DII Cutting out

[Anglo-Frenchman]

Hi,

I have owned my Td5 2001 DII for the past 15,000km without so much as a peep and been very pleased with it overall. Today however, I was just driving along and the engine totally cut out - no warning lights, no nothing. I re-started it and it drove a bit further and the same thing happened. There is fuel in the tank. It continued to happen for a further 4 or 5 times during a journey of approx 3km.

It did not happen on the return journey but I kept my speed down which may had a bearing.

The only thing I can add are that there is a bit of a rattle from the motor the split second before it cuts out and last night I noticed that the little blinking alarm light on the dash was flashing really fast when I switched off and took out the keys though it returned to its slow regular rhythm when I locked it.

I feel sure that I have read something about this type of problem on the forum before but wonder if any of you diagnostics gurus out there can point to a possible cause.

[JimAttrill]

Could be your fuel pump or the fuel pump relay. You can listen to both of them to see if they are working.

[Anglo-Frenchman]

Could be your fuel pump or the fuel pump relay. You can listen to both of them to see if they are working.

Hi Jim and thanks for the reply. What/where am I listening for exactly? The fault is intermittent so does that make a difference.

Gérard

[JimAttrill]

You should be able to hear if the pump is running as they are often pretty noisy. It should not vary in tone, that tends to mean there is air in the system. The relay is under the bonnet - there is a sticker which shows which relay is which. I'm not sure but it may be possible to swap the relays around to see if that either fixes or moves the problem elsewhere.

I would also remove, clean and replace the plugs on the ECU as you could have a bad earth. Also clean the battery terminals as the terminal design is pretty poor. We had a TD5 in the other day which had been off the road for a year as it had no power to speak of and nobody could fix it. I fixed it accidentally by removing the battery leads to remove the ECU and then fixing a rather dodgy-looking earth connection. None of this can do any harm, anyway.

[Anglo-Frenchman]

Thanks very much for the advice Jim. Sorry to be a bit thick but where is the ECU and should I observe any precautions when disconnecting/re-connecting it & the battery. I have had loads of Tdi's but the Td5 is a total blank to me! I wondered also about the fuel filter/s and if water can get into them - what do you think?

Thanks again for your time.

Gérard

[JimAttrill]

The ECU is mounted vertically right behind the battery. You have to take off the battery cables to remove it. Disconnecting the ECU will do it no harm. The power to the ECU is switched off when the ignition is off anyway.

The Fuel filter should have a water sensor on the bottom. Many don't though because it goes wrong and cries 'wolf' and people just remove them. You can fit much cheaper aftermarket filters that don't have the water sensor hole, basically a Tdi filter but without the water drain. Also less to go wrong. I have heard of filter housings letting in air, though have not found one myself.

[Anglo-Frenchman]

Thanks Jim. I'll check it out and get back if any further guidance needed.

Gérard

[Anglo-Frenchman]

Hi Jim,

Just to let you know that after taking out the ECU I found that the red multi-plug & socket were absolutely running in oil so have given them both a good clean out. I just wondered if there was good way of getting oil out of the female sockets other than blowing and getting a gob-full of oil! Does a squirt with WD40 help or hinder the process. Also, where the hell is all that oil coming from and how do I prevent it happening again

Thanks for all your help.

[JimAttrill]

Well, as Boggy (the other Moderator of this forum) says, putting electrical bits inside an engine is not a great idea. But we are somewhat biased as he has a 3.9 V8i and an Tdi, and I have a Tdi. We both have to fix TD5's though so we get some practice.