Cold Weather Design Flaw, Secret Recall from VW?

OK, I'll check this evening. I have a MityVac so we can get a measurement.

Do you recall what the readings were you measured?

Frank, I checked the vacuum restriction on the "C" fuel pickup and the MityVac was showing 10 -12 cm of Mercury.

The "H" version shows no vacuum at all...wide open.

Now, I see my fuel gage no longer works /images/graemlins/mad.gif Does that have to be re-calibrated?

thx.

Perhaps it is not plugged in? /images/graemlins/smile.gif

be serious. /images/graemlins/mad.gif

My H sender worked just fine. No re-calibration required. If it is plugged in perhaps the float got hung up on something.

just checked with VAGCOM and it says open short to ground (or whatever) for the fuel level sensor....

[ QUOTE ]
OK, I'll check this evening. I have a MityVac so we can get a measurement.

Do you recall what the readings were you measured?

[/ QUOTE ]

Tom, my original 2000 NB C sender required 12 cm to open and my replacement D only needed 5 cm to open..

damn level sensor on the new unit is dead as a door nail...can't see anything wrong with it. sensor on old "C" unit works just fine....I am swapping the sender from my original "C" unit on to the new "H" unit and hopefully call this job complete.

[ QUOTE ]
damn level sensor on the new unit is dead as a door nail...can't see anything wrong with it. sensor on old "C" unit works just fine....I am swapping the sender from my original "C" unit on to the new "H" unit and hopefully call this job complete.

[/ QUOTE ]

My replacement D unit had a different set up for the float and rheostat. I could not swap it..
I prefered my old one as it read more linear.. This new one nose dives once it comes off FULL..
Calibration is correct as to when the reserve light comes on though..

Yeah, VF also noted the "D" had been updated.

I think the connection on the tiny wires at the fuel sensor itself were a problem. After swapping the old sensor to the new pickup, nothing worked. Plugged the sucker in and it was still dead. /images/graemlins/mad.gif I took the connections off again and re-installed and all seemed OK.

The P/N on the old sensor was the same as the new sensor.

I just did mine today. Karmann-diesel's pics and instructions were awesome to go by. Thanks dude! I also have the Bentley as well. It has a little section (20) on it as well. It was pretty easy. It is good to have little fuel in the tank for this, as VF said earlier. The black threaded ring was a bit*h to get off but I finally got it. Drilling out the "plastic triangle" was easy. The spring and the black rubber disk were a little difficult to get out. I used some wire, made a hook with it, and fed it down the hole to grab the spring, and then the black rubber disk. took a few tries but I got both. After that, I forced some air down there and blew out the rest of the debris. I had some dirt and stuff in the sender, which surprised me. But since the whole thing was apart, I cleaned everything I could. It looks like a new part now. It was a "D" sender in case anyone wants to know. I don't have a cold weather package either. Thanks to all who posted and started this thread. I have never had a problem with gelling, but decided to do this anyway as a preventative measure.

The only thing that I forgot to do was mark down which color fuel line went to where. But I think I figured it out.
black to "V" and blue to "R". I guess I'll find out soon enough as I haven't started it yet. /images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

Chris, here's the fuel line config:

Dieseldorf,

Thanks. It was stated in the Bentley, but I got it right the first time. /images/graemlins/grin.gif It pays to read the captions instead of looking soley at the pictures. /images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

no problem. I know that's thrown a few others off as well.

[ QUOTE ]
Start by removing the fuel sending unit from the fuel tank. Flip up the rear passenger side seat & lift up the carpeting. Remove the metal plate held in with 3 screws. Push the little quick-disconnects on the two fuel lines & pull them off the sender. Pull the electrical connector off the sender. Unthread the big plastic locking ring & remove it. Then you can wiggle the fuel sender out of the tank.



