strange fuel filter housing noise hdi 406 now full of metal

[regan.sloan]

I had a strange niose comming from the fuel filter housing like a ticking
My mechanic took it apart and sead it was full of what looked like copper grease
he is saying that its best to get rid of now as it could be the high pressure pump going .
If it was the low pressure pump going and bits of metal had reached the filter then the filter should have stoped it going any further shouldent it.
My mechanic informed me that he took one of the main pipes of the injector rail and it had some metal partcles in
Sounds very bad and could be the main high pressure pump
Why oh why did i buy a 806 with the same engin


any sugestions

[diesel-dog]

A friend of mine in the taxi trade had the same problem on his 406 hdi, main stealer quoted him £2500 to replace the whole fuel system!! His car was showing only 100,000 miles at the time! He got rid rather than have it fixed. Another reason I keep to my old faithfull d8 1.9td!

[xplosiv]

Hi,

£2500 hmmm,

You can get the pumps for £250 - £300 the rest is just tubing, unless you have broken the injectors as well

Andy

[regan.sloan]

so do you think it might be just the pump that i need to replace ,filrer etc

[xplosiv]

hi,

i have no idea, best person to speak to is jameslxdt

andy

[Welly]

If 'bits' are stuck in the filter then these have come from the lift pump in the tank. The high pressure pump draws fuel from the 'filtered' side of the filter. If the HP pump broke down it would send bits into the fuel rail I suppose and probably ruin the injectors.

A new lift pump is a common failure and aren't too bad in cost to replace although you would need to flush the lines out to be sure.

Exactly how did you detect this ticking noise at the filter anyway? I am interested as I would have thought it difficult to hear that with the clatter of the engine.

[turbolag]

Why oh why did i buy a 806 with the same engin

Lift pumping mincing failure is a notable pain in the arrus on most models of high pressure wheezil, in Renaults, Frods, Veedubs - if you'd bought the more expensive Galaxy, you could have been just as easiliy afflicted, though little consolation to you at the moment. We had a several week old new model Fous TDCi lunch itself spectacularly with a main pump seizure on the A45 recently (not sure what engine that one had). It happens.

I think the 406 pre dates every virtualy other high pressure diesel so the problems seem more notable solely because they've been around a lot longer.

I would be inclined to think that due to the pressures and tolerances in the radial pump that any fault will lead to near instant, or certainly extremely fast, failure, with fatal conequences for the timing belt. You could get shot of the car, won't get max value in that state,.

Shop about for a pump - £300 is s more realistic price, get it fixed, carry on enjoying the car. The cost is the risk we all take for trying to save a few penies by not buying new cars with manufacturers warranties.

Good luck - hope it gets sorted.

[Welly]

I don't understand why Diesel lift pumps fail so much when, really, they aren't doing all that much in terms of duty or pressure. A petrol injection pump lasts pretty much forever on an petrol car, maybe just getting a bit more 'buzzy' with age.

With the lubrication effect of Diesel fuel I can't understand the failures.

My missus E36 318 tds has a lift pump but no high pressure injection, what benefit is this set up?

I suppose the old skool Diesels just used to suck the Diesel out of the tank from the main pump.

[jameslxdt]

thats because early bmw diesels are downright shite, the distributor pump has no internal lift pump so the in tank pump keeps the fuel to the main pump

the pug XUD series uses a distributor pump which has an internal lift pump sucking the fuel forwards, the only down side to this system is fuel run back after switching of when hot, making starting from hot more difficult, they still fire just take a few more turns than it should

i would only ever buy a distributor pump diesel as common rail systems just aren't reliable enough yet, pug have got the HDi recipe perfect now, its just the fact the bosch and siemens injection systems arent up to this standard yet and will still break down for years to come

[xplosiv]

HI,

Have pug re- desgined the lift pump? if so is it worth going down the dealears and getting one. then installing it

Andy