Td5 fueling woes

Hi,

Having some issues with my 10p td5. It went to being difficult to start in the morning about 8 months back. Replaced the injector seals with genuine ones, I also took the opportunity to replace the fuel filter and renew the bleed valve. All was good.

A few weeks ago, it started doing the same again. I replaced the injector seals once more, it worked again, but only a for a few days. Now I'm back to square one.

Once it fires up. It runs great, and will start up thereafter. It only struggles after a good 12 hours switched off.

One thing I did notice was the fuel pump will always run in ign2. Instead of cutting out after the air has fully been expelled. I tried a spare in tank pump I had and its the same. I checked the fuel pressure at the regulator. Got a nice steady 4 bar as soon as the ign comes on.

I'm hoping the head isn't cracked, has anybody else had similar problems. Maybe with the fuel pump constantly running like mine?

Thanks

Hi, the pump should run for aprox 3 minutes after ignition then stop, do you mean your's is running more than that? was the ECU scanned for fault codes? also did you check the ECU red plug for oil?

sierrafery said:

Hi, the pump should run for aprox 3 minutes after ignition then stop, do you mean your's is running more than that? was the ECU scanned for fault codes? also did you check the ECU red plug for oil?

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Hi, yes 3 minutes exactly, then times out. I presumed 3 minutes was the timeout from the ecu.

Yes the ecu plugs are free from oil.
Popped the bonnet today, and while the pump is running I can hear the usual gurgling around the regulator. Butaccompanied with a loud hiss every now and again, I can quite decipher where from though.

Edit: Forgot to mention. Nancom shows no codes stored for the engine.

Sounds like an air-in-the-fuel issue alright. As you are obviously aware, injector seals are often the culprits, but changing them does not always give a lasting solution. Annealing the copper washers can apparently help, but if you change them again I would look carefully for any cracks around the injector seat. If that is not the source of the air, it could perhaps be the filter head or the FPR. If not one of the fuel lines.

Kztom said:

Popped the bonnet today, and while the pump is running I can hear the usual gurgling around the regulator. But accompanied with a loud hiss every now and again,

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That's normal and means the HP side of the pump is working, you should try to replace the fuel filter head

sierrafery said:

That's normal and means the HP side of the pump is working, you should try to replace the fuel filter head

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Hi, the car had a half chassis about 8 months or so ago, a new filter head was fitted then.
It's been working fine the past few days but I've not had it sitting for 12 hours +. The starting issues happen after that kind of time not running. The starting problems have coincided with the fuel pump always running, before that the pump.used to.stop after 30 seconds or so.

I'm gonna clamp.some pipes off while it's running to see if I can isolate the issue.

Kztom said:

The starting problems have coincided with the fuel pump always running, before that the pump.used to.stop after 30 seconds or so.

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Maybe you missed something then cos as i said it's normal for the pump to run 3 minutes, here's from the WSM:
"The fuel pump is a 'self priming', wet type, two stage pump which is immersed in fuel in the tank and operates at all
times when the ignition switch is in position II. If the engine is not started, the ECU will 'time-out' after three minutes
and de-energise the fuel pump relay"

It sounds as though air is getting in and/or the system is not self-bleeding. Worth a double check, is the new air bleed valve working and is it in the right place? It should be in the closest fuel line on the left as you look at the filter. That is - it is in one of the fuel lines exiting the fuel head towards the rear of the vehicle, and it is in the line closest to you and furthest from the chassis.