Club 80-90 Forums

well I suppose sods law could have reared its ugly head in your situation.....may be the LPG system did develop a problem and you were unlucky enough to have had the petrol pump fail some time ago but were unaware. Had the same happen to me in an LPG converted vehicle........ran out of LPG and switched over to petrol and vehicle came to rest...hadn't run on petrol for at least a year. RAC came out and it was the fuel pump.......learned my lesson after that and run on petrol regularly (only for a few miles each week) for piece of mind!

You will have to keep us updated as to what the problem was when its back and running.

as suggested i spoke to the insurance company this morning and voiced my displeasure at what we thought was an incorrect diagnosis and the fact we had tried speaking with the garage directly and never actually managed to speak with a mechanic who had touched the vehicle, just the service manager or customer support representative, and requested that i be re-patriated with my vehicle on Sunday via our existing ferry booking.
The insurance company took all this information and spoke with the garage and phoned me back within the hour. Apparently the VW main dealer was upset that we were presuming that they were not professionals, and their diagnosis was correct for the vehicle whilst running on petrol. The fuel pump had arrived and was in the process of being fitted.
Insurance company phoned me this afternoon and apparently the van is finished and running.

I was promised a call thsi afternoon with the final bill but that never arrived, any ideas what i should expect as a bill ???

We are heading to Normandy on Friday, and i will be required to divert to Boulogne to swap rental car for Van, and return to Caen (250KM) to meet rest of family. Concerened i am heading from my ferry port and could experience same problem if it is a hidden ignition fault that could return. I do have spare rotor arm and HT leads but not much else. As suggested by Steve, could be the Hall Unit, unfamiliar with this term and looked on Wiki pages, what is the Hall Unit ??

Thinking of extending my rental car for two days at my own expense and leaving van in Boulogne, only 25KM from our ferry at Calais on the Sunday afternoon.

Thoughts ????

Its a shame they wouldnt let you talk directly to the dealer.. so it was at least a VW dealer and not "piere's auto's"..

Fuel pump (1.9 DG) was about 80 euro's when I had to buy one from my local VW dealer that was 2 or 3 years ago.. Labour is a lot cheaper there though.. It would be a bit of bad luck that fuel pump had failed too.. but it couldnt have been the cause of the original breakdown if it was running on LPG at the time..

It could well be an ignition fault that may return.. have they said its working on LPG or not?
Hall sender is inthe dizzy.. but generallyu they either work or not.. I would be tempted to fit a new rotor arm though..

What you need to do is to drive it up the road a little way, with a mechanic in it.. and see if it will do it again/run on LPG (is there power on the lpg switch box?)..

Need to find out if they have disconnected/bypassed anything too...

Just in case you didn't already know, a DG fuel pump takes about 15 minutes to remove old and fit new.

toomanytoys wrote:It would be a bit of bad luck that fuel pump had failed too.. but it couldn't have been the cause of the original breakdown if it was running on LPG at the time..

It will be interesting to see what caused it to pack up in the first place.

The gasure LPG system is normally ultra reliable, so any failure there, whilst unusual, would be worth a mention as a "heads up" to any others who may find themselves in a similar predicament. (My guess would be a break in the wiring somewhere in the LPG circuit, but no doubt we will see)

Glad you are back on the road

Just hope they don't rip you off !

.

The final chapter.

Got back to Boulogne on Friday to collect van, not convinced i had a fixed van. Had decided to keep rental car for weekend, park van in Boulogne and limp back to Calais on the Sunday, hoping to reach home soil and just get towed home.

garage was convinced van was fixed, and i asked if it had been test driven, and was assured all was ok.

Paid bill, and drove towards rental car garage to park van for the weekend. All seemed ok until about 100 yds down road, when out of traffic and i attempted to put foot down to test max engine response, it was lumpy as hell and backfiring.

Turned around, back to garage, and spoke to the manager who was most apologetic and got his best man on the job.

About two hours later, after much head scratching and tracing of wiring, and testing the spark, it was determined the coil was not functioning correctly as the spark would not jump sufficient distance from the coil HT lead to the engine casing, it would only jump about a 1/4 inch.

Coil was new about 6 months ago from GSF, but they seemed to think it was a compatibility issue with the electronic control unit. Anyhow with no new parts in stock, they removed a bosch coil and and Siemens ECU part number 191905351 from a VW Golf, removing my Telefunken ECU 211905351D. The spark would now jump much further, and the van started firts time, and on the test drive ran like a dream.

The LPG solenoid was switched to ON, which was back to factory settings taking the dash mounted switch control unit out of ciruit, so i was permanently on petrol. Got back to Bristol on Sunday

On Monday, switched solenoid back to OFF, ran carb dry and switched to LPG, and it is running fine with no issues.

So, it seems ignition was the prime failure, but fuel pump would have been a factor if i had ran out.

Does any one see any issues with the ECU i have fitted ??

Glad you got it sorted at last

I wouldn't worry about the ECU.
There were 2 options fitted and therefore 2 types of coil.
The ones you now have were / are a matched pair
As long as it is running fine on LPG (which needs a fatter spark than petrol) I would guess you will be fine:)

Mmm so we were right then..

Funny that...

Golfs use same/similar coil and ignition amplifier (its not an ECU) depending on year.. I presume they used a mark 2/early mark 3 one then?

Did they charge you for it?

Yes fuel pump would have caused you trouble if out of gas.. but clearly wasnt the cause of the breakdown..

Glad its all sorted now....

toomanytoys wrote:Mmm so we were right then..

Funny that...

Golfs use same/similar coil and ignition amplifier (its not an ECU) depending on year.. I presume they used a mark 2/early mark 3 one then?

Did they charge you for it?

Yes fuel pump would have caused you trouble if out of gas.. but clearly wasnt the cause of the breakdown..

Glad its all sorted now....

Mmm think I mentioned ignition too

I did say WE