I am having the issue with air bubbles in my fuel line. It can cause the engine to stall out and not want to start again. It's a 2000 Jetta.
If anyone has any advice for me, I would much appreciate it. Right now I can't trust my car to not leave my wife stranded somewhere.
Restriction in intake/pickup in sending unit. Heres what I did.
Original thread:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=68872
I had some issues over the last few weeks were the car has left me stranded and after about 15-20 minutes would restart and quit again later, sometimes within a mile, sometimes 30 miles.
Lots of bubbles in the clear fuel line as it ran. Would Idle as long as I wanted, but at speed or under load it would sputter and die.
Changed the fuel filter and Tee and problem still persisted. Then I decided to pull off the Tee after it died to look into filter and it was dry, and made a huge sucking sound when I removed the Tee. Car would start right up after that, which it had never done before.
Temps are just above freezing and a whole bottle of 911 and winter Power Service in the tank, so I doubted it was fuel gelling. Plus it had done this in 50 degree weather a few weeks ago.
Removed the cover for the sending unit and noticed it was an H revision parts, but decided to pull it anyhow. Even though there is no check valve, the structure for it remains, and stuff gets caught up in it. In my case, it was completely blocked by Algae.
Notice how dark the far tube is, thats the pickup tube.
This is only a quarter of what I got out total:
My suggestion, fuel gelled or not. If you have any running or stumbling problems, or any bubbles in the clear line at all when running, pull the sender and have a look, even if you have the new part number. And while its out drill out that restriction.
FWIW, I firmly believe that if your Tee is good and the o-rings are good, the air is from the pump having major suction and able to pull air past these due to the fuel line restriction. After I cleared the obstruction I am 100% bubble free.
Hope this helps someone else. Good, luck.