Thread: Oh Bug Ger - Yippee

Well for some time my check engine light has been on and has been the subject of this thread. So have a look if you want the background.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/freelander...gine-light.htm

Anyway two testbook readings have shown that I have an injection pump issue. Due to expected cost and the lack of another vehicle and I have put off fixing it. However today it went in on the Bosch diagnostic and showed up the same - yes I have an injection pump problem - but the pump itself is OK - it is an electronics issue. But to fix the electronics the pump has to come out, be pulled down, electronics changed etc etc etc. So as a result the car is booked in next week to have the injector pump changed - expected cost all up $2k.

This afternoon I decided to pull out the fuel shut-off solenoid ($110 from Bosch - $700 from Land Rover) in the injection pump as tests indicated there may have also been an issue with it.

Took it out - all looked OK so went to put it back - lost the little spring that shuts the fuel off - Bug ger - now the car is really dead. Despite looking, looking, looking I could not find it - so I raced into my study and started pulling all my click pens apart and found a similar spring.

Put it all back together and away she started - Better still the check engine light has gone - Yippee - so after 3 months with the car at three mechanics - all who want to charge me over $2K to fiix it - it is now fixed by a spring from a ball point pen.

Most likely I got a dose of bad fuel or some with bio in it and some crud accumulated in the bottom of the plunger in the shutoff valve - I suspect that it was letting some fuel in on start so that it was OK when cold but overfuelling when hot (the revs shot up before stabilising) and removing the solenoid has dislodged the crud and it flowed out the hole along with the litre or so fuel I lost on the process.

If it was bad fuel it came from Shell (Coles) near Springwood in the Blue Mountains.

So - my big question is - to I leave the biro spring in the pump or do I replace the fuel shut off valve with a new one.

Hopefully this is the end of this saga.

Garry

Thanks for the feedback - will be getting another shut-off valve put in. The spring has not fallen out - but then when I loose things in the Freelander engine bay they never seem to make it to the ground.

What amazes me is that the entire injection system is Bosch not landrover and is used on a number of different vehicles. The genuine bosch part (not after market) is $110 (is is only a coil encased in brass) where extactly the same Bosch part from Landrover is in the order of $700.

The other point is most modern diesel mechanics can read the codes in a landie (and in some cases even better than the stealer) using original equipment diagnostics - so opening up a whole new range of code reading options.

Garry