air leak

[lexi]

I have air somewhere on suction side of IP on Xantia 1.9 td with Bosch pump. The clear pip that goes from the side of the main filter is showing bubbles. Obvious canditates? primer bulb?The situation is made worse in that Biodiesel will have softened a hose or two. Can the IP Pump be bled?

The symptoms are uneven running and great clouds of smoke............limped home at 40mph. It doesn`t want to start and run at all now.

[citronut]

unless its a major air leak its unlikly thats stopping it startting, is the primmer bulb pumped up firm, the other point which they can suck in air is the seal under the fuel filter housing, were it bolts to the thermostat housing,

have the glow plugs been changed recently, if not i would remove each one and test them across a car battery,

regard malcolm

[lexi]

Thanks Malcom.
Have got it going. Cleaned system thoroughly. I still notice some very tiny pinhead bubbles in visible inline filter and an odd bubble from main filter outlet on the clear hose. Despite this it is running ok now.......just did a motorway blast. Is there a filter screen in the tank that could have blocked with the BD? Have put some Dino Diesel and Millers fuel treatment in.......seems to have improved it. Bio may not be up to scratch..we will see.

[Xaccers]

There's a screen on the fuel sender unit in the tank, mine was half covered in debris from general driving over the past 10 years.
Once you remove the unit, the screen pops out making cleaning a doddle.
If you run the tank down to near empty, you can also get out some of the debris that hasn't been stuck to the screen.

Bosch pumps are self bleeding, unlike the lucas one on the 2.1TD so just prime the bulb until it goes hard and you should be set (until the leak lets in more air).

As you say, prime candidate is the bulb, otherwise check the white turny thing at the base of the fuel filter housing on the left as you look at it.
Pretty sure it's a thermostat for letting fuel through the heater channels under the housing.
Teh_Agent's kept leaking, even when replaced with a new housing (from the scrappy), until Jim took an airline to the fuel return pipe which was blocked.

[jgra1]

prime candidate , like it

[Xaccers]

I knew there was a pun in there somewhere

[lexi]

Thanks Xac. It is all good ATM. Where is the sender unit accsessed from?

[XantiaMan]

I agree with Xac. The sender/fuel pick up is under the OSR passenger seat, remove the plastic cover and underneath you will see the hoses and wires, around the edge of the unit is a screw on ring, if you use a screwdriver and hammer you can carefully tap it loose and then it should come undone by hand. Mine had been done in the past as it had a jubbly clip in place of an original clip, i would clean the gauze every year or so as part of regular maintainence. Make sure the rubber ring underneath the unit fits on square, if fitted incorrectly you will never get the system to bleed properly and car will run flat generally.

Gareth

[Xaccers]

Good point about the jubilee clips Gareth!
Make sure you have a couple before you get to work.