Diesel pump leaking

[martinj]

Hi
Just got back from a 300 mile trip today,the van (1.6td) ran like a dream but have discovered that the diesel pump appears to be leaking.When checking the van over before we left I noticed number 3 injector was wet.The leak off pipes looked damp so replaced them again (were only changed last summer) and thought that was the leak.The fuel is dripping off the bottom of the pump closest to the engine. I am guessing that this is going to be an overhaul job, but was wondering if any one else has had a leak like this.I am based in Newport South Wales if anyone knows of any pump specialist close to me who they can recommend.

Thanks
Martin

[Smudger38]

I had a leak from the pump when I bought my van, and it turned out that it was a leaking injector pipe at the pump end. Have you checked the injector pipes to ensure that they are not leaking as they may just need nipping up> Just a thought.

[kit]

I had one split once, Brickwerks do a pump seal kit so it might be a weekend job?

[martinj]

Have checked all injector pipes today, all tight, all leak off pipes are ok.The leak is towards the back of the pump.It looks like to me that the rear of the pump where the injector pipes go in can be split from the rest of the pump, does anybody know if this is correct. Their are torx bolts next to the injector pipes but these are also all tight.It looks like I will be taking it to a specialist as soon as I can find one.

[noggintom]

Hi,

I had a leak on my pump over the winter. A good trick to isolate where it is coming from is get some white A4 paper or card and place all around the pump and then rev the engine (by pulling the accelerator cable attachment on top of the pump) and see where the paper gets wet. Keep adding fresh paper to localise the culprit until you find it. The fuel can spray or drip (hopefully!) a long way so it can be confusing without closer inspection.

Mine was leaking from the top of the pump at the egg shaped metal plate that operates the turbo in some way. It was fixed by replacing a washer. The washer costs nothing put the labour can add up - fortunately the garage managed to replace mine without taking the pump out. I took it to a Bosch specialist as they are Bosch pumps - I think you will find your local place if you go to their website. The guy was excellent, knew what pump it was and all the things that go wrong with them. He even printed out an exploded diagram of the pump to show me what was what.

The pump is mechanical and gets a worn with age so I am told they all start to leak eventually. A refurbishment of the pump replacing all the washers is likely to be the worst case and the main cost there is taking the pump out to do the re-ferb (approx. 2-3 hours I think he said but I cannot remember now). After that it is a reconditioned pump if really bad - hopefully yours is ok and doesn't need too much doing to it.

At least it's a diesel and so will not explode when you drive down the highway (well it will eventually - but it takes a bit longer to get it to flash....).

Good luck and keep us posted.

Tom.

[martinj]

Had my van back today after having the fuel pump leak fixed.It suddenly got alot worse 2 weeks ago so had the pump removed and took it to a specialist in Newport.The fault was a large seal inside the pump had perished, have had all seals inside replaced, new stop solenoid and the pump recalibrated.Also had the injectors tested but they were fine, changed the glow plugs while the access was good.All rebuilt with a new cam belt, tensioner, crank seal and crank bolt.Just driven it home and can't believe how more responsive and quieter it is.going up to the Yorkshire dales and Northumberland next Saturday on holidays so looking forward to see how it performs.

[kit]

Just out of interest what sort of money was a job like that?

[martinj]

Hi all in was around £375, the pump repair was £100 and the rest was labour and parts, which included new glow plugs, cam belt, cam belt tensioner, lower inner crank pulley, crankshaft oil seal, crank bolt, injector seals, rocker gasket, pas+alt belts, leak off pipe, dip stick oil seal and a fuel filter.May sound like overkill on the cam belt items but I wanted to be sure that everything is in good order.

[bowesy]

that price seems very reasonable to me and i would replace all that stuff too seems false economy to me i had a repair done on my works van that has a bosch pump and that cost me £50 just for a little seal on the top but the amount of dismantling to get to it was unreal