My TDI bit the dust yesterday (HPFP Failure)

flyerchic2000

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 23, 2010
Location
So Cal
TDI
2011 Jetta TDI Nav Manual
i was driving on the freeway and suddenly lost power. Then check engine light starting blinking. i proceeded to the dealer and got within a block away and car died on me and would not restart. Dealership confirmed it was a hpfp failure. Dealership is ordering parts and said it will be ready in a few days.
Last fill up was with Arco and car has 50k miles.
Any advice from other drivers that have had a HPFP failure?

edit: I have never used in additive. i used to fill up at chevron but the last few times I fileed up at Arco because it was cheaper. i probably drove about 100 miles on the tank of diesel it failed on.
 
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FowVay

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2000
Location
Georgia
TDI
2009 Jetta returned to der Führer
My only advice is to religiously use a lubricity additive EVERY time you put fuel into the vehicle.
 

pdt165

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Location
Fl
TDI
2011 Jetta 6 speed (Bought Back)
There is nothing that establishes that that advice is any more effective than sending me $10 everytime you fillup to protect your hpfp.:rolleyes:

Just went thru the failure thread, and when asked if additives where used in the vehicle that failed the answers were overwhelmingly NO.
Ill take small cost of the additive as insurance for my HPFP. Even if its not 100% the results point towards some level of effectiveness. And the cost is only about 50 cents a fillup.
 

Matt927

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Location
Northeast
TDI
several
i was driving on the freeway and suddenly lost power. Then check engine light starting blinking. i proceeded to the dealer and got within a block away and car died on me and would not restart. Dealership confirmed it was a hpfp failure. Dealership is ordering parts and said it will be ready in a few days.
Last fill up was with Arco and car has 50k miles.
Any advice from other drivers that have had a HPFP failure?
Please post your failures and any other information you have in the HPFP failures thread and be sure to report your failure to the NHTSA as their investigation is ongoing.
Your choice to now start using additives like OptiLube, etc. VW does not mention anything with regards to the use of additives in the owners manual with respect to the diesel engine. Some swear by the use of additives, others could care less and have over 100k miles on their original HPFP.
Recent surveys have shown an increase in the quality of diesel fuel but looking at the numbers recently published in an OptiLube test, there are still some pretty scary samples of diesel fuel out there. While they meet federal standards, they do not meet the HPFP pump manufacture recommendations.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
Just went thru the failure thread, and when asked if additives where used in the vehicle that failed the answers were overwhelmingly NO.
Ill take small cost of the additive as insurance for my HPFP. Even if its not 100% the results point towards some level of effectiveness. And the cost is only about 50 cents a fillup.
Although I agree that additive will help, and I use it religiously, keep in mind that VW says additives are not allowed on common rail cars so owners are going to be inclined to report no additives used even if they do. Why put the warranty in jeopardy?
 

Matt927

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Location
Northeast
TDI
several
My owners manual has a section on Gasoline Additives, nothing on using a diesel fuel additive. The diesel fuel section mentions properly spec'd diesel fuel and no start assist fluid.
 
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martiniwg

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Location
Quebec, Canada
TDI
2013 Jetta 6M - 2015 Golf 6M
I use Kleen Diesel octane boost, something like that, the grey bottle in the summer and the white one in winter time. Is that good ?
 

LeonVFB

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 20, 2013
Location
Michigan
TDI
2011 Jetta TDI
Just went thru the failure thread, and when asked if additives where used in the vehicle that failed the answers were overwhelmingly NO.
Ill take small cost of the additive as insurance for my HPFP. Even if its not 100% the results point towards some level of effectiveness. And the cost is only about 50 cents a fillup.
Exactly...I bought a gallon of optilube ($50) back in march and I drive 500 miles a week and use it on every tank. I still have yet to go through the entire gallon.
 

SkeeterMark

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2013
Location
North Branch, MN
TDI
2013 Jetta TDI 6M
Just went thru the failure thread, and when asked if additives where used in the vehicle that failed the answers were overwhelmingly NO.
Ill take small cost of the additive as insurance for my HPFP. Even if its not 100% the results point towards some level of effectiveness. And the cost is only about 50 cents a fillup.
The percentage may be the same as the percentage of owners that use additives - overwhelmingly most people do not use them.
I would not make any conclusions as to the effectiveness of additives from that.

