IP top and bottom seal how-to (?)

52172

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Location
Buellton, Ca
TDI
2001 Golf TDI GLS
We’re gonna first clean with brake cleaner and do two top seals and test run for leaks then only do the head seal if I still have leaks. All this can be done with pump left on car it seems?
 

52172

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Location
Buellton, Ca
TDI
2001 Golf TDI GLS
Corrado what shop is yours do you sell the seals and tool online? Should we replace the temp sensor while in there? Thanks
 

Dieselgeek

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Oct 3, 2000
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
2016 Golf TDI
I run Dieselgeek.com and you can order seals there. I only recommend replacing the fuel temp sensor if you are having timing stability issues.
 

KLXD

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Location
Lompoc, CA
TDI
'98, '2 Jettas
We’re gonna first clean with brake cleaner and do two top seals and test run for leaks then only do the head seal if I still have leaks. All this can be done with pump left on car it seems?
If you understand that the VE pump is one of the highest precision assemblies in the automotive industry and take precautions to avoid getting dirt into the pump while changing seals, especially the head seal.
 

52172

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Location
Buellton, Ca
TDI
2001 Golf TDI GLS
I’m having diesel injection service reseal it. I also found a rebuilt 11mm pump in Poland that is only 350 dollars with a 12 month warranty if the reseal doesn’t work.
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
Location
Texas
TDI
2013 Sportwagen, 2012 Golf
Just curios how close the fuel quantity comes using this method. When I used a vag com to dial my daughters in, imperceptible movement changed the reading quite a bit.
 

Dieselgeek

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Oct 3, 2000
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
2016 Golf TDI
I've been selling pump seals for 15ish years and I can say the JB-Weld method is the best at getting the QA back to exactly where it was prior to changing the TDI injection pump seals. Having four fracture zones to match up is very accurate.
 

pahHONEix

New member
Joined
Feb 27, 2020
Location
Nashville
TDI
'03 Jetta GLS TDI
Hey all, just wanted to chime in with my experience replacing both quantity adjuster seals on my '03 Jetta TDI today. Everything went pretty well, I used score marks and Sharpie pen marks to align the bottom edge of the QA to where it was originally mated to the injection pump. After I got both new QA seals installed (from the deluxe Dieselgeek seal kit) I put everything back together, reprimed the fuel system and started the car.

Initially the idle was pretty rough: at first it would sit at around 1,150 to 1,200 rpm, lope like crazy, and smoke. The readings I was getting through VCDS said the IQ was bouncing (even when the car reached operating temp) from 0.0 to maaaybe 1.0 or so. When the engine warmed up the idle smoothed out a little but it was still about 2-300 rpms high. I noticed the gas pedal still worked and the engine accelerated normally, but at idle it sounded awful.

The next day I dug into it all a little more, used the Hammer Mod to get the idle rpm down to its usual 903, and I started seeing more stable IQ readings on VCDS. After that it was just a matter of dialing in the IQ via VCDS to get it where I wanted it. Right now I've got the IQ set to 4.0 exactly at a coolant temp of 91.7 degrees and the idle rpm still at 903. I've only put about 10 miles on the car since I got all this done but so far it seems peppier and drives fine. And I haven't noticed any leaks around my QA or injection pump which was the whole idea so...great!

If I had to do it all over again I maybe would have used a paint pen or something for my marks on the QA/IP but that was about it. This was the first time I'd seen my car really run/sound awful so that was kinda jarring at first, but it was nothing patience and hitting it (lightly) with a hammer couldn't fix. Thanks again to this 11 year-old thread and all the expertise/ideas it contains! Hopefully it continues to help people out down the road.
 

DC-TDIWagon

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2002
Location
DC (really Fairfax county, but it is easier to say
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI Wagon, Reflex Silver
I run Dieselgeek.com and you can order seals there. I only recommend replacing the fuel temp sensor if you are having timing stability issues.
I appreciate how fast you ship and how well you document things on your website. I smelled diesel after driving my car and popped the hood on Monday to find a weeping leak on my quantity adjuster. Ordered from you kind of late on Monday and my package should be here in a couple hours. I used your viton head seal kit last year and that went great. Probably should have just bought the deluxe, full kit back then to have the two quantity adjuster seals laying around.
 

JimInPB

Active member
Joined
Feb 3, 2019
Location
Florida
TDI
1999.5 ALH Jetta
I had my first serious injection pump leaks, probably about 2 or 3 years. ago. I bought a seal kit & special tool for the special bolt head. I only changed the top seal at that time and did not need to mess with injector adjustments. A month or two ago, I had serious leaks from the lower seal. I got a copy of VCDS and took baseline readings before doing anything else. I then cleaned around the injector pump real well, scribed the sides of the pump in a few places & opened her up. I worked clean. The seal swap was easy. When I put it back together, I lined up the marks as well as I could. The motor idled poorly when I started her back up. IQ was below 1. The hammer trick fixed it. If I was going to do this again, I would put the pump back together with the lid slightly towards the passenger side, to run a little rich, rather than lean on first start up before tuning, just to make life a little easier.

