Not sure if im unlucky or lucky

[Ean Austral]

Gday All,

Well we finally have our D3 home after what's been an interesting few months. Long story short as possible , car starts to fault driving home from Tassie, same fault "low fuel rail pressure " starts to become more frequent and the more I read the more I feel a High Pressure fuel pump replacement. So prepare for that and as I just started a new job I asked the local indy if/ when he could fit it in. Fit new HPFP, fuel lines from pump , fuel rail, and fuel pressure sensor that fits in the end of the passenger side fuel rail, Low pressure pump was tested and was in spec at idle.

Test drive the car and it faults at around mid revs, the indy fits the pressure gauge and finds the low pressure pump goes to a vaccum at mid revs and the car faults, suggests a new low pressure pump , pump fitted , test drive and car now faults at 3500RPM consistently. Fault now says low injector fuel pressure . He calls and we chat and he wants to do a injector leak off test to see if maybe 1 or more injector is returning more fuel than the others and causing the pressure drop.

Today he calls to say he has found the fault , injectors tested well within spec , so he took a fuel pressure regulator of another car and fitted it to mine and presto no fault. I tell him that I still have my old fuel pipes and the original fuel pressure regulator which I dropped off to him and the car now drives fine with no faults. A bloody expensive new faulty OEM part which came from the UK and doubt much will come of any complaints or warrenty type complaint

I sit and wonder if sometimes you can over do the repairs with new parts on older cars , as I am told that most people don't want to replace the fuel rail and sensor but my thoughts were that replace it all new and I know where things stand.

Anyway to his credit he was very generous in the amount of hours he charged me as I know he spent far more time on the car then I got charged for.

The car drives noticeably better and if my wife notices it then it has to be better than it was as normally I get told its the same. The holiday account is a bit lighter than it was but the peace of mind it wont fault with a road train coming flat out up behind us is priceless.

Cheers Ean

[loanrangie]

Good to hear Ean.

[Eric SDV6SE]

Gday All,

A bloody expensive new faulty OEM part which came from the UK and doubt much will come of any complaints or warrenty type complaint

Cheers Ean

Good result. If from one of the reputable UK parts suppliers, I'm sure they'd warrant their products, they will go back to their suppliers. Worth a shot in my view.

[Ean Austral]

Good result. If from one of the reputable UK parts suppliers, I'm sure they'd warrant their products, they will go back to their suppliers. Worth a shot in my view.

yep they probably will for the cost of the said part which was cheap compared to the hourly rate and the time it took to work out it was a new part that was faulty. That costs about 4 times the cost of the sensor.

Cheers Ean

[scarry]

Good to see its all sorted,but what a PITA.

I had a leaking EAS corner valve replaced,genuine OEM product.

Three moths later,car was dropping to bump stops again,after about 5 days of not going anywhere.

After a lot of tests,etc,etc,the new valve was replaced for a second time.

That was about 2yrs ago,never had an issue since.

[orville]

Gday All,

Well we finally have our D3 home after what's been an interesting few months. Long story short as possible , car starts to fault driving home from Tassie, same fault "low fuel rail pressure " starts to become more frequent and the more I read the more I feel a High Pressure fuel pump replacement. So prepare for that and as I just started a new job I asked the local indy if/ when he could fit it in. Fit new HPFP, fuel lines from pump , fuel rail, and fuel pressure sensor that fits in the end of the passenger side fuel rail, Low pressure pump was tested and was in spec at idle.

Test drive the car and it faults at around mid revs, the indy fits the pressure gauge and finds the low pressure pump goes to a vaccum at mid revs and the car faults, suggests a new low pressure pump , pump fitted , test drive and car now faults at 3500RPM consistently. Fault now says low injector fuel pressure . He calls and we chat and he wants to do a injector leak off test to see if maybe 1 or more injector is returning more fuel than the others and causing the pressure drop.

Today he calls to say he has found the fault , injectors tested well within spec , so he took a fuel pressure regulator of another car and fitted it to mine and presto no fault. I tell him that I still have my old fuel pipes and the original fuel pressure regulator which I dropped off to him and the car now drives fine with no faults. A bloody expensive new faulty OEM part which came from the UK and doubt much will come of any complaints or warrenty type complaint

I sit and wonder if sometimes you can over do the repairs with new parts on older cars , as I am told that most people don't want to replace the fuel rail and sensor but my thoughts were that replace it all new and I know where things stand.

Anyway to his credit he was very generous in the amount of hours he charged me as I know he spent far more time on the car then I got charged for.

The car drives noticeably better and if my wife notices it then it has to be better than it was as normally I get told its the same. The holiday account is a bit lighter than it was but the peace of mind it wont fault with a road train coming flat out up behind us is priceless.

Cheers Ean

Do you think the problem was a lpfp issue or was replacing the hpfp necessary?

[Ean Austral]

Do you think the problem was a lpfp issue or was replacing the hpfp necessary?

i think the HPFP was necessary as the car faulted originally with the low pump still in positive pressure, sometime would fault several times in a few hundred meters then after the high pressure pump change the car drove ok until you put you foot down then it would fault .


Cheers Ean

[Eric SDV6SE]

Just a thought, but is the root cause the diesel we get here in Aus? I always fill with the premium stuff, no issues. The one time I had to go hi-flow truck diesel, the car faulted on an injector going out of range. Software update and all good, but I believe this masked the issue.

No truck diesel since, plus an ECU flash tune and the car's been faultless.

I just wonder if the system or components have been "selected" based on euro diesel that is generally a higher spec than here.

[DiscoJeffster]

Diesel really is diesel. There is a refinery in WA and some of it is imported directly out of Singas. The funny thing is that the majority buy from the same source in WA and give it a marketing name.

Anyhow, who am I to get in the way of fantastic marketing and old wives tales

[BradC]

Diesel really is diesel.

Yes it is. The additive (and yes, the expensive stuff really does have more and different additive) is generally added at the servo when they fill the tanks (or it was when my uncle was driving for Shell, which admittedly was a while ago).