From what I understand, B2 is more effective than any additive as far as lubricity goes.
 

Stealth TDI

Pre-Forum Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 13, 1998
Location
Newport News, VA
TDI
2017 GTI APR Stage 3 (395 hp/376 lb-ft)
I keep enough Standadyne in the car to last four fill-ups. I found that four Lucas Oil additive bottles fit nicely inside of this large cup holder:



It's velcro'd to the floor and has never tipped over. I have the same setup in my wife's car. She just lets me know when she's down to her last bottle and then I top them all off. Easy-peasy. :)

Is it helping? I hope. If not, no big deal. It's not terribly expensive.

Scott
 

Tuco

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Location
Las Vegas
TDI
2010 Jetta
The diesel at the pump is supposed to contain additives, but who knows what you get from one station to the next, or one week to the next. A quality additive or 2% biodiesel is cheap insurance.

Sorry to hear about another HPFP, hopefully VW will cover it in full.
 

Dirtracr95

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Location
Des Plaines, IL
TDI
'13 Jetta Sedan DSG
I love Illinois. I dont have to use additive because biodiesel is the only thing convenient, and I still get to keep my warranty.
 

thebigarniedog

Master of the Obvious
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Location
Fail Command (Central Ohio)
TDI
1998 Jetta tdi
Please provide your data and resource material you used to draw your conclusion that additives to fuel don't work.
Common sense, reason and the obvious. You can also check out IBW's prior post about what is in your manual and vw's prior modifications of the hpfp. If a bottle of magic juice could do it, they would have recommended it by now ....... Good luck.
 

TDIx2

Veteran Member
Joined
May 11, 2003
Location
Saginaw Mi ~ looking out for deer and dangerous pe
TDI
2014 Jetta
Common sense, reason and the obvious. You can also check out IBW's prior post about what is in your manual and vw's prior modifications of the hpfp. If a bottle of magic juice could do it, they would have recommended it by now ....... Good luck.
Common sense would suggest that if the TDI fuel pump requires a fuel with a specific lubrication value of 460 or less, and the fuel standard here is 520. Very obvious to 99.9999 percent of anyone who reads here on any sort of regular basis. Therefore adding some lubrication when fueling up to make up the difference is very sensible and also reasonable considering fuel distributors do the exact same thing to diesel fuel. Your owners manual is not going to tell you to use additives but a VW mechanic who's worth his salt will tell you to use them. Yes they have seen first hand the damage caused by a hpfp failure. Lastly I have yet to see any " I used some "magic juice" in my car and it made my hpfp grenade" postings. However there is plenty posting of "I bought some **** fuel over and over that is supposed to be good fuel, so I didn't think I needed to use additives in my fuel to make my fuel pump run on better this **** fuel, and now my pump just imploded.
 

thebigarniedog

Master of the Obvious
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Location
Fail Command (Central Ohio)
TDI
1998 Jetta tdi
Common sense would suggest that if the TDI fuel pump requires a fuel with a specific lubrication value of 460 or less, and the fuel standard here is 520. Very obvious to 99.9999 percent of anyone who reads here on any sort of regular basis. Therefore adding some lubrication when fueling up to make up the difference is very sensible and also reasonable considering fuel distributors do the exact same thing to diesel fuel. Your owners manual is not going to tell you to use additives but a VW mechanic who's worth his salt will tell you to use them. Yes they have seen first hand the damage caused by a hpfp failure. Lastly I have yet to see any " I used some "magic juice" in my car and it made my hpfp grenade" postings. However there is plenty posting of "I bought some **** fuel over and over that is supposed to be good fuel, so I didn't think I needed to use additives in my fuel to make my fuel pump run on better this **** fuel, and now my pump just imploded.
Go talk to dweisel about his use of magic juice and what it did not do for his vehicle. Tell ya, send me $10 a month and some meditation and you will be fine. No studies to show that won't work .......;)
 

jason_

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Location
michigan
TDI
2015 s wagon dsg
Exactly...I bought a gallon of optilube ($50) back in march and I drive 500 miles a week and use it on every tank. I still have yet to go through the entire gallon.
This brand have good rep? I'm sure my pump is factiry, 195k, so I'm gonna start dribbling some with every fill.

