TDi 75 AMF coolant leak from hoses tandem vacuum/fuel pump seals?

[froggy]

Excellent advice again thank you, I nearly flopped on the floor in despair after ripping the wiring, worried about the issues it might cause - the colour coding of the blue and white fuel pipes will be very useful. I can double check all my connections tomorrow now. Knowing I can get away with jubilee clips I am really tempted to replace all the rubber fuel hoses in this area, putting the bin bags and newspaper back first of course.

 

[audifan]

If the fuel hose is in good condition i.e. not showing signs of cracking or wear marks, I would leave as is. Fit everything back and do a flush, may only need a light flush as long as the correct coolant has been used. Make sure where the thermostat fits is clean by try not to score or remove any metal from there. The engine will run with the fuel temp sensor disconnected anyway. All that happens is the ECU does not a real reading and uses a default value for the fuel map.

 

[Little Dog]

I think it was me that said” this is DIY doable but your introduction is going to be a bit rough”? Looks like you now need terminals, extraction tools, splices etc. Not to worry, twist the wires and go for a +ve, go for a start. The wires can be sorted later.

 

[froggy]

Ok, all required work done today, unfortunately she wouldn’t start, I must not have sucked any fuel or enough fuel into the tandem. I used a portable battery jump starter and got a bit carried away. After 3 hard cranks and thinking it felt like it would start for a second I melted the jump starter, fair bit of smoke and the solder from the connections leaked on top of the battery ?. For now I just want to make the car safe overnight - I have disconnected both battery terminals but the battery wont budge. Is the battery held in with a bolt?

 

[Ami]

Ok, all required work done today, unfortunately she wouldn’t start, I must not have sucked any fuel or enough fuel into the tandem. I used a portable battery jump starter and got a bit carried away. After 3 hard cranks and thinking it felt like it would start for a second I melted the jump starter, fair bit of smoke and the solder from the connections leaked on top of the battery ?. For now I just want to make the car safe overnight - I have disconnected both battery terminals but the battery wont budge. Is the battery held in with a bolt?

two bolts 13 mm

 

[froggy]

Thanks Ami just spotted them, time to get my ratchet and extension. Will i need to leave the boot open overnight?

 

[Ami]

they are by the black bracket, you need to undo the 2 bolts & slide the bracket up & out to remove battery.

 

[Ami]

Thanks Ami just spotted them, time to get my ratchet and extension. Will i need to leave the boot open overnight?

Not really, put something on the lock, a bit of carpet or plastic to stop it locking fully, or if it does fully close you can use the manual pull on the inside to open manually in the morning

 

[froggy]

Thought I would add some more pictures and the process I have followed to get the car ready for starting. First job this evening was to clamp the fuel hose properly. A 12 - 20mm jubilee clip was used, with the added bonus that it could be completely opened saving pulling the dreaded fuel hose off the metal pipes again.

Surprisingly the 15mm spring hose clip left an indentation. With this in mind, I decided against also changing the spring clip on the vacuum hose out of the tandem, as it was much tighter than the fuel hose clip. Not the neat OEM look, but I feel happy it is tight enough now.

 

[froggy]

Next up was to tighten to 9nm and double check both coolant flange bolts. The rear one had been undone to move the double pronged metal plate yesterday. Now the coolant flange was sorted it was time to flush the block. Using the advice of @audifan I pushed a garden hose into the rubber thermostat hose and was happy to see a lot of the k seal pour out of the thermostat opening. Within a minute or so it was running clean. As an added measure I also put the hose inside the expansion tank and let it run through for a minute or so.

Moving on to the thermostat. Amazingly the 2 little plastic prongs in the housing were intact. I tried to follow the workshop manual, but it showed inserting the thermostat into the housing and confusingly one of the pictures showed a sensor on the housing. Trying to maneuver this into the block was not possible. I decided to fit and 1/4 turn anti clockwise directly into the block. Then after soaking it in coolant I pressed the rubber O ring into place.

Finally I pushed the thermostat housing into place lining up with the bolt holes and ensuring the pipe of the housing was angled to the right. I hand tightened the top bolt and then used the tiny little Bacho screwdriver bit ratchet to fit the bottom bolt. If you have average or small hands you can fit your left hand down between the alternator and the back of the ratchet, placing pressure on it. Then you can ratchet like the clappers with your right hand and although fiddly, within a few minutes you can nip both bolts up tight. I think the manual says 10nm for these bolts. After doing the coolant flange bolts several times to almost 10nm I admit to guessing on this one, as no way would a torque wrench fit down there. I suggest (not an option for me) you get underneath and torque correctly.

 

[froggy]

Now the block was flushed and the thermostat fitted as best as I could, I decided to fill and bleed with g12 coolant. I made a stupid mistake and forgot to refit the thermostat housing rubber hose ?. Luckily I spotted the error before much coolant had reached the thermostat.

After refitting, I continued to top up until I could see coolant in the bottom of the expansion tank. Then I used a large flat bladed screwdriver to turn the bleed screw. Unlike the rest of the engine, (which has taken several diesel baths) this plastic screw looked almost pristine and turned quite easily, a bit of pressure was needed but not too much. To my happy surprise I could hear a small stream of air rushing out and then after about 10 seconds or so some coolant!! I nipped this screw up and topped up with a bit more coolant to the ‘min’ mark. A bit of a guess as the level is not visible from outside. For some reason I tested the bleed screw for air again, just in case, but only coolant escaped this time.

The light was fading fast, but I couldn’t resist trying to start the engine at this point, which if you go back slightly, did not go well at all ?

