Air Ingress still! Fuel pump? Lines? Anyone got a match?

[Jackleggett]

Hey all, still chasing this bloody air ingress following worsening breakdowns.
Mk6 2.0 tddi, I can only pressume, getting air in somewhere in the fuel system, emptying my filter slowly.
The story goes -
Relevant or not, i put a half bottle of redex into a full tank 30 minutes before this all started. Driving along, lost power and chuffed white smoke, pulled over and it was dead. Recovered home, fuel filter drain hissed and dribbled out shite, switched for a new filter, topped up, ran, beauty. 2 days later, died (no smoke, just dead, flashing coil light), diesel filter was empty, filled, ran, 2 days, dead. Figured an air leak. With my head under the bonnest i thought i could hear a hiss when it was turned off from the injectors, changed the leak off pipes, still getting air in, changed the fuel filter housing (genuine ford), went for a drive, topped it up, went for a drive, 15 minutes in and low and behold, loss of power, still idling (just) with white smoke chugging out, limped and dead. Filter empty, topped up, turned over a over, needed a squirt of easy start (i know, but needs must), clatter from the pump as it was obviously dry but eventually kicked into life, drove 5 minutes, dead again. Recovered home.
No visible leaking from any connections, no signs of leaking from pump, can I hear a hiss around the brand new filter housing, maybe? Very hard to tell.
Still air?
Failing pump?
Injectors letting in air?
Fuel line o rings?(anyone got a size for them?)

I should add, the little pressure/service indicator gets dragged down into the red when it runs out of fuel in the filter, is this normal?

Thank you to anyone that can shed some light on it.

[knobby1]

Hey all, still chasing this bloody air ingress following worsening breakdowns.
Mk6 2.0 tddi, I can only pressume, getting air in somewhere in the fuel system, emptying my filter slowly.
The story goes -
Relevant or not, i put a half bottle of redex into a full tank 30 minutes before this all started. Driving along, lost power and chuffed white smoke, pulled over and it was dead. Recovered home, fuel filter drain hissed and dribbled out shite, switched for a new filter, topped up, ran, beauty. 2 days later, died (no smoke, just dead, flashing coil light), diesel filter was empty, filled, ran, 2 days, dead. Figured an air leak. With my head under the bonnest i thought i could hear a hiss when it was turned off from the injectors, changed the leak off pipes, still getting air in, changed the fuel filter housing (genuine ford), went for a drive, topped it up, went for a drive, 15 minutes in and low and behold, loss of power, still idling (just) with white smoke chugging out, limped and dead. Filter empty, topped up, turned over a over, needed a squirt of easy start (i know, but needs must), clatter from the pump as it was obviously dry but eventually kicked into life, drove 5 minutes, dead again. Recovered home.
No visible leaking from any connections, no signs of leaking from pump, can I hear a hiss around the brand new filter housing, maybe? Very hard to tell.
Still air?
Failing pump?
Injectors letting in air?
Fuel line o rings?(anyone got a size for them?)

I should add, the little pressure/service indicator gets dragged down into the red when it runs out of fuel in the filter, is this normal?

Thank you to anyone that can shed some light on it.

Flashing coil light is a clue....What fault codes are you getting..?? Pop the fuel filler cap off and try to drive, it's breather may be blocked.

Lord Knobrot

[Jackleggett]

Gonna try and get hold a reader tomorrow, I assumed it flashed because the pump ran out of fuel... I didn't know they had breathers! Any way of checking them?

[knobby1]

Gonna try and get hold a reader tomorrow, I assumed it flashed because the pump ran out of fuel... I didn't know they had breathers! Any way of checking them?

Coil/glow plug light on a Mk6 doubles as a DTC fault light, when it flashes, you have fault codes stored.

With the fuel cap, run the engine at idle for a few mins if possible, then pop the fuel cap off whilst the engine is running, if it hisses or sucks air in when removed, the breather is not working....then just replaced the cap.

Lord Knobrot

[metalworker0]

should the test he run with his scanner be done at a certain higher revs ,, would it then show the injectors as they really are and not doing all sorts of things at tick over ..and would he be able to spot the bad one out of the bunch with that test better than a tick over test?

all the best..mark

[Jackleggett]

The breather would actually make so much sense, both times that its been at its worse has been post fill up. I shall test and report back tomorrow!

[metalworker0]

that post i made up there ..ended up o the wrong thread --- sorry

all the best.mark

[Jackleggett]

So dropped the tank slightly both breathers let air in when blown, granted, they take a bit of pressure, not sure how free flowing they should be?

[Jackleggett]

So, new information! Ran with an emergency fuel cap to see if it was the tank pressurising, did 25 minutes and it cut out again so isn't that, however..drum roll please...

When I was round the front topping up the diesel filter, turned over, went to top up again and heard a hissing or a few seconds, back forth a few times and squirted a touch of water over the injectors 1 by 1 and managed to figure out that injector number 3 was pushing air back up through the seal!

So to someone who knows more about injectors than me, is it likely to just be the top seal that's knackered, or both seals and or the injector?

[Jackleggett]

For continuity sake as I hate finding posts that stop abruptly, apparently the air ingress has stopped...I had 3 breakdowns after replacing the filter head but since then it's stayed topped up.
I can only assume that the filter head was causing the issue but ruled it out as still had problems afterwards, I'm guessing that I just still had a ton of air in the system and it's taken this long, and 3 breakdowns with empty filters to finally purge it? I'll link back in a few days to confirm..

[knobby1]

For continuity sake as I hate finding posts that stop abruptly, apparently the air ingress has stopped...I had 3 breakdowns after replacing the filter head but since then it's stayed topped up.
I can only assume that the filter head was causing the issue but ruled it out as still had problems afterwards, I'm guessing that I just still had a ton of air in the system and it's taken this long, and 3 breakdowns with empty filters to finally purge it? I'll link back in a few days to confirm..

Strange for them to "get better"...but sillier things have happened.

Thanks for letting us know.

Lord Knobrot