MK6 Minibus cutting out? Any ideas

[Hedgie]

Hi guys,

Well I have had this new minibus for a week and now the breakdowns start.

The bus is a bit of a pig to start in the morning, can take 2 or 3 goes to start. I have been told it may be the fuel filter and housing. Not too much of an issue, looking at £200 to replace them.

However, I went out tonight and the van gave a couple of little 'hiccups' threatening to cut out. Didn't give it much of a thought but after a couple of miles it just cut out on me. Manged to get it to the side of the road and after a few minutes got it started again. It ran for a short while and then died again. Used the manual primer on the filter housing and got it going a couple more times but each time it ran for a bit then cut out.

Called the AA who then couldn't get his computer to talk to my van so tried to do an old fashioned diagnosis but sad it could be any number of things but sounds like fuel starvation.

He squirted some easy start stuff into it and it burst into life again. It remained running and he just followed me home (3 miles) to see how it went. Strangely it ran ok all the way home with no cut outs.

ANy suggestions on the possible problem or is it more than likely to be the fuel filter and housing?

I also hadn't realised it was a Turbo??

[davey0555]

Hard to say exactly without fault codes, my money will be on either injectors worn or the fuel pump worn and not able to provide the pressure commanded by the ECU up to the fuel rail, this will give the symptoms you describe of fuel starvation.

[Hedgie]

Hmmm Ok. Are we looking at expensive items to replace?

When I picked it up I drove it around 70 miles back home without a glitch.

[davey0555]

What Mieage is on it Hedgie?

[Hedgie]

228,000 on a Y plate

Ex airport transfer bus. Full service history, VOSA checks every 6 weeks . Been looked after but this is a pain after only buying it a week ago!

Another thing is that it is a bit hesitant when you accelerate in 3rd or 4th sometimes.

[davey0555]

If it was my van I would try cheapest items first, 1) Some Injector cleaner into the fuel Tank 2)Change the Fuel filter 3)Try to get the codes read, (if there is any) from the ecu, 4)Make sure the battery is putting it's full volts/amps out and that the alternator is charging as it should 5)For what it's worth, try some premium diesel too, some common rail engines don't perform thier best on supermarket fuels, even my Mk3 2.5di smokes far less with better quailty diesel in it, than it does with tesco or asda diesel. these are only simple ideas here, and there will be more of others on here, but certainly a good starting point before spending hundreds of pounds out!

[Hedgie]

OK. Will try that. I put £40 worth of diesel in yesterday from Tesco. Fuel light was on when I filled up.
Tempted to go to Shell and throw another £30 worth in along with the injector cleaner.

Is the fuel filter easy to change?

[Hedgie]

Well, stuck a new fuel filter on and chucked in £20 worrh of the high performance shell diesel along with a bottle of injector cleaner and it seems to be running ok at the moment.

[davey0555]

I'm really glad to hear that Hedgie, nothing worse than having to fork out for expensive repairs is there ! Just remeber to try and stick to premium brand diesel where you can now, the old 2.5 would run on anything combustible, these later 2.0's and 2.4's are very sensitive to poor quality fuels and it really does them no good at all in the long run, it wont do any harm to stick a dose of injector cleaner into the tank every couple of months either, does it start any better now??, just out of curiosity?? keep us informed buddy!!

[Hedgie]

No difference in cold starting. Still takes 2 or 3 attempts. Been told the filter housing may be causing the starting issue?
As for general running it seems to be ok at the moment.