Anyone attempted to replace Transistor on VP30 pump?

[Craig in Spain]

That's a long title for a thread!

I have a 75ps duratorq, bought as a non-runner cheap.

the lady I bought it off has had it regularly serviced at Fraud, all the filters are clean and there appears to be no contaminates in the diesel.

She says it cut out on her on the motorway and she couldn't get it going again, had it recovered and they told her the pump was shot.

I have checked for fault codes (only the normal non-start oxygen sensor ones present), and all the relays, fuses, immobilizer etc, and it would appear that it is the pump.

I have no fuel pressure at all at the injectors.

One surprising thing is that I thought VP30 systems had a primary pump, there doesn't appear to be one?! (yes, I've had the tank out to check).

Finally, my question! has any body had any success replacing the Transistor, as after a lot of research, it would appear that there are 2 things that fail on these, the cam plate and the electronics, as there appears to be no contaminants, I'm betting on the electronics, and I've found some info on replacing the Transistor inside.

My scalpel and soldering gun are at the ready, should I or shouldn't I?

[Craig in Spain]

I guess no one has had any experiences with this, so I've taken the top of the pump off and CAREFULLY removed the lid to the electronics part. I found that one of the legs has burnt out on the transistor and this has caused the top to pop.

I have taken some piccies, and have a couple of transistors on order, which cost me less than £6 inc postage, if that fixes it, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than € 2100!

I will update you all, if your interested, may be useful to someone, save a couple of GRAND!

[ake]

Sounds promising

[heyzee]

i would be interested to see the outcome of this and maybe you will get round to posting some pics for us to see.as i have just changed the pump on my van not so long back....

[Altransit]

Sounds promising

Sure does!

Keep us posted

[Craig in Spain]

Just a quick update, received my transistors yesterday. So will be hopefully putting her together on Friday. I will update you all when I have completed part1. The transistor bypass!

Living in Spain, things take a little longer. The Post Office don't deliver where I am, because I'm more than 2 km from the nearest branch. Yesterday, I found the 'cartera' (post lady) stuffing the mail in to some new boxes they've put up around the corner and down the hill. Yes. she was delivering all my mail there! to a post box I don't have a key to

Somehow, the post box lost its lid.

You may moan about Britain sometimes, and the post office may be less than it was, but at least you get the mail to your door!

It would'nt have happened in Larkrise to Candleford

[Craig in Spain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUXHxXUdB3U&feature=related

Hope that works! First part of EDC removal, found on you tube. transistor replacement will follow. Stay posted.

[Craig in Spain]

Just a quick update. Its all gone horrible at the moment. cant get any solder on to one of the surface mount pads. My F*at broken down AGAIN now, so I will have to divert my attention to the Pile of Pooh that is F*at.

I will, however, update this thread, hopefully on a more positive note, once I have crushed the evil F*at and beaten the VP30 edc into submission. Or broken down, cried and had half a packet of rich teas and a cuppa.

[APH]

Hi, very interesting thread so far, with regards to your porblem, I don't know what space you have to work in inside theese as i've never stripped one myself, but it is quite common to find Surface Mount pads get burnt away when un-soldering or when a commponent fails due to excessive heat, if you can see the circuit track that led from the pad, gently scrape away the protective coating to expose the new copper, then solder a stiff piece of thin copper wire between the exposed track and the component (transistor in this case) leg. Thats usually the best fix, however, it may also be possible to work back along the connection to the next component leg, and solder an insulated piece of wire between that components pad, and the leg of your transistor, bypassing the damaged piece of board. (none of this will work however if the pad fed two or more directions of track, or the board is double sided , it can still be done but gets a lot harder) Have suscessfully repaired a few Ford CDL modules using this method.

Just, a quick point worth mentioning here, do we know why the transistor failed? was it just a faulty joint, or is it more likely to be a fault somewhere else in circuit causing the transistor to act as a fuse (thermal runnaway). Have you checked to see what the transisitor "controlled".

Hope you get on OK with this as it could be worth looking in to other failed pumps, in case they all suffer from the same problem.

Best of luck,
Andy (electronics engineer)

[Craig in Spain]

Thanks for that Andy.

I've been building up a bit of a dossier on this problem, however, I know very little about electronics. The cause of failure on these pumps seems to be fairly consistent, however, the actual root cause could be a number of things, some people say it drives the solinoid, I think it may have more to do with fuel metering, and the valve. It has also been mentioned that the angle sensor is a root cause.

It would appear that the board (looks like a particle board) is double sided, and that the pad(less than 1mm across) comes from the other side of the board, the only thing I thought of doing was getting a strand of copper, try to heat it up enough for the solder to melt between board, then attaching my wire to this. (I may be being a bit hopeful?)

Anyway, I have to replace the fuel pump (in tank) on my scudo, do a bit of paid work and move house, so it may have to wait a day or so!

I will update with the full run down of what I've found, even if this particular time is a failure, it may help others, or point towards a successful conclusion for some one at some point!

[WheelyBigBox]

I guess there never was an update (or pics) to this thread then? -- 11 years lol

[v8dave]

It is a non-trivial equipment job.
You ideally need to friction weld some very delicate wires onto an un-encapsulated transistor while it is in a silicon insulation gel.
Plus you need to get the transistor bonded to the un-encapsulated semiconductor substrate of the rest of the pump control eletronics.

Remmington EDC testing and repair

[eldertaco]

This video shows someone doing it on a VP44?, but I reckon they could've made a better job of it with some flux

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydwzUSeH-4A

[metalworker0]

I watched a video on this of an "electronics expert" doing one on youtube, a transit connect tddi one- he failed , there is a sealed up containment box to break open and pile of sealant to remove that looks like silicon 1/8 inch deep over the electronics - he was doing it for the first time --- looks like before you can get this right you have to do a few of them and possibly do it under magnification...so it's a learning curve. looked very fiddly, you need powerful soldering iron with fine tip, have to be used to soldering and desoldering on a regular basis and looks very delicate and hard to perform right for the first time.

These people on your tube often make tasks look easy, the magnified videos makes it look easy and makes components and connections look big and manageable , would imagine once you are doing it yourself ...when you see the size of these things ..you are going to be saying out loud ...bloody hell this is microsurgery.

Been there ...when i bought a mobile phone charging socket to put in place on the mobile phone board......like soldering a nat to a fly ..was hard impossible and i failed ...what made me have a go was the magnified videos ..that made it look easy and possible. take it from me - it ain't. - that's for me though..having little practice ..and not being used to this skill.

all the best.mark

[WheelyBigBox]

Soldering and desoldering isn't so much of a problem - ok, surface mount stuff is a pain but it's doable if you have the right iron and tip. I do have a very fine tipped battery iron which frankly, is a marvellous bit of kit but i was hoping for feedback from others who've done it when i stumbled on this thread.