Jetta Caught Fire, Tiny holes in injector pump gaskets

I do not know how long my injector pump broke it's seal and was spraying inside of my engine compartment, I am guessing for about 10 minutes...

Was thinking this Toyota ahead of me was burning oil, and kinda weird there was no smoke though. Is my engine overheating nope.. hmm...

Saw a huge puff of grey then fire lick out my fire wall passenger side'ish middle hood vent, the lick out the opposite side mid hood to fender crack while driving 35 mph..It was fumy in there..

I was in stop and go traffic for 7 mins then a 40 mph boulevard for 3 minutes with a stop 1 min before fire licks, seemed like the perfect recipe for disaster upon reflecting on it...Just so happened that I pulled into a auto part store(one of the oldest in Eugene, Oregon "Brooks cut rate") Popped the hood(bad idea) put the hood back down, Ran into the store grabbed the fire extinguisher and the rest is history.. Anyone with a good price on some spare parts? Looks like I will need a glow harness and a timing belt cover(back and front) and a couple other wire type items.. Photos courtesy Samsung Galaxy S1


You can see the holes in the gasket of the IP if you look really really close, they are tiny...

Lucky that fuel return line near the ip only bubbled.. So close!

This was on a 2001 glx tdi I bought recently, it is a 1 owner car from maine(my sons future car And it was running like a rock star!

IP only lasted 245,000 miles?! what the heck vw ;-)

http://1drv.ms/1nUAt5R

http://1drv.ms/1nUAh6w

http://1drv.ms/1nUACWH

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Your Samsung Galaxy S1 isn't helping your cause as there are no photos…

I'd file a report with the NHTSA.

We know that the old rotary pumps are starting to leak now. I recommend doing the seals with the timing belt at this point.

-J

1854sailor said:

Your Samsung Galaxy S1 isn't helping your cause as there are no photos…

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Yea..I guess the forum software did not like msn onedrive links?!..All blank after first post fixed! Now there are links, not as good i know... I'll try it later with dropbox.. S1 with cyanogenmod 10.1.3 great camera controls..

Yikes! Good luck, I just got my fire damaged 2002 back on the road a few weeks ago. My fire was down by the starter.

Is it just me or is that a crack in the side of the injection pump in photo #3?

http://1drv.ms/1nUACWH

holy moly. my tdi has 302k miles on it and its the same yr and alh engine. hope that doesnt happen to me

looks more like that fire originated at the cloth covered fuel return line between 1 & 2.

That pump doesn't even look like a leaker. But the real question is where/what is the ignition source? GP harness short? Friction heat from a timing belt issue?

Is that a crack in the pump? symptom or cause?

TDI fires are typically electrical but this was certainly exacerbated by the fuel at the very least. You can pretty much use a puddle of diesel on the ground to extinguish a burning match.

compu_85 said:

I'd file a report with the NHTSA.

We know that the old rotary pumps are starting to leak now. I recommend doing the seals with the timing belt at this point.

-J

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I don't know why you'd wait around until timing belt time. I stick seals in them the minute that they show anything besides bone dry metal and "clean" dust anywhere.

VeeDubTDI said:

Is it just me or is that a crack in the side of the injection pump in photo #3?


http://1drv.ms/1nUACWH

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Just a burned on web of plastic

jyhuh28 said:

holy moly. my tdi has 302k miles on it and its the same yr and alh engine. hope that doesnt happen to me

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knock on diesel?!

runonbeer said:

looks more like that fire originated at the cloth covered fuel return line between 1 & 2.

That pump doesn't even look like a leaker. But the real question is where/what is the ignition source? GP harness short? Friction heat from a timing belt issue?

Is that a crack in the pump? symptom or cause?

TDI fires are typically electrical but this was certainly exacerbated by the fuel at the very least. You can pretty much use a puddle of diesel on the ground to extinguish a burning match.

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I initially thought it was the return line until I noticed diesel puddled in the scallops of the IP...Think maybe it was so hot and saturated vapor/ thick in there and bottom plastic belly pan was saturated back under turbo(passenger side back of engine compartment in last picture) eventually I think the turbo might have made almost like a pulse jet type thing(would explain back of timing belt meltage, far from pump, and the smoke puffs...I kept thinking I'd see a teeny bit of smoke and it would almost breath it back in this was about 17 seconds before I pulled into parking lot) Would not have happened without the plastic belly pan...

runonbeer said:

I don't know why you'd wait around until timing belt time. I stick seals in them the minute that they show anything besides bone dry metal and "clean" dust anywhere.

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I'm talking about doing it before timing belt time, replace them before they start leaking.

-J

Update: Car might have been run on a gas/diesel slash burn mix in diesel can before I got it.. Which might explain pin holes in top|bottom injector gasket...Sourced a pump from uk 2003 mkiv , (edit got: plastic fuel lines ) Still need plastic timing belt cover and (edit got glow plug harness) Found a cool exploded pump diagram here http://vwts.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=134345&st=140

Infact it looks like part 92'(Gasket where I think the diesel came from, saturating #1,2 glow harness and generally most of the engine cabin) On the exploded diagram in the link above, that gasket already has holes in it ;-) Or?
As a sidenote on my 2000 jetta tdi 5spd I have not had a plastic belly pan since the week I got it. It tore off on a forest road...I took the top plastic off too..No dust issues yet, in fact more dust seems to plug oil leaks for me Might be a little less aerodynamic :\ but safety first..

As Robbie stated the pump does not look like a leaker, my money is on a return line. They do fail all the time with age. It will go everywhere. There is no sky is falling scenario going on here, just some maintenance that needed to be done.

If the fire melted the TB case you should be doing a belt as well. It looks pretty faded and old.

Also you descriptions of what you think happened are hard to follow, you say line, then seal....Injectors can leak at the hard line connection if they are moved or stressed wrong. Or if dirt got introduced into the fitting at some point.

jasonTDI said:

As Robbie stated the pump does not look like a leaker, my money is on a return line. They do fail all the time with age. It will go everywhere. There is no sky is falling scenario going on here, just some maintenance that needed to be done.

If the fire melted the TB case you should be doing a belt as well. It looks pretty faded and old.

Also you descriptions of what you think happened are hard to follow, you say line, then seal....Injectors can leak at the hard line connection if they are moved or stressed wrong. Or if dirt got introduced into the fitting at some point.

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Hmm...I bet it would not break the belt to turn it over and see if the IP is leaking, the timing belt was supposedly done 40k ago. Dunno if its long life 100k miler or 70k one.

I'd feel better about it if it is the 100k one with more aramid fiber and steel..With my luck right now the TB would break and I'd be looking at a head as well..

We'll see after a closer inspection of the belt, sans melted glob o timing belt cover..

Got some 7.33mm fuel line and 3mm return line from the vw shop yersterday, harness should be here soon...