Thread: Diesel Pump leak

So today we went around town looking for some help with this. Best advice seems to be as follows – I’m no mechanic so please excuse anything that is a bit off here.
Seems there are 2 top covers on the diesel pump that leak. The one on top is probably a fairly easy fix – take it off and new “O” ring.
But it is nearly always the next “top cover” down that leaks. This one slides and needs to be set in the right position. Our diesel mechanic said that while this is best done with the pump out of the car, he would be prepared to give it a go in the vehicle - he’d put a scratch on the housing and just match it up when reassembling. It would cost $250, probably wouldn’t be perfectly tuned, and there was a high likelihood of a seal further down on the pump failing before too long.
To pull the pump out and do it all properly would be $2,500.
The car has a few other issues so it looks like the Freelander will be going – probably as a trade in or sold unregistered. Quite a few good bits on it if anyone is in or near Cairns and is interested. It’s just had a new alternator fitted; and new Aircon compressor and evaporator in 2015. Also a few filters and a Haynes Manual.

Originally Posted by Cliff

So today we went around town looking for some help with this. Best advice seems to be as follows – I’m no mechanic so please excuse anything that is a bit off here.
Seems there are 2 top covers on the diesel pump that leak. The one on top is probably a fairly easy fix – take it off and new “O” ring.
But it is nearly always the next “top cover” down that leaks. This one slides and needs to be set in the right position. Our diesel mechanic said that while this is best done with the pump out of the car, he would be prepared to give it a go in the vehicle - he’d put a scratch on the housing and just match it up when reassembling. It would cost $250, probably wouldn’t be perfectly tuned, and there was a high likelihood of a seal further down on the pump failing before too long.
To pull the pump out and do it all properly would be $2,500.
The car has a few other issues so it looks like the Freelander will be going – probably as a trade in or sold unregistered. Quite a few good bits on it if anyone is in or near Cairns and is interested. It’s just had a new alternator fitted; and new Aircon compressor and evaporator in 2015. Also a few filters and a Haynes Manual.

I have been watching waiting for a reply as i have a Diesel freebee project at home that is doing the same .
And have thought the cost will out weigh any other plans so maybe a couple of cheap cars for sale soon

I would be wary about what mechanics say - I was getting fuel related fault codes and limp mode on my L series and all places I went too - diesel and LR specialists all said new pump and injectors.

I managed to get the actual number of the fault code (something the "specialists" should have done which pointed to a fault occurring on shut down which is what was happening - start the car from cold and it ran fine until shutdown and then on restart it would go into limp mode and check engine light on.

Rather than pay the $3500 to $4000 being asked I decided to look at it myself - the pump itself was a bit daunting so started with the easy stuff first - the fuel return lines from each injector had perished a little and were weeping fuel but not enough to cause the fault - so then looked at the fuel shut off valve - there was a little bit of crude stopping the valve from fully closing - enough to stop the engine but still letting enough fuel through to trigger a fault - took about 10 minutes to fix and no dollars - saved up to $4000.

So i appreciate you may have to rely on mechanic advice but always look for other options - like sending a PM to Woko on here - always helpful and knows these vehicles inside out. He was last online 4 days ago so is around.

As far as the leak is concerned - yes the pump might be leaking but look for the easy things first like the rubber fuel return lines - as said mine were leaking, I thought it was from the fuel pump. It is special stuff, small diameter and expensive ($25 a meter) and can be bought from any major diesel repair shop.

Give Woko a PM :-)

garry

That fuel pump looks similar to the VP pump fitted to my P38 diesel & mine started leaking around the top cover like yours.

The seal kit was only around $20 locally so I removed the cover & replaced the seal. It was fine for around 6 months before the next seal down started leaking followed by the large O ring at the rear of the pump.

There are a few Youtube tutorials on replacing the seals with the pump in the car but resetting the pump might need to be done by someone with the right gear. The P38 is a combination of mech/elect so I'm hoping my Nanocam will help but I suspect the FL1 might be full mech.


Apparently the leaks are due to low sulphur fuel causing the seals to shrink. Vortex premium & cheap truck diesel slow my leaks down.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed help here. Most appreciated.

We haven’t had the “check engine” light coming on and no limp mode issues; the fuel lines between the injectors did fail some time ago but these were replaced then and are all good now.

I have confirmed that our leak is from the second seal down on the top cover of the diesel pump. This is fairly easy to confirm. Wipe the surface of the pump clean – start engine – and diesel can be clearly seen coming from this seal (the leak can be a little intermittent – maybe depending on engine temperature?)

So for anyone finding this thread in the future, this is what we have established:

There are two “covers” on the top of the diesel pump.

The seal for the top one is possibly fairly easy to replace – though one of the 4 bolts which secure this top cover is a tamper proof bolt and will require an appropriate ‘spanner’ to remove it.

However, it is normally the seal for the second cover down which fails first. This second cover slides back and forth to ‘set’ the pump.

The “cheap” option is that the seal (for the second cover down) can be replaced without removing the pump. You need to scribe a mark on the pump body for reassembly – but it almost certainly won’t be set precisely and so the result may be a minor loss of power or blowing smoke. Also, there may be a problem with other seals on the pump failing in the (not too distant) future.

The proper fix would be to remove the pump from the vehicle, replace all seals and have the pump set up properly by someone with the appropriate gear. Two quotes we have had indicate the likely cost for this to be done professionally would be around $2,500.

Hope this is helpful.

Cliff.