Mogadon motoring & fuel starvation issues

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I've just bought a '96 VW Golf 1.9D, seems to drive quite nicely apart from its glacial BMC 1.5 diesel style slowness (which isn't standard, it should be reasonably nippy). I've ruled out the obvious things, including the tank strainer and fuel filter.

The injector leak off pipes are pretty crumbly though. The EGR valve (which needs blanking really) has similar sized vacuum pipes running into it, could I nick them with no ill effects?

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Removing the EGR vacuum tubing didn't make any difference, phew.

 

It runs ok, but It's still suffering from poor performance from air ingress somewhere (visible in the clear fuel lines after the filter). I've replaced the whole fuel line, fuel filter, cleaned out the tank pick-up, bypassed the new fuel filter in case it was faulty and it's still tardy.

Have I missed anything obvious? Could the tank pick up be faulty? It's just a simple curved pipe in a plastic housing.

 

 

Here's a photograph of it, vile.

It's actually alright, seems to drive nicely in a 'solid and unflustered' way.

[warren t claim]

That looks like a very acceptable form of transport. Love the non faded paint.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Not to worry, it's almost white at the back corners and pink at the hatch. I have cured it by only driving in the rain.

[Station]

Usually silly, obvious things like injector (if it even has these?) leaks on diesels, is there excessive smoke out of the exhaust as soon as it's under load? If there's diesel in the line, I can't see it being anything -before- that that's a problem.

[scruff]

Haven't a clue what these are like but a weak lift pump / fuel pump (NOT the injector pump) would be my guess. If an injector leaks enough to cause a power loss you can usually hear a misfire

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Usually silly, obvious things like injector (if it even has these?) leaks on diesels

 

Apart from very early experimental diesels which had a habit of exploding, they're all injected.

It isn't leaking anything, the injectors and pipes are dry, and it isn't claggy - which is usually a sign of fuel starvation.

 

Haven't a clue what these are like but a weak lift pump / fuel pump (NOT the injector pump) would be my guess. If an injector leaks enough to cause a power loss you can usually hear a misfire

 

It doesn't have a lift pump, it's all done by the injection pump.

 

Anyway, I think I've narrowed the problem down to the tank pick-up. Can these fail? Like I said before it seems too simple to fail.

[scaryoldcortina]

There is a small plastic gauze around the tank end of the pickup pipe (to stop big bits) and it sometimes blocks if people use "alternative" fuels.... pull the sender out and have a look.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Aye, it had some weird slime in it, it's minty clean now. I've never had issues with tank pre-filters before while running on 'alternative' fuels, it's almost always the main filter.

[Richard]

Have you blanked the EGR off yet?