300tdi doing my head in

evening all

my brother's disco - '97 300tdi - is not working, the engine starts and idles and revs up ok, but if you hold it at any rev speed above idle for more than a few seconds the engine sounds like its starved of fuel and runs lumpy and then if you don't catch it, it splutters and dies. obviously this is no good if you actually want to drive it any where.

so far I've changed the fuel filter, I've replaced the lift pump for a delphi job as suggested in a previous thread I cant find now, and I've had the sedimentor off and cleaned, inspected and re assembled, but its made no difference.

once I'd done the above this morning we got about 2 miles, no problems, no issues, happy days, then the landrover curse struck again and we limped halfway back and gave up, I went and fetched my car and towed it home. There are no fuel leaks that I can see, someone has kindly rounded off the nuts that join the fuel lines to the sender unit so I cant get that out, and I've run out of ideas. so before I torch it, has anyone any suggestions?



much love,
JKx

Have you cracked the injectors to see if they're getting fuel?

Might be the filter in the tank, try blowing back down supply pipe

I haven't tried the injectors yet, I'll get onto that, cheers. the tank was dropped, drained and cleaned out less than 12 months ago before the last mot, and I can't get the fuel lines off either at the sender unit or the sedimentor end because they're rusted or rounded or both :/

hi when your running the engine take the top intercooler hose off if you have a fumping noise you could have sliped your timing belt. thats what mine was did all you have done
and then found the problem.

Jay reKx said:

I haven't tried the injectors yet, I'll get onto that, cheers. the tank was dropped, drained and cleaned out less than 12 months ago before the last mot, and I can't get the fuel lines off either at the sender unit or the sedimentor end because they're rusted or rounded or both :/

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Could try a diesel feed from a can to the fuel filter or straight to injector pump if its clean diesel, this will by pass fuel feed from tank, lift pump and fuel filter.
If problem the same then its pump or injectors.

had a similar problem with mine, and it turned out that it was sucking in air through the pipe at the sender...try listening to the sender, i could hear it pulling the air in...

as above senders often suck air in rusty pipes but dont necessarily show a leak passenger side is the suction feed for pump drivers the return,its often worth fitting new sender then fitting new feed pipe bypassing sedimentor

thanks for all the suggestions, its a great help. I'll have another crack at it at the weekend and let you know how it goes!

While your at it, might be worth checking the air side, too

Sender is the most common thing for this issue. Best way to check fueling is to get a litre of diesel in a Gerry can and run a bit if fuel hose straight from the injector pump into the Gerry can. Just jam it in the engine bay somewhere. Them start the car and try revving it. That will rule out the fuling system completely. If it works then I highly suggest you change your sender. If that doesn't solve it run new fuel lines front to rear. I have also heard of the filter head cracking bit I don't think it's common.


Cheers mark.

the suns shining and something is going right for a change

figured I'd start with the easy suggestions first, and with the sound proofing out, the sucking noise from the sender was very audible, even sat in the driver's seat. a preliminary poking with a spanner resulted in this


so I whipped out the angle grinder, breifly thought it might be a silly thing to do, and then did it anyway. cut off the rotten bits and done this



thanks guys.

its not quite 100%, still a little low on power and intermitedly hunting when revving, but the further its driven the better it gets so hopefully it'll sort itself out.

JKx

you do need a new sender unit to cure it completely

glad to be a help...

Get a new sender ya tight ####!

it might only be 60 quid, but thats still 60 quid I dont have right now

besides which, its not my truck