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Metal fatigue blamed for smokey exhaust
Page 23
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METAL FATIGUE in fuel injectors has been blamed for a consistent smoke emission problem on North Eastern BRS lorries. The company said this when it appeared recently before Alfreton magistrates in Derbyshire.
NEBRS and driver Stephen John Sawter of Castleford pleaded guilty to charges. Each was fined £5 and ordered to pay E6 costs.
For the company, John Brown said the excess smoke was caused by the top of the injector being chipped away with the result that fuel was pumped into the cylinder in a raw form rather than in an atomised spray.
This could occur at any time without any warning, and no amount of routine maintenance could have detected what was likely to happen.
BRS project engineer John Harrison told the court that vehicles were serviced each month, and that injectors were removed for overhaul once a year in advance of a vehicle's plating test.
A driver would not necessar ily notice the fault, and it was doubtful whether the driver of the Leyland Clydesdale concerned would have seen the black smoke in view of the front-mounted exhaust pipe.
Mr Brown argued that the company was -morally guiltless". The operator had not acted irresponsibly. There was nothing to say that injectors
should be replaced at periodic intervals like sparking plugs.
The injection system was checked annually by experts and in the case of this vehicle this had been done only two months before the incident.
In a letter to the Court, the driver said that he had blown an injector on the A38 by-pass on his way back to Knottingley. He had not noticed any black smoke and he was looking for a suitable place in which the fault could be rectified.