Boiler cutting out after a few minutes

I have a 10 year old Potterton Prima F boiler.

I have breakdown cover on it, and have phoned them to organise an engineer, but as per the case with a lot of tradesman, they've yet to call me back to arrange a visit. So out of frustration I thought I would join and ask here in the meantime. Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Problem is the safety switch on the boiler itself keeps popping out and I have to wait for the boiler to cool down until it 's able to be pushed back in again. I had this problem about 4 years ago. I was quite embarresed when the engineer came and just pressed the switch back in and it was all fixed in a second. Since then it has been problem free, well up until last week. Now as I have said the button pops out even after I am able to push it in. Hence no hot water or no central heating (although I don't need the heating on in August!)

I've done a little reasearch via the web, and 30 minutes ago located the pump next to the hot water tank thing Unscrewed the screw in the middle and a bit of water came out (drips) pushed it in and out a few times and screwed it back in. Since I have done this the boiler has stayed alight and the water seems to be heating up.

So I guess the question I am asking is, was the pump the likely cause of the problem? and is this a common problem. Does my pump need replacing? or have I unjammed something that I would otherwise have paid an engineer silly money to do.

And if you understood that and would like to help, please do

Thanks

The pump sticking on an old system is quite common, especially in the summer months. Suck it and see, if it sticks again replace the pump.

gas4you said:

The pump sticking on an old system is quite common, especially in the summer months. Suck it and see, if it sticks again replace the pump.

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Thanks for the speedy reply. So far so good. Hopefully the engineer will call me tomorrow sometime. I will explain to him what I have done. If he decides he wants to come and check it (so he gets paid for nothing from the people who do my cover) then so be it. At the moment it's still running, I might get a bath deeper then 2 inches tonight

krankie_frankie said:

I might get a bath deeper then 2 inches tonight

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Well at least that would cover my todger

I finally have the engineer calling in tomorrow. I had it running for a few days doing what I said in my original post. Then it packed up for a few days. I gave the pump a whack and thump tonight and it has stayed on for the past hour, instead of the minute or two it was before.

Not sure my cover covers a new pump, so how much am I looking at for a new pump to be fitted by the engineer if he decides it needs to be replaced? So number one I won't get ripped off, and number two, I won't collapse in shock when he tells me tomorrow.

Cheers

Doing an Agile here, but I charge £141 for a standard pump change.