We have a 1998 Mk 5 2.5 turbo diesel manual transmission van, converted to a motorhome by Autosleeper UK when new. We have owned it for more than 14 years. We live in New Zealand, but the van is stored in the UK, and pre-Covid it was used for about three months each year when we could get over to it. We last used it in 2019 and it gets started and run a few times a year by the storage provider to give it some exercise. It has done 87,000 miles and is fitted with a Lucas EPIC fuel pump. There are no signs of any leakage from the pump, the engine starts and runs perfectly, and its MOT emissions figures are consistently very low. The cambelt is changed every four years and the van is serviced every year before we arrive to use it.
I’ve read on this forum and elsewhere of many horror stories of the EPIC pumps failing and I’m wondering if I should spend the money to get the pump overhauled, if parts are available, or even changed to a Bosch pump, when the cambelt is next replaced (hopefully 2022 if we are able to travel). It’s not clear to me if failures are mechanical or electronic, and an overhaul wouldn’t eliminate a possible electronic failure. Having the pump fail when in some distant part of Europe would be a nightmare. How much would a change to a Bosch pump typically cost?
Can anyone comment on whether the EPIC pump is really very unreliable, or are the failures simply bad luck? We naturally hear only about failures as there is no reason for owners to post that their vans with EPIC pumps are performing well.
Sorry for this long post!