Died going down highway, electrical or injection pump?

flee

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Location
Chatsworth, CA
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS wagon
Your cars didn't come with lift pumps.
The fuel pick-up/sending unit could be plugged, though.
 

tgray

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2004
Location
Marengo, IL
TDI
'02 Beetle, '05 Golf, 2000 Jetta, 2001 Jetta, 2002 Jetta
Pull your valve cover off and check the cam and lifters real good. You may have a couple of lifters blown out. Lots of black smoke is over fueling. The car may be trying to compensate for a loss of cylinder(s) and boost not keeping up. My guess is something more serious causes a condition like this. Maybe the valve train has issues or blown pistons/rings. If the timing slips then the lifters can blow when the pistons hit the valves. I have had a similar issue once.
Compression should be checked. The poor man's way for a quick check is to remove all the glow plugs but one. Crank the engine over with the key and listen for the slow down on each cycle. Do this for each cylinder. If something is blown out then it will just free wheel on each revolution. This doesn't sound like an electrical issue to me if you are getting fuel pushed through to the injectors. And, injectors don't all quit at once. Low compression or wrong cam position will cause a no start.
 

wonneber

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Location
Monroe, NY, USA
TDI
2014 Jetta Sportwagon,2003 Jetta 261K Sold but not forgotten
The crank was off one tooth, as I had noticed before, but since I had everything off i put everything in perfect time.
I'm curious how the belt was one tooth off.
Now that you re-adjusted the belt were you able to get the 2 lock tools inserted easily?

Last, are the 3 bolts on the injector pump pulley roughly in the center if the slots they can move in?

I didn't see (or missed) if you scanned for codes.

Last, did you happen to get fuel before this?
Maybe pumping water instead of diesel?
 

chrisjc

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Location
Georgia
TDI
03 Jetta manual, 02 Golf 4dr manual, 97 7.3 F-250 manual
I think the last time i did the timing belt it must have been off a tooth. I sometimes forget that the angle in which you are looking at the flywheel will cause you to get it off a tooth. But it was running and I don't think it slipped but I put it in the correct position and I could get all the check tools to fit as they should. And the three bolts are in the center.

I have VCDS and have scanned twice but no codes are showing.

Diesel is clean. That was my initial thought but i know that it is clean.
 

chrisjc

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Location
Georgia
TDI
03 Jetta manual, 02 Golf 4dr manual, 97 7.3 F-250 manual
Pull your valve cover off and check the cam and lifters real good. You may have a couple of lifters blown out. Lots of black smoke is over fueling. The car may be trying to compensate for a loss of cylinder(s) and boost not keeping up. My guess is something more serious causes a condition like this. Maybe the valve train has issues or blown pistons/rings. If the timing slips then the lifters can blow when the pistons hit the valves. I have had a similar issue once.
Compression should be checked. The poor man's way for a quick check is to remove all the glow plugs but one. Crank the engine over with the key and listen for the slow down on each cycle. Do this for each cylinder. If something is blown out then it will just free wheel on each revolution. This doesn't sound like an electrical issue to me if you are getting fuel pushed through to the injectors. And, injectors don't all quit at once. Low compression or wrong cam position will cause a no start.
Cam and lifters look good. It feels like it has good compression when I spin it over with the pull bar on the cam sprocket. I've done the timing belt procedure several times in the past and it feels just like it does then with good compression.

My next thought is the crank position sensor but I've not read where this would cause an ALH to die, just a no start condition.
 

chrisjc

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Location
Georgia
TDI
03 Jetta manual, 02 Golf 4dr manual, 97 7.3 F-250 manual
Your cars didn't come with lift pumps.
The fuel pick-up/sending unit could be plugged, though.
Thanks, I use this terminology for anything helping fuel from the tank to the injection pump. Mainly because I've had to replace the one on my 7.3 several times. I haven't put the test light on the sending unit but it might have given out. I pulled the seat and took the plate off but didn't have time to go any further.
 

Vince Waldon

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Edmonton AB Canada
TDI
2001 ALH Jetta, 2003 ALH Wagon, 2005 BEW Wagon
Thanks, I use this terminology for anything helping fuel from the tank to the injection pump.

<snip>

I haven't put the test light on the sending unit but it might have given out. I pulled the seat and took the plate off but didn't have time to go any further.
Just checking to make sure you understand your car does not have anything that helps fuel get from the tank to the injection pump, so nothing to use your test light on... at least in the context of your no-start. :)

The injection pump at the front of the car does all the work.
 

99_TDI

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 6, 2019
Location
PA
TDI
1999 mk4 ALH & 2005.5 mk5 BRM
Were you suffering from low power before this happened? If the timing belt was off by one tooth it should be very noticeable


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

atmarine

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Location
Ny state
TDI
'99 Golf 5 speed
Just curious what symptoms would be like if the timing was off 1 tooth, or slightly off with the cam sprocket tapered shaft?
 

flee

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Location
Chatsworth, CA
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS wagon
Just curious what symptoms would be like if the timing was off 1 tooth, or slightly off with the cam sprocket tapered shaft?
When asking this just remember there are two items that need correct timing.
If the IP timing is 1 tooth off the symptoms could range from hard or no starting if
timing is late to 'nailing' and stress if the timing is early.
If the cam timing is 1 tooth off and the valves are closing late they could get contact.
I don't know if there is a problem if the valves are closing early. Maybe not.
 

94cobra2615

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2013
Location
ohio
TDI
2002 Black Wagon
My car died last year while driving and it ended up being a clogged fuel filter. Filter wasnt very old. I took it off and unscrewed the drain on the filter bottom and bright orange goop flowed out.

Car would fire with just a short spray of starting fluid so i knew it was fuel related
 

chrisjc

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Location
Georgia
TDI
03 Jetta manual, 02 Golf 4dr manual, 97 7.3 F-250 manual
UPDATE - forgot to close this thread out last year.

I put a used injection pump on it from ebay. After re-priming it fired up and runs fine. So the original IP pump went out. I didn't take it apart to figure out exactly what happened.
 
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