Now you can push 3 plastic tabs in & remove the top of the sender like so:




Now find the outlet of the sender which on mine was marked with a (V) and an arrow pointing away from the sender:



Notice the plastic triangle in the outlet. This is part of the check valve. There is also a little rubber flapper to close the valve & a small spring. I was able to use a 11/64" drill & a thin punch type tool to drill all of this out. Make sure you get all the little bits & pieces out. Having some compressed air is handy to blow out the little bits. Then I reassembled the sender & left the return side check valve alone. Since doing this my fuel starvation problem has not returned nor have I noticed any bad side-effects.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is there any chance of someone tanking an ohm meter to the level sender? I would like to know what it reads full and not full.

Since this thread is newer i'll add it here instead of in the one VF linked above...

I took my sender out as an attempt to address a vibration that happened when braking hard to a complete stop. At idle after the stop the car shakes funny - kinda like fuel starvation.

Happened a little before I put the new CAT filter in... still there with the new one. I was thinking it might have been the dog-bone mount but nope -checked that - it's fine.

So that left the only other peice suceptible to braking - fuel tank pick up. And I didn't realize how vulnerable it is until I removed it.

I took it out and in my 1999.5 Golf it had the 'D' unit.

Check valve on the pick up(V) and return(R) and the screened mesh thing on the bottom with the black plastic lever thing.

After 202k miles there was only a very very thin film of fine dirt/particles. Not much at all... and only in that middle container thing. BUT what i found was that i could blow air through the 'V' line (compressed air at ~30-60psi) in either direction. There was stuff stuck in the valve and it wasn't blowing great in either direction.

I managed to blast it all out by poking at the valve until it all blew out and the valve held all 60 psi of the air... the return valve was clean but the lower windage thing was not.

There was some yellow plastic bits from a Diesel Fuel can that had gotten stuck in there. they were small but they interfered with the big black flapper seals... so all I can think is that maybe the braking moved the fuel out from the pick up and the car was sucking air in...

And since the newest "unit" comes without a check valve and based on Boundless's comments and that logic (why do you need a check valve if there is no way to introduce air into the system).... I drilled it out... the whole thing - no more check valve on the 'V' side.

Cleaned the bits out - put it back in...
OH BTW size 000 rubber stoppers fit perfectly in the ends of the fuel lines after removing them from the pick up....

Check the resistance too on the gauge - 54-290 ohms...

Put it in and so far so good. No problems. The car *seems* a bit smoother esp on transient towards idle response. before i did this the transition from load to no load was a bit rough... now its much smoother. I am sort of attributing it to the reduced resistance in the fuel line....

The problem could come back and this might not have been the fix... BUT it is something to check if you've got a rough idle after a stop or a rough transition from load to no load.... I didn't have the camera with me or i'd have taken some pictures....

I thought I'd bring this back to the top since the cold weather is right around the corner! I got screwed four times last year by this damn thing and I vowed it wouldn't happen to me again. If you live where temps can get below 20F, DO THIS MOD!!! At the bare minimum, lift the rear pass. side base and take out the 3 screws that hold the sending unit cover on. Check your part # on the sending unit:
Bad part numbers: 1J0919183C, 1J0919183D
Good part number: 1J0919183H
If you have a "C" or "D"... DO THE MOD!!!

I did mine today while the weather was nice, it took me about 45 minutes to complete the job. I was a little confused on how to get the fuel lines off. Earlier in this thread someone said to push in the tabs on the sides. I screwed around for 15 minutes tring to get these things off before I realized that squeezing the base of the fittings with pliers released them. I didn't have any problems getting the ring off, I used some large adjustables pointing straight down on the ring tabs. Overall it was pretty easy once I figured out the fuel lines.

One warning, make sure you get all the guts out of the little chamber where the valve sits. Everytime I thought I had everything cleaned out, I'd shake another piece of debris loose... I found rapping the sides, shaking it, tapping it up and down, and compressed air did the trick. Hopefully I got everything out of that chamber.

I did not do the return side, although it looks similar. It didn't sound like others did the "R" side, so I didn't either. If I had to go back and do that side (and hopefully I won't need to), I'm sure I could do it in under 1/2 hour now that I've done it once.

Boy did this damn thing piss me off last winter! I did find that adding a gallon or two of kerosene to a full tank of fuel kept it from giving me any problems. Just adding anti-gell additive wasn't enough to keep this thing from locking up on me.
Now that I did the mod, I'll be much more comfortable driving the car on those single digit days!

