//// Help huge air bubble in clear fuel line ///

Andyinchville1

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2016
Location
Virginia
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI wagon, 5 sp, 226K miles
HI All,

My 2003 Jetta has been running way low on power.

I had a couple error codes PO674 and PO252 and took it to the dealer (yes I know I should know better! but a friend works there ...unfortunately he was not there when I needed service and I was told I needed an injector pump and some brake work totaling $2900 !! ....Needeless to say I took the car back and did not have them work on it).

I had the error codes previously and things seemed to "work out" and I have driven many miles with error codes without issue only this time things did not clear out by themselves ....

I had gotten opinions and they seemed to lean towards the intake manifold being plugged up so I checked that out and the intake is relatively clean (since the problem kinda was like night and day when it happened (i.e. suddenly) I had not assumed it was a dirty intake since that should or would I assume be a slow and gradual issue with gradual losses in power not like a light switch on or off issue).

Anyways, today out of desperation in wanting to have a running vehicle I decided to look over everything and to my surprise I may have found the issue!

In looking at the fuel lines there was HUGE air bubble in the clear fuel line (before there may have been a tiny bubble or none at all but this time the bubble was at least a couple inches long and after starting the engine I could see a small trickle of fuel making its way through the air bubble (good thing it is flowing some fuel because if not I guess the engine would die from lack of fuel).

I assume the clear line is the feed line yo the injection pump?

I don't see any fuel drips so how would I find the source of the leak / (air leak or fuel leak ... I assume air leak since I see no fuel drips?).

I had replaced the fuel filter awhile back but I have done so before without issue but I am not ruling out it could have been something I did when changing out fuel filters ?.

How can I find the sir / fuel leak since it isn't immediately obvious or should I just replace all the fuel lines near the fuel filter?

Maybe a gasket for the fuel filter or O ring ?

FWIW - I have about 315K miles on the car now

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Andrew
 

drucifer

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Location
fredericksburg virginia
TDI
2004 jetta sw tdi pd
One of the orings on the fuel filter could be damaged. The tee itself could be cracked. If you don't see any damage you may want to run it off a diesel purge like set up to eliminate the filter/tee as the culprit. Is your water drain on the filter tight.?
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
This ^^^^^

Look up Ditzel mod, i think i spelled that wrong. its a cheep way to do a nictane fuel kit.
Unless your in a gold climate area, the return tee is fairly useless.
 

Andyinchville1

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2016
Location
Virginia
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI wagon, 5 sp, 226K miles
Hi,

Thanks for the input....

I have ordered a new T and fuel filter (from ID parts) and will see (hope) if that takes care of the problem.

I'll follow up after the installs.

Thanks again

Andrew
 
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