Intank fuel pump failure?

maniago

Active member
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Location
Bowie MD
TDI
'13 Passat TDI 1/2SE-1/2SEL DSG
Had my '13 towed to the dealer this morning. I think the lift pump has gone out as I dont hear the 3 sec whine anymore and of course it wont start. Hunted around the threads but didnt see anyone else mention this failure for the NMS. So a few questions: do the NMS' have a two legged fuel tank and therefore two tank pumps? A transfer pump and a lift pump? And where is (are) the relay for it (them)? Any history of failures that I missed in my searches?

I checked all the fuses and all ok there, and pulled the fuel filter cover and its full of clean diesel fuel. I did run the tank down to the idiot light on the previous tank, but ran the car some 500 miles on the current tank before todays adventure. Not sure I over heated the pump or in some way caused its demise. 85k on the car, 40-45mpg. No appreciable issues to date.

Thanks for any comments.
 

maniago

Active member
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Location
Bowie MD
TDI
'13 Passat TDI 1/2SE-1/2SEL DSG
The dealer came back and verified a failed intank pump. The said theres no metal in the system, which is obviously an issue for the HPFP, but its gonna cost me $800. I know its a pretty easy pull and replace, but in this case with the pending dieselgate payout (I got a letter recently: 5K+ book value of the car) IF theres a chance they missed some metal in the system and it frags the HPFP, I dont wanna pay the 10K for that, so I'm gonna let them do it.

Apparently theres only one intank pump; no split legged tank+transferpump.....
 

VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2000
Location
Springfield, VA
TDI
‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
Correct - one pump in the tank, and the chance of metal shards is slim, in my opinion. You could change the part yourself if you have the wherewithal and the tools to do it.

I think you're the first person to have the in-tank pump fail on an NMS. At least, the first person who has posted about it here.
 

maniago

Active member
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Location
Bowie MD
TDI
'13 Passat TDI 1/2SE-1/2SEL DSG
Yes I could do it easy - I wrenched for a living longtime ago. But the $400 for labor and the dealer coverage there in, plus the other issues that seem to be cropping up ala turbos, def heater etc, I think I'll call $400 judicious insurance until I can sell it in the buy back. I love the VW diesel (had 3 now) but I'm seriously thinking about going back to a gasser or something non VW .....

BTW VeeDub, wheres that buyback calculator come from? If its even close to what they offer, I'll run to the dealership.
 
Last edited:

flyboy320

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2010
Location
GTA, Canada
TDI
2018 e-Golf
I know it's not the exact same model car, but there has been at least one person here who had his in tank pump hooked up backwards (so it was creating a vacuum instead of pressure to feed the other pumps) and the car ran fine. Only reason he noticed was the fuel temp was running slightly hotter than it should be (on a 2012 tdi golf). I also had a friend with a 2011 jetta with the same thing. We switched the lines on the in tank pump to fix it, but the car was running fine, except occasionally it wouldn't pull as hard when it was hot out and the engine was warmed up. My point is, in both cases the engine still ran fine, so not sure why yours wouldn't even start?
 

maniago

Active member
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Location
Bowie MD
TDI
'13 Passat TDI 1/2SE-1/2SEL DSG
My point is, in both cases the engine still ran fine, so not sure why yours wouldn't even start?

uh...it wouldnt start cause it wasn't doing any pumping. Dead. As a door nail.

Now, why it decided to die while sitting in my driveway and just resting over night after a 400mi long haul is the $64K question....
 

VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2000
Location
Springfield, VA
TDI
‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
Yes I could do it easy - I wrenched for a living longtime ago. But the $400 for labor and the dealer coverage there in, plus the other issues that seem to be cropping up ala turbos, def heater etc, I think I'll call $400 judicious insurance until I can sell it in the buy back. I love the VW diesel (had 3 now) but I'm seriously thinking about going back to a gasser or something non VW .....

BTW VeeDub, wheres that buyback calculator come from? If its even close to what they offer, I'll run to the dealership.
Buyback calculator was created by one of our members here. More information can be found in the Dieselgate subforum here: http://forums.tdiclub.com/forumdisplay.php?f=99
 

767wrench

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2012
Location
Ohio
TDI
1981 Rabbit Pickup
Correct - one pump in the tank, and the chance of metal shards is slim, in my opinion. You could change the part yourself if you have the wherewithal and the tools to do it.

I think you're the first person to have the in-tank pump fail on an NMS. At least, the first person who has posted about it here.
Mine failed around 20k miles. It was making sounds like the impeller was coming apart or chewing on something. The dealer replaced it under warranty and it has been fine since.
 
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