High Pressure Fuel Pump in TDI's

[whizbyu]

I have a 2009 TDI bought new that had a HPFP fail at 110,000 miles, roughly 5 months ago. AUDI covered the repair, and the problem supposedly with the failure was that I put in the wrong fuel, or that the fuel was contaminated. Initially I was going to be responsible for the repair ($13,000 and that's just for parts), but after telling them to put the fuel contamination cause down in writing (I was ready to file a complaint with BigOil). they said they'd cover it.
Fast forward to today. I am now at about 120,000 miles. No, the thing didn't fail. But I had a conversation with a mechanic that works on cars that have the same Bosch HPFP (VW, AUDI, and Porsche have them on all their diesels; same engine). He came back from "class" and was told that apparently the tolerances of the HPFP are so tight that if you took a cylinder out of the pump, held the cylinder in your cupped hands until it had the same temperature as your hands, you wouldn't be able to put the piston back in the cylinder. Those tight tolerances are what makes the pump fail. Furthermore, contamination may occur thousands of miles ago and the pump may fail several months or thousands of miles from the initial terminal contamination event.
Makes me wonder when my next HPFP failure is going to be.
Anyone have similar experiences?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

$13000 for a bad fuel pump?

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
$13000 for a bad fuel pump?


its the injection pump for the diesel engine

Was this one of the pumps that was designed for ULSD or would it benefit from a lubricity add?

also it seems like the issue is fairly common on 2009's

 

[whizbyu]

Well, the fuel pump apparently generates some outrageous pressure, something upwards of 10,000 PSI, probably even more. When it fails, metal particles get thrown into the the entire fule system. The fuel system needs to be replaced.
The fuel tank is either washed, or replaced as well.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: whizbyu
Well, the fuel pump apparently generates some outrageous pressure, something upwards of 10,000 PSI, probably even more. When it fails, metal particles get thrown into the the entire fule system. The fuel system needs to be replaced.
The fuel tank is either washed, or replaced as well.


thats correct

this post here suggests a price of 8000-10000 is very normal

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=336160

just the parts 4000-5000$

 

[KD0AXS]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
$13000 for a bad fuel pump?


Not just any fuel pump, a Bosch high pressure fuel pump. Thes things pump at 25,000 PSI (no, that's not a typo) or more. So yes, they're astronomically expensive. Not to mention that when they fail, they send bits of metal downstream and destroy the rest of the fuel system too.

I've read several cases on the Ford forums of HPFP failures in the 6.7 PSDs, and Ford refused to cover them under warranty.

 

[double vanos]

Takes care of me ever owning a VWoA diesel.

 

[mcrn]

Originally Posted By: whizbyu
I have a 2009 TDI bought new that had a HPFP fail at 110,000 miles, roughly 5 months ago. AUDI covered the repair, and the problem supposedly with the failure was that I put in the wrong fuel, or that the fuel was contaminated. Initially I was going to be responsible for the repair ($13,000 and that's just for parts), but after telling them to put the fuel contamination cause down in writing (I was ready to file a complaint with BigOil). they said they'd cover it.
Fast forward to today. I am now at about 120,000 miles. No, the thing didn't fail. But I had a conversation with a mechanic that works on cars that have the same Bosch HPFP (VW, AUDI, and Porsche have them on all their diesels; same engine). He came back from "class" and was told that apparently the tolerances of the HPFP are so tight that if you took a cylinder out of the pump, held the cylinder in your cupped hands until it had the same temperature as your hands, you wouldn't be able to put the piston back in the cylinder. Those tight tolerances are what makes the pump fail. Furthermore, contamination may occur thousands of miles ago and the pump may fail several months or thousands of miles from the initial terminal contamination event.
Makes me wonder when my next HPFP failure is going to be.
Anyone have similar experiences?


I cant believe they replaced this for free!

 

[clinebarger]

I believe that if they replaced all injectors, fuel lines, filter head & flushed the tank along with the HPFP replacement.

The Bosch CP4 line of pumps are failure prone, Whats really bad is...It sends all trash from failing through the injectors, The earlier CP3 pump is a robust pump & if it did fail, The contaminants are sent to the tank.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: KD0AXS
I've read several cases on the Ford forums of HPFP failures in the 6.7 PSDs, and Ford refused to cover them under warranty.


Yup, we had a customer put diesel in the DEF(urea) tank and DEF in the diesel tank. New tank, lines, pumps, fuel rails, fuel cooler, 8 injectors, and complete DEF system along with a new cat and DPF. The parts alone were somewhere around $15,000, Ford tested the fluids and the customer admitted to doing it. Not sure what happened with the whole deal, because I went on vacation for a couple weeks after it all happened. BTW both fill caps are CLEARLY marked and are different sizes and colors. We literally don't know how he got diesel in the DEF because it requires a special funnel to fill and the neck is substantially smaller.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

And that is why I want a mechanical indirect injection diesel ...

 

[Ndx]

I believe that there are some option for inline filters that will catch stuff during failure


2microntech.come and some other I saw
..

 

[supton]

Only 25,000psi? My unit injectors IIRC ran 27,000psi. I would have guessed CR was up past 30,000psi by now.