Thread: Failing HP Fuel Pump?

Originally Posted by Mk1_Oz

Has anybody found a way of getting these fuel pumps overhauled with new solenoids (diesel specialist)?

Just on this one. I've started to strip down my old pump. Not finished it yet as life got in the way, but I have sought advice from a number of reliable places on the viability of a PCV replacement.

This is purely anecdotal but I have been told by two sources now that "yes, the valve will be toast". But they've both been prefaced with the damage being caused by debris from wear on the vanes in the feed pump, and that nobody has quite figured out what causes the vanes to wear that way but they suspect it starts with a duff dose of diesel. This causes the "sparklies" often found in the old style filters (the ones with the thermostatic valve on the return line) when a pump is on its way out. Next year when I get my life back I'll finish the teardown on my pump and see if I can confirm that. No sparklies in my filter, but then it's a newer one with no connection to the return line.

I've investigated several "rebuild" kits for the pumps and they all contain seals and gaskets. I also found a source of the valves somewhere in Eastern Europe (don't have the link handy), but by the time they made it to WA they were going to be in the order of $700, which is half the cost of a new pump. Then whatever a new set of gaskets costs, plus time. I don't have any pressure test gear that comes even close to the sort of pressures these things make, and the fuel injection place just laughed at me when I asked about getting it tested if I rebuilt it myself.

The valves can't be replaced in-situ. The VCV bolts can't be accessed with the pump in place, and the PCV can't be removed from the pump body without removing the cover for the feed pump (which can't be removed in-situ) and that requires a new gasket.

I decided as the job of getting it in and out was such a pig, the risk of relapse on a rebuilt pump just wasn't worth the potential saving. Also, the chance of flooding the fuel rails with debris and taking out a set of injectors terrified me. So I chickened out and just bought a new one.

I bought mine from United fuel injection in perth. There is bound to be a dealer where you are.

It wasn't a 'cheap' genuine pump. It is the actual Siemens/VDO pump at the recommended retail price minus a bit of bodged trade discount. Same pump as sold by lr-direct in the uk (at about the same price) and cross referenced with the Landrover part number in the Siemens/VDO catalogue for the 'Lion upgrade' (mine is the eu4).

The tags, part numbers and all identification matched precisely the pump that came out.

For an extra couple of hundred bucks I wouldn't stuff around with any non-branded stuff.