Diesel fuel film on ALH injector pump

I have a 2003 TDI wagon with 205,000 miles on it and I've started noticing a fuel smell when I park it in my garage. It appears to be coming from a very slight fuel film on the right side (facing the engine compartment) of the injector pump. Is this just a minor annoyance that I can just monitor and live with or is it a problem that could potentially get worse quickly that I should repair? I stress that it is a very minute leak as the surface of the pump isn't even wet, it has a dry film of fuel on it. I only located it by wiping different parts of the fuel system with a rag and then smelling the rag. Once I detected it on the pump then I could see that there was a slightly oily film.
Thank you

The seals age and get hard. I would watch it for now and start planning on fixing it.

Eventually you may have a worse leak or you may start getting air into the pump when parked overnight causing difficult starting even without major fuel leakage.

Check carefully under the pump head with the four injector lines for liquid. If it starts dripping on the coolant hoses you'll have to replace them though this isn't so much of a problem on the ALH as the AHU.

Thanks for the excellent reply. By fixing it do you mean replacing the pump or repairing it? Now that you mention it, the car doesn't start as well and takes longer to smooth out after starting as it used to. Good advice on the coolant hoses too!!!!! Thanks again

Wagon times 2 said:

Thanks for the excellent reply. By fixing it do you mean replacing the pump or repairing it? Now that you mention it, the car doesn't start as well and takes longer to smooth out after starting as it used to. Good advice on the coolant hoses too!!!!! Thanks again

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There is a seal kit available for the pump and a good video on this site as to how to replace the seals. It's a tricky job and usually left to a mechanic that has experience doing it.

Here is an option. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Your-VW-TD...ash=item3aeef4be9d:g:lmgAAOSwj0NUdk7X&vxp=mtr

The professionally remanufactured pump sounds like the best option. Thank you!

Just remember, removing the pump and sending it off for a rebuild will mean you will have to re-time the pump with a VCDS when you put it back on.

There is a "bolt" if you will, possibly a banjo bolt (not sure, never removed it) but it loosened up on my car. Just snugged it up, and it was good to go, no more leak. Iirc, 13mm head

That's all good information. I'll look for the bolt and if that doesn't fix it I'll turn it over to my mechanic so I don't have to mess with timing and end up with a bigger problem.

IMHO if you're going to send the pump out DFIS is the place to send it to.

aja8888 said:

Just remember, removing the pump and sending it off for a rebuild will mean you will have to re-time the pump with a VCDS when you put it back on.

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This is not true. If "whoever" is working on the pump removes the drive hub and re-installs it, and follows the Bosch factory service procedures and installs the hub within +/- .05 mm of the lift spec of the plunger in the pump (which I do), the timing will be correct and will not need "tweaked". I have resealed a few hundred of these pumps shipped to me and no one has told me they had to tweak the timing. I have resealed over 200 of them for a local independent VW repair shop and he has NEVER had to tweak the timing on a pump that I repaired.