While I was in there with VCDS, I looked around a little & found that my injection timing reads as being a little slow. The car has been running well for the several years that I have owned it, so I am a little less then enthusiastic about opening that can of worms unless there is a good reason to do so. I am left to wonder if slightly slow timing might cause crud to build up inside the motor some where. If not, I may just let that sleeping dog lie.
 

AndyBees

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 27, 2003
Location
Southeast Kentucky
TDI
Silver 2003 Jetta TDI, Silver 2000 Jetta TDI (sold), '84 Vanagon with '02 ALH engine
Changing out the top and bottom seals will not affect timing. Loosening the three bolts on the IP Cog will affect timing. But, considering you have VCDS, setting or re-setting the timing should be an easy straight forward procedure! Was the Timing below the graph center line?
 

burn_your_money

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2012
Location
Missouri
TDI
99 Beetle, 96 B4V, 05 Passat wagon
As long as your timing was between the upper or lower line, it's fine. Some guys like to run it above, some like to run it below. I forget how it's perceived , one is more power, one is more fuel economy. The computer controls the timing anyways under most situations anyways.
 

Crusty

Active member
Joined
Feb 3, 2018
Location
Idaho
TDI
98 Jetta
I would also like to say thanks to corrado tdi. Got my parts fast, and it was easy to do
I appreciate how fast you ship and how well you document things on your website. I smelled diesel after driving my car and popped the hood on Monday to find a weeping leak on my quantity adjuster. Ordered from you kind of late on Monday and my package should be here in a couple hours. I used your viton head seal kit last year and that went great. Probably should have just bought the deluxe, full kit back then to have the two quantity adjuster seals laying around.
 

Pedalsteel

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Location
United States
TDI
Unicorn
I'm going to chime in with my experience doing this and add something in case someone else can use the info...I tried the blobs of jb weld which sat overnight and they shot off the pump when I went to tap with the dowel...I had anticipated that though and used a combo of spring loaded center punch right on the seam between the middle part of the top of the pump that moves and the bottom part... this puts a half punch mark on both sides and I used my phone to take a picture before I took it apart and I also took a dremel tool and put a diagonal line in two spots one on the driver's side of the pump facing the left front fender and another one facing towards the windsheild...I took pictures of those also and then once I got everything back together I eyeballed the two as close as I could get them and then took two pictures and with the zoom on the camera I was able to compare the unopened pump pics with the resealed pics to know how to tap the center to get it exactly in place... when I first started the car it was rough running at like 1100 rpm and then once I compared the pics and tapped the middle part to match the original unopened pump pics, it runs right at 903rpm and feels great...I still have to hook it up to find out the exact number for the iq and maybe do the hammer mod but it's real close to where it was...the center punch marks and dremel marks are the way to go in my opinion
 

classen

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2003
Location
El Cerrito, CA
TDI
Jetta 2003 Platinum Gray
My 2003 Jetta was leaking pretty badly from the lower seal. I cannot afford the $3000+ to remove and rebuild the pump so wanted to try this repair myself. I just finished replacing the top and bottom IQ seals. I used scribe marks and the whole process went very smoothly. The car started fairly easily. It was a bit rougher than I would like, but I didn't prime anything after the seal replacement so that is probably to be expected. Anyways, It seemed to be idling just fine. I don't have a scanner so I can only estimate that the RPMs are maybe a tad below 900 based on the instrument reading. I drove it around the block and got it warmed up. It does seem a bit sluggish, and I did stall it out when starting from a dead stop on level ground. In the past the car would have no problem pulling into 1st gear from a dead stop without giving it any accelerator. The start was again kinda rough. I feel like I probably put the IQ body back in slightly wrong position. I guess I could try hammering this way or that with a wodden dowel etc. but I don't know if I should be tapping it twoards the driver side or the passenger side to get it running better.

p.s. I've driven it around town a few times, and all starts are rough, but once running it's mostly fine.
 

Dieselgeek

TDIClub Enthusiast, Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Oct 3, 2000
Location
Golden, CO
TDI
2016 Golf TDI
Bumping the QA toward the timing belt will raise the injected quantity at idle & reduce power, Away from the TB will lower the IQ & increase power.

If the IQ is too low the car will idle poorly, especially once warmed up; too high and the car will start poorly.
 
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classen

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2003
Location
El Cerrito, CA
TDI
Jetta 2003 Platinum Gray
Update:
I finally got a VCDS setup from Ross-tech. I measured the IQ and it was ~16 mg/str which seems quite high based on other threads here.
I hammered the IQ body away from the timing belt until it was about 8-9 mg/str. I then took it out for a drive and it had much more power. Very nice.
I then fiddled with the adaption and by increasing the value in VCDS from 32768 to 32784 I was able to reduce the IQ to 7.0 mg/str
That is the highest "value" I can change it to in VCDS so I won't be able to get it to 4.0 mg/str without another session with the ole hammer.
I'm going to drive it for awhile to see how things settle in, but overall I'm very pleased with the results.
 
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