Help Needed - Possible Knackered Fuel Pump?

[Banshee]

So as it stands, my car is off the road at the moment and stuck at my girlfriends house :doh it could be worse though, better than it being stranded somewhere at the side of the road still with no window in it

I started off from my house earlier on and the car was a little hesitant revving past 2000rpm, i'd get plumes of white smoke etc, I knew the fuel filter hadn't been done in a while so already had one of these with me so decided i'd fit that when I arrived at the girlfriends as I had what I needed with me.

Driving then progressively became impossible to the point where I couldn't hit 1100rpm and struggled to reach 5mph in 1st, I rang the misses and she came and towed me to hers as I'd luckily managed to crawl off the motorway,

Replaced the fuel filter as per normal procedure it was manky as expected, primed the new one until the primer went hard and started it up............ NO CHANGE

Would tick over no problem and however the minute I touched the throttle it would just bellow white smoke out the back still

I checked my feed and return from the fuel filter as I have replaced these with clear plastic piping and the pipe that comes from the tank to the filter was literally just trickling and had a minuscule but constant amount of fuel to it, I presume just enough to tick over but not enough to for under load, I got the misses to rev it whilst I watched the pipe and the level of fuel coming through didn't increase , I've also noticed that no matter how much I bleed the system the primer is always drawn down completely whilst the engine is running

I spoke to James who told me that it was very unlikely I would have wrecked my Injector Pump and to try a bottle of diesel bypassing everything before and including the fuel filter, used an old 1ltr spray bottle full of pure diesel, started the car, drove it up the street and it revved round freely to 4500rpm no smoke :thumb2

So this leaves the following parts to be potentially at fault;

Fuel - Could be a bit funky as atm it's a mix of Bio and Veg but had no probs in the past

Filter - Not likely as the problem occurred before I did the change with no improvement

Filter Primer - Not sure if these usually go wrong but is it possible this could have clogged up? If it has I presume a nice long Diesel bath would cure it?

Fuel Lines - All appear intact, no corrosion apparent as they are drowned in Waxoyl as they have been since new, this would also manifest itself with smallish constant bubbles in the fuel pipes rather than complete lack of fuel

Fuel Pump/Fuel Sender - The one that fits on top of the tank that can be accessed via the inspection hatch in the boot floor, I've read about these going wrong before and have my money on it being this


So what do you guys think as at the moment I'm truckless again, got to get it towed/recovered back to my house tomorrow to sort it next week :bow

Please help :surrender and while I'm waiting for a reply I'm going to have a :splif on my bong as I think I deserve one as I have been trying to solve this all day today and yesterday did a 70 mile charity bike ride with 14 other lads from work

 

[bry]

I would be looking to think fuel pump..

 

[Banshee]

I would be looking to think fuel pump..

The one on top of the fuel tank?

 

[AlexD333]

Now obviously this isn't my area of expertise, however it seems you have a fair idea banshee, are there any of these you can test easily to eliminate further?

It's also obviously not the filter as you changed it.

And you mention the rate of fuel does not change, are you sure you could see it before?

The only thing that doesent make sense to me is the white smoke :nenau

Surely fuel starvation would just cause rough running and stalling no?

I don't like the sound of this bio diesel myself, heard it clogs up stuff pretty well, but again have no experience of it. I'm sure someone will post on here soon with some awesome advise (riiiiiiiccccccck!!!) :lol

 

[R1cho]

White Smoke

Normally means that the fuel injected into the cylinder is not burning correctly. The smoke will burn your eyes.

Engine/pump timing out
Fuel starvation to the pump causing the pumps timing not to operate correctly if theres only a trickle theres ya cause of white smoke
Low engine compression
Water/petrol in the fuel

 

[AlexD333]

White Smoke

Normally means that the fuel injected into the cylinder is not burning correctly. The smoke will burn your eyes.

Engine/pump timing out
Fuel starvation to the pump causing the pumps timing not to operate correctly if theres only a trickle theres ya cause of white smoke
Low engine compression
Water/petrol in the fuel

Oh. I thought the fuel starvation would not be able to produce white smoke (I'm learning myself) :lol

 

[Banshee]

Ok so, now to find the cause of the starvation is it going to be a blockage in the pump on tank or in the filter head/primer?

 

[R1cho]

Ok so, now to find the cause of the starvation is it going to be a blockage in the pump on tank or in the filter head/primer?

i'd say in the primer head. have you undone the fuel filler cap so air can flow freely?

 

[AlexD333]

Ok so, now to find the cause of the starvation is it going to be a blockage in the pump on tank or in the filter head/primer?

If indeed a blockage, can someone suggest a good way to quickly clear out the system? :nenau

 

[R1cho]

easiest option is bypass the fuel filter and see if things improve

 

[R1cho]

ok just re-read the first post, you already found where the blockage is when you bypassed the filter housing :thumbs

 

[Banshee]

Well it still leaves a few options as to where the blockage is, clearest answers to me are primer head or fuel pump on tank

 

[Banshee]

i'd say in the primer head. have you undone the fuel filler cap so air can flow freely?

Tried that and made no difference

 

[R1cho]

bypass the fuel filter direct from the tank feed

 

[Banshee]

bypass the fuel filter direct from the tank feed

By attaching a clear length of pipe from the tank to the IP?

Then that would rule out fuel, pipes, pump and tank

 

[R1cho]

By attaching a clear length of pipe from the tank to the IP?

Then that would rule out fuel, pipes, pump and tank

:thumbs

 

[Banshee]

:thumbs

Then I suppose if that works fine, i'd drain all the fuel into a few 25 litre plastic drums and refill with diesel

If it's still knackered after that I'll replace the fuel pump looks like an easy job through the inspection hatch in the boot

 

[R1cho]

start by just bypassing the fuel filter up front, its a smaller area to start from and rules out the fuel filter housing and primer pump

 

[Bigbunny2007]

No fuel pump in the tank, only a swirl pot, pick up pipe and return pipe. It could have blocked the pick up pipe which is causing your problems.


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[RJL Services]

i had this when i first had my 1996 2.7td on aa 500 mile trip wth only 80 to go called the aa out who said the turbo was gone white smoke and i did what you did changed filter at side of the road and when we restarted her she would not get enough speed to pull out in to traffic so i was relayed home only to find out the mini filter was blocked which was how i became a member of this forum because of the great help i recieved worth a check ,rob:thumb2