Thread: Tdi 300 fuel pump change

I have a replacement lift pump to put in mine as it was also leaking. I'm not aware of anyone using an electric inline one. In fact I have read somewhere on here of people just removing it altogether. Apparently it is not needed.

No particular knowledge of the 300 TDi, however as a skint student keeping a car running had to do all sorts of 'less expensive' repairs.

I replaced at least 3, from memory, cam actuated pumps with electric ones - and I never had a problem.

............but I guess you would have to get the right size/delivery rate electric pump, and obviously make up a nice cover plate for where the mechanical pump was removed.

Ok many years ago a friend of mines dad had a g60 nissan and it was fitted with a 6-354 perkins we did a trip to wonnagatta (when it was hard to get there) and the perkins crapped the fuel pick up pump .
we ended up removing the electric fuel pump of the old series 3 put it on the diesel and it ran no problem and the landie we just put a jerry can in the spare wheel on the bonnet a drip fed the poor old thing all the way back .
we drove both cars back about 8 -9 hours that perkins diesel kept on going and the landie man did we get some strange looks

funny you mention this cause i was thinking the same about a electric lift pump on the 300 Tdi and i know it works and i cant see any draw backs

I was wondering about the PSI from this pump aswell the electric one I'm looking at will do 4-7 PSI would this be enough? It says 145 liters an hour which would drain a full tank pretty quickly.

Originally Posted by TuffRR

I have a replacement lift pump to put in mine as it was also leaking. I'm not aware of anyone using an electric inline one. In fact I have read somewhere on here of people just removing it altogether. Apparently it is not needed.

I've gone through several of these pumps over the 3 300Tdis I've owned (I think I'm on number 6 altogether). I've had 5 leak so I replaced them but the 6th actually failed because of bad fuel (it was that el-cheapo stuff from a cut-price supplier and it ate the internals - my mechanic said he had the same problem with the same supplier...).

When it failed I had almost no fuel at all. The car would run for a few minutes and then stall due to fuel starve. So I'd have to wait with the ignition on to push enough fuel to the injection pump and then start, drive for a bit, stall, roll to the bottom of next hill, etc.

The leaks from the other 5 can be avoided with flexible hoses from the fuel filter to the pump (thanks to this wonderful forum for that advice!).

Obviously you wouldn't want to 'over supply' as it would be my guess that this could also cause problems for the fuel injection pump

Maybe somebody on here has the max/min flow rates for the correct operation.

After reading the posts in another thread where another forum member removed the lift pump altogether, I would try doing the same.

Cold climates may be the biggest risk (also with the electric pump).

The fuel injection pump has an internal vane pump to control the pressure in the injection pump housing.

An electric pump should not cause a problem so long as it is not a high pressure type as used with fuel injection systems.

I hooked the electric transfer pump for my sill tank to the spare inlet on the sedimentor. By clamping a flexible line between the fuel tank and the sedimentor, I use the electric pump to bleed the sedimentor and fuel filter and it has not caused any problems with the system.

one of the blokes on the old AULRO mailing list used an electric lift pump after the mechanical one died. (just put a blanking plate on the block)
Reckoned it was a cinch to bleed the system after a sedimentor clean/filter change.