 

[audifan]

So are all the fuel hoses now reconnected or do you still have the bulb on the return line? If the bulb is still on use that, but if everything now reconnected then leave like this and carefully use the starter / battery to suck the fuel up. To not overwork the starter or battery do this. Crank for 5 seconds and turn off, let sit for 20 seconds. Crank for 7 seconds turn off and let sit for 30 seconds. Crank for 10 seconds and if it does not fire leave for 2 minutes. Crank for 10 seconds and if it still does not fire leave for 5 minutes. Start again from the beginning i.e. the 5 / 20, 7 /30 etc.
If it has not at least coughed by now recheck the fuel supply and return hoses are indeed connected to their correct ports on the tandem pump.

Once running check for firstly any fuel leaks then water leaks and lastly oil leaks. If all good remove any protection in the engine bay and let the engine idle for 15 minutes and quickly recked for leaks. If the expansion tank cap is still off refit it and drive the car around the block then turn off the engine and walk away. Come back 15 minutes later and check for leaks, check the coolant level and top up if needed and check the oil level. Make sure anything that was intentionally or accidentally moved is now back where it should be and secure.

Over the next few trips recheck the coolant and oil levels and for leaks. Once you are confident all OK mark the tick on the jobs done list.

 

[froggy]

So are all the fuel hoses now reconnected or do you still have the bulb on the return line? If the bulb is still on use that, but if everything now reconnected then leave like this and carefully use the starter / battery to suck the fuel up. To not overwork the starter or battery do this. Crank for 5 seconds and turn off, let sit for 20 seconds. Crank for 7 seconds turn off and let sit for 30 seconds. Crank for 10 seconds and if it does not fire leave for 2 minutes. Crank for 10 seconds and if it still does not fire leave for 5 minutes. Start again from the beginning i.e. the 5 / 20, 7 /30 etc.
If it has not at least coughed by now recheck the fuel supply and return hoses are indeed connected to their correct ports on the tandem pump.

Once running check for firstly any fuel leaks then water leaks and lastly oil leaks. If all good remove any protection in the engine bay and let the engine idle for 15 minutes and quickly recked for leaks. If the expansion tank cap is still off refit it and drive the car around the block then turn off the engine and walk away. Come back 15 minutes later and check for leaks, check the coolant level and top up if needed and check the oil level. Make sure anything that was intentionally or accidentally moved is now back where it should be and secure.

Over the next few trips recheck the coolant and oil levels and for leaks. Once you are confident all OK mark the tick on the jobs done list.

Once again many thanks @audifan for typing all this info out. All fuel hoses are now reconnected. I double checked using the blue/white colour coding that the return and feed connections are correct. I don’t think I used the fuel bulb correctly - I should have used clear syphon tubing either side of the bulb so I could actually see fuel going into the tandem. The little arrow marker on the fuel bulb was pointing towards the tandem as I squeezed it, maybe this is the wrong way around?

I am worried about trying to charge the existing battery after the little battery jump starter melted and leaked solder on top of it. Would you say it’s as well to buy a new battery and if I do. will the new battery have enough power to start the engine (assuming I have got the fuel hoses correctly connected) following your cranking instructions?

 

[audifan]

The battery looks OK. If you can give it a charge all the better. If it does not start the engine as above then it will need to be charged. Hold off replacing it just yet.
Yes you had the bulb the wrong way around. You should have been pumping fuel back to the tank in the RETURN line and not into the tandem pump so the arrow points AWAY from the tandem pump. Yes clear tubing does help but you should be able to actually feel the fuel in the bulb.

You are now very nearly there. Please make sure you fit the batter terminals back on the correct way around. Looking into the hatch, both battery terminals face forwards and the positive terminal is on the left with the negative on the right.

 

[froggy]

Damn that’s embarrassing - I was totally confused about that! I thought I was supposed to be pumping fuel from the metal feed pipe into the tandem ?

Please forgive the crude drawing, but could you confirm I understand this process now? The idea is to suck fuel through the tandem and back towards the tank?

 

[audifan]

EXACTLY.

 

[Little Dog]

Watching with interest to see how this bubble pump works out. Done this job three times now and after a bit of cranking it starts.
Perhaps there will be less cranking with the pump but it never appeared excessive to me. A bit like a fuel filter change.

 

[2work]

Morning Rob,

I’ve also been following this with great interest. I have here a new Bosch tandem pump and correct gasket as recommended by Graham @audifan. Project OEM has an ooze of diesel which is of course going to eventually ruin the coolant pipe below.

Such a great read so thank you for this. The information contributed on here will help DIYers for years to come. Absolute value added.

Kind regards,

Tom

 

[froggy]

My battery charger should arrive today so I’m going to attempt recharging the Lion battery and hopefully not melt anything important today…..

I’m also on the lookout for some 8mm? clear tubing, so I can follow Graham’s (very patient!) re-explaining of how to pull fuel through the system and actually see diesel moving out of the tandem, just to be sure and give it every chance of starting. Pictures as usual to follow.

Cheers
Rob.

 

[froggy]

Watching with interest to see how this bubble pump works out. Done this job three times now and after a bit of cranking it starts.
Perhaps there will be less cranking with the pump but it never appeared excessive to me. A bit like a fuel filter change.

I think my mistake was even trying to use a battery that has been stood for weeks. Even with a portable battery jump starter (which to be fair has never let me down in the past) I should have charged it off the car fully first. Another lesson in patience!

I’m determined to follow the fuel bulb process now though even though it means pulling one of the damn fuel hoses yet again - there is a cheap tool for this purpose which I’m probably going to get and will report back on its effectiveness.