300 tdi dies on me

Hi i have a 97 300tdi, yesterday it started dying on me, had been for a run wi the kids, get to a junction and stop, when i try to accelerate away, theres nothing for a few seconds, now when i put my foot on the clutch when coming to a stand it dies.
Had been running on svo but have not been for a while, recently put in 5 gallons of diesel from an old jerry can, think rust maybe got in or worse water.
I think its fuel starvation so im just waiting for a fuel filter to arrive at my local garage.
Does anyone else have any ideas ie. fuel pump, turbo, block problem

change the filter, and clean your tank. if you dont clean the tank you will end up changing the filter evry 3/4 days, and before replacing the filter blow the fuel pipe out

Changed the fuel filter, ran fine for 5 mins now doing the same thing again

dingwalldemon said:

Changed the fuel filter, ran fine for 5 mins now doing the same thing again

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Did you drain the other diesel out before running it up on the new filter? If not, that will be as ****ted up as the old one and useless.

when you changed the filter did you fill the filter with fuel prior to fitting back in place, is the filter tight and also did you make sure the sealing ring was in place

Filter deffo sounds blocked. hopefully the injectors are ok?

theres a sedimenter on the chassis rail in front of the tank. use a 11mm spanner, whip it off and look at the jellified ****e your svo has left in it.
watch your eyes when you take it off as it goes everywhere. clean it all up and be careful not to damage any seals unless you have spares (which i'm guessing you don't). put it back together, bleed it to the lift pump and happy days

what ive done is removed f/filter, replaced it with a new one filled with fresh diesel, still no joy, took of the fuel filter again cleaned it out, took of the fuel pipe near the filter and ran it straight to a gerry can of fresh diesel. Idled better but still doesnt want to take the accelerator. When u dip the clutch it just dies on you. Sediment bowl has been cleaned out.
Starting to think injectors or lift pump, any more ideas?

dingwalldemon said:

what ive done is removed f/filter, replaced it with a new one filled with fresh diesel, still no joy, took of the fuel filter again cleaned it out, took of the fuel pipe near the filter and ran it straight to a gerry can of fresh diesel. Idled better but still doesnt want to take the accelerator. When u dip the clutch it just dies on you. Sediment bowl has been cleaned out.
Starting to think injectors or lift pump, any more ideas?

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It sounds more like an injection pump problem to me possibly due to using SVO in cold weather. This can damage the vane type intermediate pump that drives fuel to the high pressure stage of the injection pump. On cold mornings the SVO is thick and sluggish (like Series Owners) and causes too much pressure and resistance inside the vane pump. If this fails (vanes bend break or jam) the engine will probably start and tick over, but won't pull hard, and may stop running when you apply throttle.

In my opinion this problem is NOT injectors. There is nothing to suggest that, so don't go looking there.

Take off the fuel pipe right at the injection pump, attach a temporary tube and lead that to a can.

Now operate the lift pump (you may need to jerk the engine tad to let it work) and you should be pumping decent squirts of diesel every time you pump it. If not, you are a lucky boy and have a fuel blockage between the tank and the injection pump.

If it does squirt fuel good-oh .... Oh Dear .... looks like the injection pump may need some attention.

CharlesY

further to this, removed sediment bowl again, blew air through the fuel pipes to blast out any crap, put everything back together but now i cant get it to draw fuel through the system, suspect their could be air getting in through the sediment bowl area, think im gonna cut the pipes and put in a rudimentry fuel filter where the bowl used to be.
As for the SVO i havent used it in months and i never used it during cold weather and it was always at least a 60D/40SVO mix .

Have you tried blowing it the other way .. back into the tank?

Sorry, should have added ...

Might also be worth taking the carpets up in the boot, taking the top off the fuel tank cover (6, probably badly rusted screws, IIRC) and loooking at the petrol tank fittings .. they're known to corrode quite badly if not seen to. If they are bad I'd also suggest taking the fuel pump/pickup out of the tank and seeing if there's any ****e in the tank and or clogging up the fuel pickup .. then blow all fuel pipes through with an airline (WEAR GOGGLES).

just wondering if it could be the lift pump, on removing the first fuel filter it was only half full.

dingwalldemon said:

further to this, removed sediment bowl again, blew air through the fuel pipes to blast out any crap, put everything back together but now i cant get it to draw fuel through the system, suspect their could be air getting in through the sediment bowl area, think im gonna cut the pipes and put in a rudimentry fuel filter where the bowl used to be.
As for the SVO i havent used it in months and i never used it during cold weather and it was always at least a 60D/40SVO mix .

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Super!!

So we have a smaller problem, Houston!

A fuel flow problem.

Chase it through from tank, pickup strainer, pickup pipe, plastic pipes, sedimenter, more pipes, lift pump, fuel filter, Injection pump inlet supply pipe .................

You just gotta get fuel flying out that pipe when you crank the lift pump lever, AND then when you whirl her over on the starter. Remember, even if the outside priming lever works the pump, the INSIDE lever may be bust or bent, and so the pump may not work off the cam. Seen that. Bummer.

CharlesY

Sorted
Removed the fuel sediment bowl and replaced it with an in line fuel filter, discos back going great guns again. Should i be looking to put another sidiment bowl back on or will my in line filter do the job?

dingwalldemon said:

Sorted
Removed the fuel sediment bowl and replaced it with an in line fuel filter, discos back going great guns again. Should i be looking to put another sidiment bowl back on or will my in line filter do the job?

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Well done!

Most people seem to leave the sedimenter out of the system after it causes trouble.

LR fitted them after the tank but before the lift pump because the fuel flow there is least, about 200 ccs a minute when cruising. The slow fuel flow is supposed to give the water and crap time to settle out.

So your inline filter will do as good a job.

My advice is to carry a couple of identical spare inline filters and enough tools to change it. You are going to change it eventually, so why risk trouble and expense when you can eliminate the risk by having a new filter in the ditty-box you should carry in the back all the time?

CharlesY

Thanks for that CharlesY, appreciate the advice. Turns out the sediment bowl had a small hole in it which i had missed to start of with, so it was drawing air into the system.