Saturday I woke up to a non-starting car. I finally traced it to the pump not being primed. After some coaxing with the shop vac (no mity vac) I got the car started. Shut it off. Started it again. Went about my business and 4 hours later it wouldn't start. Repeated the process and got out to watch air bubbles just start showing up in the clear line, before long there was no fuel left.
I swore at it and went to AutoZone and Home Depot and picked up a bunch of stuff and redid all the lines.
I had a few of those 'pre filters' left over from my Mk3 so I put 2 in. 1 as an actual pre filter and another one right before the injection pump to use as a sight glass.
Got it primed. Started up. Waited 1 hours. Started. Went to bed. This morning I got up and it wouldn't start @#(*(*. Lots of cranking later it fired and I was on my way to a remote site. 4 hours later no problem the whole trip. I pulled into work and noticed a faint diesel smell. Popped open the hood and find diesel concentrated around injector 4.
Even more fun is that there are bubbles coming out from around the injector AND the glow plug: [Video: http://youtu.be/QZZboJgUOzo I idle it for a while and don't see anywhere obvious that it's coming from. The car idles fine.
I did just replace the injectors and got all new crush gaskets. AND all the return lines between the injectors and injectors and IP. At idle I'm not noticing anything obvious. The car runs just fine. So now in addition to the crack letting air in somewhere I'm now letting fuel out.
Now I just finished a 4 hour drive on Friday and there was no diesel everywhere. The only 2 things I've done are reprime the engine and then powerwash it down (I'm going to wait until the problem disappears for 2 weeks before cleaning my engine again).
[An aside. What the hell VW. Why would you replace the universal and easy to find thermo-T clip with your funky weird one? I managed to lose my clip. Panicking I remembered the AHU has a thermo-T. I pop open the hood and find a cotter pin. Well that won't work on the ALH as is. Take a small drill bit and drill through and a cotter pin works just fine
]
I swore at it and went to AutoZone and Home Depot and picked up a bunch of stuff and redid all the lines.
I had a few of those 'pre filters' left over from my Mk3 so I put 2 in. 1 as an actual pre filter and another one right before the injection pump to use as a sight glass.
Got it primed. Started up. Waited 1 hours. Started. Went to bed. This morning I got up and it wouldn't start @#(*(*. Lots of cranking later it fired and I was on my way to a remote site. 4 hours later no problem the whole trip. I pulled into work and noticed a faint diesel smell. Popped open the hood and find diesel concentrated around injector 4.
Even more fun is that there are bubbles coming out from around the injector AND the glow plug: [Video: http://youtu.be/QZZboJgUOzo I idle it for a while and don't see anywhere obvious that it's coming from. The car idles fine.
I did just replace the injectors and got all new crush gaskets. AND all the return lines between the injectors and injectors and IP. At idle I'm not noticing anything obvious. The car runs just fine. So now in addition to the crack letting air in somewhere I'm now letting fuel out.
Now I just finished a 4 hour drive on Friday and there was no diesel everywhere. The only 2 things I've done are reprime the engine and then powerwash it down (I'm going to wait until the problem disappears for 2 weeks before cleaning my engine again).
[An aside. What the hell VW. Why would you replace the universal and easy to find thermo-T clip with your funky weird one? I managed to lose my clip. Panicking I remembered the AHU has a thermo-T. I pop open the hood and find a cotter pin. Well that won't work on the ALH as is. Take a small drill bit and drill through and a cotter pin works just fine
Last edited:
