Diesel flat spots (aka my tank strainer's full of crap)

[poddack]

On my search for a little problem with my 2.1td Executive estate, a flat spot between 3000 and 3500 rpm I thought I might take the fuel guage / pickup unit out of the tank and here is what I saw.........

Before:


After:

[poddack]

I think she's smoother but I'm not sure at the moment.

[swiss]

Ouch. Now I'm paranoid about my pick up... specially with all the chicken grease I've been putting in there lately O.O

[mjb]

Makes me want to rip mine out now

[Daveyravey]

Have you been running the car on old chip fat ?

[Welly]

Wow! that is really bad

It looks kinda waxy/oily

Certainly would have affected the pick up rate I would say, but if not that's a good bit of maintenance to do anyway

[poddack]

I bought her with the intent of running on veg oil, but the Lucas Pump is no good for that so only normal diesel.

[mark21TD]

I bought her with the intent of running on veg oil, but the Lucas Pump is no good for that so only normal diesel.

Have you read the post about the 2.1 pump change, it needs updateing now as he's almost there.
With a Bosch pump it'll love veg oil.

[Welly]

A 'P' reg 306 diesel passed me in the street the other day - followed by a strange smell of cooking

[poddack]

I'm going to wait unit I get an old BMW with the M51 engine before I faff with veg oil again.

[Welly]

I'm going to wait unit I get an old BMW with the M51 engine before I faff with veg oil again.

Ooooo, I see, nice engine that but not that economical on 'Diesel' I understand............

http://www.openhardware.de/mechatronics ... index.html

[Doggy]

My bro's 306 1.9TD ground to a halt today with a similar problem.
We noticed the priming bulb collapsing due to vacuum, so limped it home & withdrew the strainer. This one was a LOT worse than poddacks, the gauze was completely invisible and the layer of gunbe was getting on for 1/4" thick
Easy job though, only about half an hour start to finish
Unsurprisingly, it goes a bit better now

[poddack]

Fantastic, looks like a routine job to do when you buy one second hand.

[BruceT]

will my 2000 406 hdi90 have the pump filter and will it just lift out from under the seat?

[mark21TD]

I'm going to wait unit I get an old BMW with the M51 engine before I faff with veg oil again.

Why wait for a BM when you have a bettor veg engine in the 406 !
All you need to do is get rid of that Lucas and install a nice Bosch pump then it will give you less problems than an M51engine (they mave isues with the intank pump and the VP37 / 36 injuction pumps blow seals when they get a bit older).
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7281

BTW a build up of crud on the tank strainer is not uncomon on a diesel with a few miles on it.