So, what's a quality brand? Or anything better then nothing?

Sent from my rooted HTC Supersonic using Tapatalk 2 Pro
 

Matt927

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Location
Northeast
TDI
several
You will get mixed opinions on additives. Optilube seems to be one of the most popular choices here. Their package is very similar to what is added to raw diesel at the fuel terminals and with their recently published report they have confirmed that the wear scar rating of diesel at the pump barely meets spec.

Depending on where you are located in the USA, Optilube offers several different types of diesel fuel improver, from a pure lubricity additive to the all encompassing XPD.
 

TDIx2

Veteran Member
Joined
May 11, 2003
Location
Saginaw Mi ~ looking out for deer and dangerous pe
TDI
2014 Jetta
Go talk to dweisel about his use of magic juice and what it did not do for his vehicle. Tell ya, send me $10 a month and some meditation and you will be fine. No studies to show that won't work .......;)
one persons experince with using additives dosent sway me one bit. he could have had horrible fuel to begin with, and using additives wouldnt help. a service station near me put diesel in a unlead tanks and damaged a bunch of gassers, additives and meditation wont help even when used together in those cases.
 

TDIx2

Veteran Member
Joined
May 11, 2003
Location
Saginaw Mi ~ looking out for deer and dangerous pe
TDI
2014 Jetta
You will get mixed opinions on additives. Optilube seems to be one of the most popular choices here. Their package is very similar to what is added to raw diesel at the fuel terminals and with their recently published report they have confirmed that the wear scar rating of diesel at the pump barely meets spec.

Depending on where you are located in the USA, Optilube offers several different types of diesel fuel improver, from a pure lubricity additive to the all encompassing XPD.
i live 5 miles from the station in question that was tested, in the belief that most fuel around here comes from the same pipe line and the additive packages they are using or not using leaves the fuel too close to 520 line. No way i'm not adding XPD at every fill up.
 

joeelmex

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Location
Atlanta GA
TDI
2012 Jetta Premium
I have been using Optilube XPD since both of the 2012 Jetta's TDI has 1000 miles on them. I can tell you the night I added the additive the next day, my wife (who by no means is any type of car enthusiast) called me to let me know that her Jetta felt much smoother then before. I told her about the additive. She said great, lets keep adding it to our cars.

So now both cars just hit 30,000 miles on them. No issues to report and they both get their XPD on every fill up. When I am out of town working, my wife will add the XPD to her Jetta when she gets back from the gas station.

We mainly get our Diesel from a Gas Station called Racetrack.
 

Ironman11142

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Location
Orlando, FL
TDI
2012 White Jetta TDI 6M
i was driving on the freeway and suddenly lost power. Then check engine light starting blinking. i proceeded to the dealer and got within a block away and car died on me and would not restart. Dealership confirmed it was a hpfp failure. Dealership is ordering parts and said it will be ready in a few days.
Last fill up was with Arco and car has 50k miles.
Any advice from other drivers that have had a HPFP failure?

edit: I have never used in additive. i used to fill up at chevron but the last few times I fileed up at Arco because it was cheaper. i probably drove about 100 miles on the tank of diesel it failed on.
Is the repair on your or VW's wallet?
 

jason_

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Location
michigan
TDI
2015 s wagon dsg
I didn't really investigate, time was an issue, but poopzone and advanced junk didn't have any serious brand name stuff, but some bottles mentioned additional injector lubricity and centane mentioned.

$20 and a range of 1 to 5oz per tank

Gamble it or move to something more tried and tested?

Sent from my rooted HTC Supersonic using Tapatalk 2 Pro
 

flyerchic2000

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 23, 2010
Location
So Cal
TDI
2011 Jetta TDI Nav Manual
VW paid for everything. I got the car back yesterday and everything seems to fine.

The guy at the dealership told me even if I had 190K miles on the car that VW would replace free of charge since it is a known problem.
 
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