[Vwdiesel] Lift pump saga

[dieseltdi at verizon.net]

Well I have been in the midst of migrating from an ancient iMac (8 years old with an old single Power PC processor) to a new dual intel processor iMac with a 21 inch screen so have only had a chance to occasionally weigh in on a few topics.  I did want to give you a bit of an update on my 04 Jetta PD.  I have been having several problems over the last several months that were seemingly unrelated:  hunting idle after start up, cruise control that won't hold speed on hills, extended cranking times when using high (B30+) biodiesel concentration, sluggish acceleration and a few other funny things.  Some of these things seemed to clear up or at least diminished after a redone recall (new steel sheathed, ceramic glow plugs, 4 new PD injectors and an ECU flash) but there were still problems.  I checked for obvious things, plugged snow screen (not present on the PD engines), plugged fuel filter (new only 1500 miles ago) but nothing seemed to cause much change.  Anyway, I was perusing the TDI club and found a write-up on the PD lift pump found in the fuel tank.  On a lark, I decided to remove the cover and see if the pump was working, put the key in the ignition, turned it to the glow position and the pump did nothing, turned it to the start position, still nothing.  My lift pump was dead.  I ordered a replacement and after a little difficulty getting it in (make sure tank is 1/2 full or lower, have rags at the ready and make sure you push down on the assembly as you screw the large retainer ring back on) I got it in place. Well, so far, starts are back to seconds rather than a minute that it required sometimes.  Idle no longer hunts and the vehicle is not sluggish on acceleration and it doesn't seem to matter anymore about the concentration of the biodiesel and so far the cruise seems to be operating properly even on hills.  I seem to have fixed my problem. I guess the reason that biodiesel seemed to have the biggest negative effect is because of the higher viscosity of the biodiesel which made it much harder for the tandum pump (a combination fuel and vacuum pump) on the engine to pull the fuel from the tank.  Anyway for a $198 investment (shipping was free from www.metalmanparts.com ) I have a good running car again.  Hayden

" Those who are willing to sacrifice Liberty for Security, deserve neither Liberty nor Security."  Ben Franklin


Visit my website at:  http://mysite.verizon.net/resosxp8/mydieselpages/
Proud owner of:
2004 Jetta GL PD TDI, K&N Filter, ScanGauge II
1968 Beetle, my latest project, watch for details
And many, many, many VWs; from a 1947 Beetle (13 Beetles total), to Vans (5 - 3 splitties, 2 bay window (both were campers), 1 Vanagon Westy, Rabbits (3), Karmen Ghia (1), Jettas (7), Passats (2), Dasher (1), New Beetle (1), and Rabbit Pickups (3) most now gone but not forgotten.