Club 80-90 Forums

hello!
ive had a strange electric motorish noise happening from somewhere underneath for about a month now, with no ill effects. just recently though, ive had moments where the power just really drops, and the engine will stall if left to idle after the power loss. anyway, ive located the source of the strange noise, under the driver side chassis beam, and its coming from what im thinking is the fuel pump.

its a DH fuel injection, if that makes a difference to the fuel lines at this location?

its a quite loud constant whining noise while running which didnt used to be there. also, when turniing the ignition on one click from engine off, the noise of the pump priming(?) sounds not very healthy. i just wanted to check with you helpful people that it is indeed the fuel pump im looking at:




it looks like its been there a long time. theres also the small plastic fuel filter off to the left of the image, coming from the tank.

im happy to swap the pump myself- but i have a few questions;

is it okay just to break the fuel lines and not worry about air in the lines? try and catch spilt fuel in a container? will the tank empty itself if i do this, or will it just be a bit? its about a quarter full at this point. are the jubilee clip seals just dry seals, or is there a sealant too? anything else i should swap while im there? (i dont want to take the tank out myself though).

the large inline filter ive marked in the image (it says inline filter on it!)- does that ever need replacing, or should that one be fine?

thanks in advance!
john.

ok, so after doing some reading last night, i think that that is definitely the fuel pump, the same thing thats making the 'tired old electric motor noise' and causing me power loss issues.

unfortunately, the part is on brickwerks for £128.. yikes. heres me thnking a pump cant be that expensive. guess its because of it being for injection engines?
http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/shop?page=s ... ory_id=114

i cant find one at gsf or justkampers websites. does anyone know if theres a cheaper source of one of these??

thanks

well, for those who may have had fuel pump issues on an injection engine, it appears after a lot of reading on thesamba, a squealing fuel pump can mean a few things, often gunk in the tank / obstructed fuel lines. the pump itself may be ok- just having to pump hard.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... pump+noise" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


the noise may be cavitation (gas bubble turbulence in the pump).

yesterday i changed the little inline plastic transparent filter, which had a' reasonable' amount of small rust flakes in it, but i still have running problems. delayed response from the throttle, rough at idle speed, some coughing and ultimately cutting out.

i have a new fuel pump on the way, but from the sounds of it, it might well not be the problem...