No fuel to injectors-TestVac no help

Good Day. I had the engine light on as well as the seat belt light for so long
they eventually burned out. VCDS pinpointed the problem to be high resistance in the seat belt circuit and the glow plug circuit. I checked the glow plugs with an ohmmeter and found 3 had failed. Ordered a set of 4, and had a clockspring on the shelf for some time to address the airbag issue. To replace the instrument panel bulbs I could not find any bulbs rated 1.1 watts with the vw base (orange), so went to the wreckers and removed an instrument panel to get a handful of bulbs. There was some warning in the Haynes manual that the bulbs should be matched (especially the battery light one), so I did not attempt to install the black 1.2 watt bulbs just in case. While at the wreckers I pulled 4 glow plugs (so I did not have to wait for the order from a vendor), as well as the coolant glow plug relay.

So far, all is well as far as the Ross-Tech codes now. However to get the glow plug harness to remove the glow plugs, I removed the hard fuel lines. Replaced both sets with better looking ones from the wreck, and now I cannot start the car.

I have a vacuum test kit called TestVac, and have it connected to the return line at the T. I have it pumped to 22 inch Hg vac and cannot get fuel to the clear line to the canister. I pulled the 4 mm fuel line from the injector pump to the braided return line area and fuel is present there.

I have loosened the nuts at the head in pairs, and cannot get fuel from any of the hard lines.

I am wondering if :

1-the Vacuum tester does not have enough pull to get the fuel through the system, and

2-Does the fuel at the 4 mm line from the injector to the head indicate that the injector pump is primed, and therefore cannot seize from lack of fuel lubrication?

Thanks, Barnaby

You have to bleed the air out of the fuel lines. You really don't want to "normally" remove the fuel lines unless you really have to, because of all the trouble you have to go through with bleeding the fuel lines.

Look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRMTEAKsScE

Yes, thanks, I had seen that video, but my issue is an air lock or obstruction from the fuel filter to the injectors. I put the Testvac on the supply line to the fuel pump and the fuel runs freely.

I still have it on the return line at the T, and the guage reads 25 or so inch Hg. static. I am not sure whether I should continue to pump the handle or not-the pressure rises to a max of 25. No fuel from the return line.

I think I may have screwed things up by installing the used hard lines. They could have entered dirt into the injectors and clogged up the small orifices I think. Could this be the reason that the vacuum stalls?

Thanks again.

It's unlikely the hardlines introduced dirt unless they were sitting out somewhere. And the amount of vacuum pressure you're gettting should be more than enough to get fuel through your pump. It should come through with minimal effort.

Check the case pressure valve. It's right by the fuel intake of the fuel pump. Two sides of it are rounded and you can just get a 10mm on the other two sides. It's not easy to get out. Make sure everything is clean around it before removing it. You really don't want dirt getting in there.
The valve has a little spring and a piston in it. They should move freely in there. And there's a clip that holds both of them in; it should be flush to the end of it. And there are two little O ring seals. They should be not hard or cracked.

There is valving that won't let fuel flow the way you are connecting - below a certain fuel level - most times.

You need to remove the brass end cap from the return union that is located at the top of the injection pump housing - and connect your siphon hose to that. Shouldn't need more than 10-15 on gauge to get good flow.

After solid flow - replace end cap.
Loosen all 4 injection lines at the injector end, and wrap old rags around them to keep the mess minimal.

Then crank over the engine at intervals until all 4 show some wetness on the rags.
Tighten the fittings, and it should crank right up/run in 1 or 2 tries.

Thanks for the replies guys. Now you are about to get your morning laugh after realizing what an idiot I am.

I had never done the fuel filter change before. What kept me back was according to ""how to sources" I was using, you should replace the 2 O-rings (blue and black) on the thermostatic "t". I cajoled a set of the miniscule rings from the vw dealer for $8.00 and set forth to do the exchange.

I had just finished the replacement of the vacuum lines with silicone, (including the ECU), and had the scrapped knuckles to show for it attempting to connect the blue and red lines to the turbo.

I knew I needed a vacuum pump. I googled the Princess Auto offering which came through at $58 cdn., but had seem negative comments in the review section. Couldn't find mity vac anywhere in the neighbouring city.

Finally chose a brake bleed kit called Testvac from Napa, and doled out $120 (ouch!) for it.

Came back to the task at hand, and pulled the thermostatic "t", and thought I had cracked the bottom part off. Went back to the filter and noticed the green o-ring affixed to the top, did some more searching and realized that my AHU filter was not missing the separate O-rings, but that the one ring came complete with the filter.

Referred to the turbodiesel.com filter change procedure http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/fuel-filter-mk3-diy-change-priming-ahu-jetta-1z-passat-tdi-engine/and connected the vacuum pump to the line (I thought) was indicated on the right side of the thermo "t". An observant person would have noticed that the bottom picture demonstrating where to suck from was reversed from the picture above. Clues were that the pressure container was to the left in the picture and the hard nipples from the top of the filter were reversed from the picture above. As well, common sense should have entered and made it obvious that to try and pull from that line would do nothing to run fuel through the pump, but was an attempt to pull from the return line back to the tank.

Pulled out the new filter, propped it up and filled it with grey bottle Diesel Kleen. I had already successfully pulled fuel from the supply line, and connected to the proper side of the return line to the filter and the fuel shot through the lines-I mean fast. One small stumble, no loosening the top nuts and it fired right up. Seemed to be smoother as well and quieter.

More humbled than full of pride, I thought I would finish the various tasks and install the coolant glow plugs that I got from the dealer for $40 each (discounted from a theoretical $48). This cost contrasted to the $5 for 4 that I paid at the wreckers for the engine glow plugs to accompany the coolant glow plug relay (other melted) that I paid $4 for with fuse instead of going for the new one from vw for $263.00. Not sure if the 3 coolant glow plugs were all ever working. One of mine tested close to the 1 ohm and the other 2 were in the mg ohm category.

I knew the coolant glow plugs from ID parts were less than $20 and with flat $14.00 for shipping, duty and the s##tty exchange rate of the Cdn. dollar I would have still been ahead by half. However, the guys at the dealership seem to have great patience with idiots, and sometimes I forgo price comparisons for this reason. They have to chase down obscure small parts for me all the time and their effort should be considered.

Opened the bag for install and found that the coolant glow plugs were wrong. This dealership is 60 miles away and an immediate exchange would not have been possible anyway because they didn't have the correct ones in stock anyway. Autopartsway as well shows the same ones as I had received for the '98 A3 AHU. The ones I need connect via a small metal ring connector on a second upper threaded section, there is no boot as shown in Bentley diagrams.

Interesting to note that (from what I understand-and that's not much), that they come on in various combinations, but they won't trigger a DTC.

Anyway that was my day, hope yours was better, but this sorry account may improve your mood.

Here is the place to get parts in Canada: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/roseland/VWPartsA3.htm

That link goes to a very limited parts list, but any VW part is available from there.

The coolant glow plugs you are looking for are the same as the AAZ (93-98 Golf) engine plugs.

Coolant glow plugs are not monitored by the ECU so will not set a DTC if they are dead. The relay that operates them is monitored, so it could set a DTC if the coil fails.