Club 80-90 Forums

So my T25 keeps breaking down. Almost daily and its just costing more and more.

Its had a new engine 5 months ago, but theres a ton of crap on the fuel, pretty sure its rust and its some how getting past the fuel filter, through the pump and into the floats.

Would a new filter fix this? Our mechanic assured us that the petrol tank is clean and has been cleaned by him yet when I pulled some petrol by mouth, I saw tons of crap, which I assume was rust come into the filter.


Thanks

Change the filter (near the tank on the offside) and change the mechanic for one that know's what he's on about

Ian

Haha, you're right about the mechanic. But they're all crap from around here, had one a few years ago that was actually stealing parts from a transit van I had and was using zip cords to keep things on.

The mechanic has actually changed the filter near the pump, I didn't know until just now (The vans broken down just 2 streets away so had a look at the engine). The mechanic also replaced the pump, even though the old one was working.

The last time he fixed this problem was yesterday, just by cleaning the gunk from the floats. But I'm not even sure if he bothered with the jets or anything.

E D I T: Just re-read your post, are there two filters? Theres one close to the pump at the moment.

There should be one under the van, behind the tank on the offside...

Mine doesn't have one near the pump.

What engine do you have?

I had this problem and got to the point where i didnt want to drive the van long distances in case the familiar lurching appeared.
Finally replaced the fuel tank this year and fitted an electric fuel pump just to be sure as the mechanical one took ages to prime if van stood for a while. All good now

When I looked inside the tank it was all completely pitted with rust Guess we should expect this for a 25 yr vehicle

StuM wrote:There should be one under the van, behind the tank on the offside...

Mine doesn't have one near the pump.

What engine do you have?

Not fully sure what the engine is, but it was a new one (Or reconditioned, not sure).

Breakdown came and said the fuel inside was dirty, was murky. Just recommended I empty the tank, wash it out with some more fuel then re-fuel. But that's already been done.

I'm gonna check for a fuel filter closer to the tank later.

smashyvan wrote:I had this problem and got to the point where i didnt want to drive the van long distances in case the familiar lurching appeared.
Finally replaced the fuel tank this year and fitted an electric fuel pump just to be sure as the mechanical one took ages to prime if van stood for a while. All good now

When I looked inside the tank it was all completely pitted with rust Guess we should expect this for a 25 yr vehicle

I suspect theres some rust in the tank, everything else about the van had been abused before we got it.

Subintro wrote:I suspect theres some rust in the tank, everything else about the van had been abused before we got it.

That's definitely the most likely cause. By the sound of it, you need to drop the tank at the very least, and give it a damn good rinse out. When it's out, go over it very carefully - but I suspect you're going to be ordering a new one.

As far as filters go, you can have as many in the pipe as you want, but only the first one's going to do anything useful.

So what's happened is that the muppetry has found and you've changed the second filter in the line ... change the one nearest to the tank.

Ian

fuel lines rot and bung up carbs too
consider new lines

Think it'll benefit from new pipes.

Just thinking about it, we had the hose from the tank to the filler cap thing replaced, the old one was rusty and could have had bits fall into the tank.

Mechanic also said the fuel tank was aluminium so it couldn't be rusty, probably will have to check myself then.

Subintro wrote:Mechanic also said the fuel tank was aluminium so it couldn't be rusty

Riiiight.

AdrianC wrote:

Subintro wrote:Mechanic also said the fuel tank was aluminium so it couldn't be rusty

Riiiight.

Yeah, I was pretty confident they weren't.


Thanks for all of the help guys, going to see about checking out the tank and new pipes.

Just thought I'd give you guys an update, some closure if you will.


After breaking down again today, I just thought stuff it, I'll flush the tank out, see what comes out and replace the fuel lines.

Went and bought some more rubber tubing (The type for fuel) and got ready to replace the tubing from the tank to filter, filter to pump and then pump to carburettor.

At this point, I just had to prepare everything, cut the tubing to the right length but that wasn't too bad.

I finally got to the point where I was unscrewing the jubilee clip from the fuel tank and had a bowl to drain it into, when the fuel started flowing out, it was clear, it was normal which was a relief. I quickly switched pipes around so I wouldn't waste too much fuel in the process. I also decided to move the filter to the tank, previously it was just before the pump, but reading here and on the VW manual I had it should have been near the tank.

After I secured the pipe so it wasn't dangling and make sure the connections were strong and tight, not too tight mind you, I was ready to start her up.

Started first time and sounded a lot better than it did before, the fuel flowing through the filter was nice and clear, unlike before which was very dark and murky.

All of that just cost about £11.50, excluding the fuel I replaced (Was only about £6.90) so I'm happy, mechanic took £90 3 days ago and all he did was clean the carb and replaced the pump which had nothing wrong with it.

For those who like pictures, heres what the fuel looked like after going through the pipes from the tank, this crap was going through my filter and straight into the engine.






While I was under there, I had noticed quite a large crack in the exhaust, but that's going to have to be another time.

Thanks again for the help, probably wouldn't have done it without it.

Don't get that mixed up with what you are drinking tonight so all that crap was out of the fuel lines ? This mechanic you have been using , I hope you'll be looking for another one in future.