I second that.

Had to be towed last winter, could have frozen to death out on a back road at 2 am.

Thanks to this forum, I knew right away what it was. Sure enough, I had the H part on our 2003 wagon.
It was pretty obvious when I took it apart - you could see the little ball of wax that had formed around the check valve.

A very obvious VW design flaw, and a potentially life-threatening one, in my opinion. I've driven a Cummins diesel pickup truck for 12 years, never used additive, and only had the fuel gel once - at minus 40. A splash of additive, and it was fixed.

I didn't even bother with the dealer - they are apparently in denial about it, according to a colleague at my wife's work who had 4 tows last winter.

Relatively easy fix - took about an hour, taking my time. Compressed air is handy for cleaning all the little bits of plastic out after running the drill bit through.

After reading this long thread, aaarggh , I had to check out the part number on my sender unit so out to the garage I went and guess what,,,,, its not a C or a D or an H,, its 1J0 919 183F,, yes an F. Anyone know if I should be drilling out the F version,, I didn't see it mentioned throughout this thread. If anyone has come across the F please let me know,, if not I will pull it out later and have a look and let you know. Off to a hockey game right now.

Sure enough, I had the H part on our 2003 wagon.

Click to expand...

Do you mean this?

I live in NC and use the anti-gel stuff. But, if it got very cold I could blend some fuel. Does anyone know what blends are used in the North? I thought you just add kerosene to the fuel which is readily available at most gas stations here in NC. That would be easier than drilling out the valve.

Question: does this apply to '04 models? Seems to me, with the electric pump this part might have gotten changed.

sup, this is not a concern for PD owners - - they have electric in-tank pumps.

I figured that the sender unit would be much different; plus there didn't seem to be any compaints from PD owners (if VW made the hole too small in the past, their incentive to change it for new models would be...?). But I wasn't sure, and now if any A4/PD owner finds this thread it shouldn't take them the 5 pages to find out.

Thanks for the info.

Sender Unit # 1J0 919 183F, this is what is in my car, not the C or D or H (03 Jetta StnWgn) Anyone else have this unit? It has not been mentioned in any other messages and I am wondering if this unit needs to be drilled out.
Any help much appreciated.

Sender Unit # 1J0 919 183F, this is what is in my car, not the C or D or H (03 Jetta StnWgn) Anyone else have this unit? It has not been mentioned in any other messages and I am wondering if this unit needs to be drilled out.

Any help much appreciated.

Click to expand...

I would spend the hour and do it. It's not worth the agravation IMO.

I live in NC and use the anti-gel stuff. But, if it got very cold I could blend some fuel. Does anyone know what blends are used in the North? I thought you just add kerosene to the fuel which is readily available at most gas stations here in NC. That would be easier than drilling out the valve.

Click to expand...

If you don't see temps below 15F, I wouldn't bother. If you need to mix your fuel more than once or twice over the winter, then save yourself a headache and do the mod... it's only an hours time.

If you do need to mix your fuel (and don't want to use an additive) you can add one gal of kero to a full tank of diesel fuel... that should be plenty to keep your fuel from gelling in NC.

Re: Cold Weather Design Flaw, Secret Recall from V

Sender Unit # 1J0 919 183F, this is what is in my car, not the C or D or H (03 Jetta StnWgn) Anyone else have this unit? It has not been mentioned in any other messages and I am wondering if this unit needs to be drilled out.
Any help much appreciated.

Click to expand...

i would take it apart(sorry) and see if there is a check valve.if there is drill it..

Re: Cold Weather Design Flaw, Secret Recall from V

Just did the mod, no big problems at all. I used a screwdriver+hammer to remove the locking ring. Have a bucket handy to place the sending unit in to, it's full of fuel.

One word of advice, do NOT have a full tank of gas, I had olny driven 100km (60mi) since my last fillup, I found that when I reinstalled the fuel sending unit fuel overflowed into the car. It would be interesting to remove the unit with an almost empty tank to see how much crud collects at the bottom of the tank.

Thank you to all users that posted instructions and pictures above.