Thread: TDV6 High Pressure Fuel Pump

I'd be checking the battery first with all those faults.

Hey guys,
Interesting timing. I was just in Perth last week chatting to one of the best Discovery 3/4 mechanics I have ever met and he was in the process of changing his 5th high pressure fuel pump in a month on a discovery 3 or 4 TDV6 and his supplier has delivered 9 high pressure pumps in 6 weeks throughout perth. He's convinced that there has been a bad batch of fuel in Perth recently. Unfortunately the end result usually means a new filter, low pressure and high pressure pumps for a total bill around $4500.00. he thinks it's unlikely {but not impossible} for this to cause damage to the injectors.
Take care where you fill up guys and good luck to those already affected

Originally Posted by John58

I've been having intermittent fuel-related problems for the last 4000-odd kms. There are no symptoms as such - just a "Dong" and the car goes into limp-home mode. Turn off, wait a minute, re-start and away we go again...for maybe 200 metres or 2000 kms. Initially I suspect it was a tank of contaminated diesel I picked up down in Victoria after their recent fuel shortage. I took it to the nearest dealer who replaced the fuel filter (which was about 30% blocked) and everything seemed fine....for a while! After 2500 kms it happened again!

Hi John,

We had a similar problem when travelling from Perth to Alice Springs via the Great Central Road in August this year. Travelling up to Empress Spring, two warnings flashed up on the dash - Gearbox Fault followed immediately by Reduced Engine performance.

U2023 - Gearbox - control module network signal calibration data
P0087 - Engine Management - Fuel rail/system pressure - too low

Like yours this was an intermittent fault and we couldn't replicate the conditions that 'made it occur' and like yours, it was reset by turning the engine on and off, however the last straw was when the issue reoccurred 10 times in the 200km between Erldunda and Alice Springs - too much to ignore.

A call to PCB Landrover Independent Specialists in Adelaide pointed the finger at fuel issues - (blocked fuel filter confirmed and replaced by Sutton Motors in Alice Springs), Low Pressure Fuel Pump (flow tested OK by Sutton Motors), dirty fuel drained from tank by Sutton Motors leaving the HPFP as a possibility but unable to be replaced because of Sutton's work schedules in the week following. In going as far as they did I'd have to say Sutton Motors were very helpful in the process. However like yours, addressing the lower cost issues appeared to solve the issue in all the road testing conducted by Sutton Motors and ourselves, only to have them reappear approx 250km later as we headed south. The D4 and Camper Trailer were trucked back to Adelaide and the two of us flown home courtesy of a RAA Platinum membership - brilliant service by RAA.

Further assessment by PCB at home (flow rates for the LPFP still OK, new fuel filter) saw the HPFP and associated drive belts replaced in early Oct ($2300 HPFP and drive belt, plus 6.5 hours labour). We've since driven approx 5000km, including a trip to the east coast and back to Adelaide via the Vic High Country and Otway Ranges, and the faults have not reoccurred. Confidence is returning.

Notwithstanding the Gearbox Fault warning, we never had any issues with the gearbox. It seems this warning was possibly a transferred fault triggered as a result of the ECU registering the low fuel rail pressure.

Fuel Injectors seem to be unaffected.

Hope this helps
Craig

1980 S1 V8 Wagon - gone
1985 V8 110 Wagon - gone
1998 300Tdi Disco1 - gone
2003 Td5 Disco 2a - gone
2012 TDV6 Disco 4 - 2.7 TDV6, ARB Bar, Kaymar rear bar with tyre carrier, Long Ranger Tank, Mitch Hitch, 17" CSA rims, GME UHF, Duel batteries, Cargo barrier, Rhino tradesman roof-rack

Well, I have had the car returned to me, while in the garage they have replaced the suspension compressor as it was lazy. This has been on its way out for some time. Last time I drove the car, I had 3 incidences of limp mode in 10km, the car has been reprogrammed to accomodate the upgraded compressor, and all fault codes wiped. I will now proceed to use the car as my daily drive. I drove it 30km today no issues. The garage told me they replace the fuel filter every 40,000km so it’s not far of due. Done 30,000 since last change.

Sorry forgot to say, I have not replaced the HPFP

Jazz I have the same issue which has been going for 6 months or so now, very very intermittent but just as I start to get comfortable again and assume it’s fixed itself.. dong, lights up ‘restricted performance’ low fuel rail pressure.

I live in Sydney and so far have been extremely lucky that I haven’t had this issue in peak hour crossing the harbour bridge because I can’t get more than 40km/hr once it happens until I turn the car off.

No mechanic can tell me what the issue is definitively so when it gets to the point of unbareable I will have to throw money at it like Craig. Not sure where I will start (high or low pressure pump) but very keen to hear how you go. Sadly you may not know if it’s fixed or broken for another 2000km though

Originally Posted by Lukeis

No mechanic can tell me what the issue is definitively so when it gets to the point of unbareable I will have to throw money at it like Craig. Not sure where I will start (high or low pressure pump) but very keen to hear how you go. Sadly you may not know if it’s fixed or broken for another 2000km though

Hi Luke,
sorry to hear that the issues are still occurring, albeit it seems still intermittently. It is possible to narrow down the issues to the HPFP or LPFPs by testing both the fuel flow and current draw of the LPFP. This should be able to be done cheaply and quickly by your service agent. There's a good site on testing the current draw of the LPFP on the Disco3 website:

http://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic1...sure+fuel+pump

Assuming that both fuel flow and current draw are within spec and the LPFP doesn't need changing ... sorry but from my experiences it looks like the HPFP, or one of the two inbuilt sensors, might be on the way out.

From what I've been told, if it is one of the sensors that are failing/have failed, giving the very intermittent faults you're experiencing, both sensors are inbuilt to the HPFP and can only be replaced as part of the whole pump.

Good luck

Craig

1980 S1 V8 Wagon - gone
1985 V8 110 Wagon - gone
1998 300Tdi Disco1 - gone
2003 Td5 Disco 2a - gone
2012 TDV6 Disco 4 - 2.7 TDV6, ARB Bar, Kaymar rear bar with tyre carrier, Long Ranger Tank, Mitch Hitch, 17" CSA rims, GME UHF, Duel batteries, Cargo barrier, Rhino tradesman roof-rack

Day 2 so far so good