DW8 Diesel Pump Issue Berlingo 1.9 non turbo

[Villiers104pup]

Hi all
My 2001 berlingo is leaking diesel from somewhere and I am struggling to.find it

Symptoms are she won't start in morning unless I undo both banjo bolts.on top of lucas injection pump and prime away for ages
Changed fuel.filter and the housing,still the same problem
After I prime her she runs beautifully all day long ,sort of annoying!
I can smell diesel but cannot see any leaks at all,put cardboard under her and its dry ?.
Any ideas?
Cheers Glenn

[CitroJim]

Hi Glenn and welcome to the forum

Before you lookn to hard at the pump as being the culprit, check the fuel return line back to the tank is good, the leakoff pipes (little ones daisy-chained between the injectors and ending up teeing back into the return line) are good have not gone brittle and have cracked. pay special attention to the blanking plug on the end of the last injector... Air leaking into the return line via the leakoffs can drain the pump body overnight...

Also check the integrity of the fuel feed pipe and around the fuel filter for leaks. Give the priming bulb particular scrutiny.

If all is good, then look at the pump...

The usual places the Lucas pump leaks is from the lid due to the gasket, actually a shaped O ring, failing by going hard. Also, the O rings around the throttle and cold start/emergency stop shafts that exit through bosses on the lid can similarly fail...When these fail you may not see a wet diesel leak but air can be admitted and cause all kinds of upset. The bosses in the lid can wear badly and again allow air enter the pump body.

Overnight such a leak will upset starting and indeed, once the pump is re-primed it'll be good all day until it next has a long rest.

Fixing it is generally not too difficult. gasket sets are/were freely available and at one time so were replacement lids...

The big thing when replacing the lid, gasket and O rings is to be scrupulously clean and to note very carefully how all the linkages attached to the shafts go together and that they go back in exactly the same places. Lots of photos, sketches and witness marks will see that good.

Normally there's no need to remove the pump to do this sort of work.

[MattBLancs]

A good few years ago , both my Dad's DW8 206 and my 306 XUD9TE succumbed to the effects of poorly made biodiesel (which we suspect was due to the methanol not have been completely "washed" out during it's manufacture)

Anyway long story short - both suffered the same failure: input shaft seal weeping inside the cambelt cover. I can't recall if the DW8 struggled starting, but as I was driving mine 80 miles / day commuting I quickly came adept at:

• pumping the priming bulb with one hand whilst turning the ignition key to operate the starter with the other!

• left foot braking, allowing right foot to keep tickling the accelerator as refused to idle

I carried on the above for about a fortnight whilst waiting replacement pump and other parts arriving - ah to be young and foolish!

Me and my now wife (then girlfriend) then proceeded to change the pump in my parents' single garage. I also remember that, after the gas heater had been on a good while, it warmed up to the heady high of +2°C INSIDE the garage!

Anyway, check the input seal too, as cambelt cover can hide a small leak too.

[Villiers104pup]

Thanks guys
Will try all.when it stop raining