urgent help with 300tdi disco please!

hi,
i have a 300tdi disco commercial, on two occasions my disco has spluttered and stopped whilst driving the first time i had to get towed home (this may hav been a simple blockage) over the weekend i took out the old rusty boot panel and put in a new one, so when i took the tank off i cleaned it out (thinking this would solve my problem!) last night tho driving home she spluttered and stopped going up hill (in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal, girlfriend and rapidly cooling takeaway, you know how it is!) but unlike the first time she would drive at idle speed (just) in low gears. trying to ge her started today i have realised how much smoke comes out when she splutters, and the rear position lights are out (both) although the indicators etc are fine. i have checked the wiring to try and make sure there is no short, checked the pipes around turbo/intercooler for splits but am running low on ideas, anyone had any experience of this? any help would be great, im really scratching my head over this one!

when was your last service? The first things I'd check are air filter, fuel filter and fuel sedimenter. Also, you might have air in the fuel system since you had the tank off - unscrew the thing on the fuel filter and pump the lever until fuel with no air bubbles comes out.

hi the last service was a fortnight ago although i havent cleaned my k&n filter yet, i have just unscrewed the thing on the bottom of the sedonometer and a fair bit of crap came out, hopin this may be it. the problem is that the problem isnt there all the time so its hard to tell if its fixed or not so any other ideas would be great, cheers!

Sounds like a blockage/air leak fuel problem at first glance!! but with smoke?

Had this problem years ago on an old diesel VW, there was a filter in the tank that was that plugged up with crap the injection pump was sucking in air from one of the joints on the fuel line-But it didn't smoke!!!

Note:Air can leak into fuel line but it dunt mean diesel's gunna leak out!!!

What year?How many miles?

Egr valve,Maf,lift pump???????

ah! interesting point about the fuel line not leaking fuel. shes a 94 300tdi done 81000 miles. lift pump seems fine, not sure what egr valve is!?
smoke may be because aparently shes turned up on the pump? although it isnt there usually, i dont know!

Not bin messing with the injection pump have we

Arrrrr Well, If it's a 94 that rules out Maf sensor,probably rules out EGR valve (engine gas re-circulation) as well as they started putting em on in about 1995 but check anyway.It's a valve that re-circulates exhaust gas into the inlet manifold pipe at certain revs (Right of engine connects to rubber flexible pipe coming from intercooler) it can get all sooted up,stick open and do some strange smoky loss of power tricks.

Try putting a bit of clear pipe in somewhere between lift pump/filter and the injection pump to see if you are getting air bubbles through.

Bit of a suck and see process of elimination I'm afraid

Good luck

Jason

thanks very much for your advice! i'll give it a try! cheers

Sounds to me like the lift pump is failed / failing. The Tdi can usually manage to suck enough fuel through on its own, but when you get into a high load situation it needs assistance from the lift pump. If this goes she probably will run ok until you give it some welly, then you will have the symptoms you have got. These units are cheap and easy to fit and prone to failing.

Had a smilar problem with my 1995 300tdi last year, however mine was also very slow to start when left for a period of time.

I checked the sedimeter and found that it was damp with fuel at the pipe unions. Due to the condition of the unions, I ended up replacing the sedimeter and fuel pipe from the tank to the sedimeter and from sedimeter to pump. Just less than £100 total and an hours scraped knuckles, but this fixed the problem imediately.

thanks, i have changed the lift pump now and tried, cleaned etc every thing i can think of. have been holding off changing the sedimenter because i know i'll have to change the sender unit on the tank and the pipes as well (as the joints are rusted together) and i dont know where to i can get fuel line (pipes) either very fast mail order or in south east cornwall, any ideas?

The only place you can get fuel pipes from is a Land Rover dealer, mine were obtained at trade and cost £29 for the pair.

I also thought I would have to replace the sender unit due to rusted unions, but after a 24 hr application of freeing oil, they came undone really easily.

The Sedimeter was about £50 from Craddocks.

Ronin1 said:

The Sedimeter was about £50 from Craddocks.

Click to expand...

When my sedimentor corroded away i got a lenght of flexy petrol pipe and a clear plastic 99 pence inline filter .... chopped out the crappy bits o pipe and did away with the sedimentor... never failed me after that

whole job took about 20 mins and cost about a fiver

mondo said:

When my sedimentor corroded away i got a lenght of flexy petrol pipe and a clear plastic 99 pence inline filter .... chopped out the crappy bits o pipe and did away with the sedimentor... never failed me after that

whole job took about 20 mins and cost about a fiver

Click to expand...

That sounds like kin good advice to me!
Especialy if it saves you £45!!!

yeah especialy good if you have just bought a lift pump etc as well!!

just a little update for you, i had changed the lift pump and it still wasnt quite right but i have now replaced the fuel line from the tank to the lift pump with a new pipe with an inline filter bypassing the sedimenter and (fingers very crossed!!) she's running ok just like to thank you all for your time and help it is greatly appreciated! thanks