[Vwdiesel] Leaking injection pumps

[James Hansen]

I had a long chat with the fellow gearheads at the local Bosch emporium 
today.

They have heard a lot of stuff.  If one tenth of the doomsday that they 
have heard comes to pass, they are going to be busy boys for the next 
while. BUT, we all agreed that there is a lot of hype to this.
This is to say, that any pump malady that happens in the next few years 
is going to be blamed on fuel, and the unscrupulous will use this to 
sell bug juice.   They mentioned that the Stanadyne rep told them to 
stock up, because there is going to be NO supply soon, the US is using 
it up THAT fast, well beyond production capacity.  One shop in ALberta 
purchased over a hundred grand THEIR COST of Stanadyne additives 
alone... must be reselling it somewhere, ebay, thirsty diesels in the 
US, etc etc... because it's payable in 30 days, no credit terms.  It's 
just that EVERYONE is chirping about additives... so there is a lot 
being sold.

Now, the question we all had is why.
There's been ULSD here since Aug 1, 2006.  No pumps crowding the door 
here.  This is a good thing for the TDI crowd.  here's the scenario- 
your pump leaks, they can rebuild it, but it's 200K for tooling and 
machinery to calibrate this one pump, and only this one pump, so your 
local shop cannot justify the expense of machinery that wears out by the 
time it pays for itself...  So, when (if) it gets busy, you have two 
options.  Rebuild your own pump at the local shop, and it goes out to be 
calibrated which will take 2 mos total time, or you pop the big coin, go 
reman out of a box, or NEW.  big bucks, no scenario is pleasant.  At 
least they can do the old school stuff locally.

Theories thrown around are that the US refinery fleet is by and large 
older than in Canada.  ULSD has been a real significant pain in their 
rosy red regarding upgrades in a timely manner.  We're wondering if it 
is specific refineries, adn problems with the process itself or the 
adiditives much like there were issues with the experimental fuel 
additive package out of a local refinery here years ago. It cost them 
significant coinage then to replace adn rebuild pumps that had 
depositional problems internally.

I had mentioned here that those affected should post their location, so 
we can track the issue. It would be interesting to see if the issues 
center around a specific supply point, or two using identical processes, 
or additive packages.  The thoughts today were that the additives were 
having the effect on the seals... some goofy shit in the additive 
package to make up for, or coincidental with the change in refining 
process in like refineries.

The problems seem like there is a chemical, most likely a short chain 
hydrocarbon in the fuel that is attacking the Buna-n in the o-rings. 
Nobody had any opinions as to what an additive could do to prevent 
this... it's not like it reacts with the fuel, it just makes it slippery 
and higher cetane.

SO, PLEASE, identify the fuel source, and your location if you have had 
pump leakage troubles since August-ish.  I'll track them, pin it on a 
map and maybe it will start to make sense if the sample size gets large 
enough.  Enough so that you may be in a postion to ask for your money 
for the rebuild from the refinery.

Incidentally, pump diesel jumped 13 cents per litre here today.
Gearing up for the holidays and the increased travel.  No collusion my ass.

-james