a photo to my replies to you? I bet this feels like you are still at work!

      1. I think you did it wrong! But a lovely picture all the same!

        If you want a profile picture, you need to create a ‘gravatar’ (www.gravatar.com). Register with the same email address that you use here, and the website will do the rest. Your profile pic will then come out on other sites/blogs that you use the same email address with.

        Would you like me to leave the image anyway?

  2. Dave, these filler caps all eventually fail to lock. A temp repair can be effected in one of two ways – firstly, a generous dollop of WD40 and a twist or two of the inner rubber should do it or secondly, drop whole unit in a pot of boiling water for 10 mins which frees up the inner release mechanism………..
    Have tried No 1 and it worked for a while……not tried No 2. We now have a non-locking water filler!

    1. Chris – wow, you’ve obviously suffered the same problem. I must admit, we were probably a bit hasty in getting a replacement. I didn’t bother researching solutions on the net, which I should have done, but we both looked at it and a) couldn’t figure out how it was supposed to work, and therefore b) assumed it was shagged. Given that the new one exhibited the same apparent behaviour, but actually worked ok, it is still a slight mystery. We kept the old one, so will try your suggestions to see if it brings it back to life.

Leave a Reply to Debbie Harris Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *