snailracer Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Last night the wife and I were heading up to the west country to go camping in the 109. We got progressively slower until we were barely getting over 30. Pulled over to see if there was anything obvious, but there wasn't. Top of the radiator was stone cold after 40 mins but temp guage was reading fine and the rest of the rad and pipework was hot. Turned it off and had a think. Turned it back on and it revved up as good as ever so decided to push on. Made it about 4 miles before same thing happened again. It was running fine until I hit 45 trying to accelerate up to 60. So we had a lovely evening sat in a layby south of salisbury waiting for the RAC, who just sent a recovery vehicle. 4 hours later we got back to where we started! Dropped it off the truck and it started fine and drove as if nothing was wrong up the road to the house. Pretty sure its a fuel issue but the radiator thing threw me a bit. Having a google it seems changing the lift pump might be the best place to start. Suggestions and helpful encouragement please (I've heard enough 'just sell the damn thing' comments!) Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redneck Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Check your fuel tank breather or fuel cap (my 110 has the breather in the fuel cap), had a similar issue recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan bomber Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Blocked tank breather or some snot has got in the tank and is finding its way to the fuel pick up and partly blocking it perhaps. I doubt the lift pump but its worth looking at. Fuel filter would be worth changing as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Split boost diaphragm? Wouldn't explain why it's ok after a restart though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cackshifter Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I agree with Vulcan, if it was lift pump youd expecy it to do it all thr time. Radiator cold is probably it was doing next to no work. Maybe if not a blockage a small air leak into the fuel line? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan bomber Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I agree with Vulcan, if it was lift pump youd expecy it to do it all thr time. Radiator cold is probably it was doing next to no work. Maybe if not a blockage a small air leak into the fuel line? I doubt an airleak because it fires straight back up, air leaks tend to mean loads of cranking... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_grieve Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I'd be going straight to the filter(s) if it was me. Sounds like a classic case of a blocked filter. Lift pump sounds fine as it's drawing fuel through the blocked filter slowly and explains why it's running fine after a while. As said, the cool radiator because the engine's not burning enough fuel to do enough work to heat it up past what it's cooling. Check also that all the pipework is actually fuel pipe and that there is no rubber pipe anywhere in the system. This can degrade and block your filter or suck flat when hot if it's thin. Make sure your fuel doesn't have a bug in it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepé le Pew Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Does your 109 have a fuel sedimenter(water separator)? If so,have you ever cleaned it? It should be on the chassis next to the fuel tank. Eric. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanuki Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Check the lift-pump, and the fuel-filter/water-separator. If that doesn't reveal clogged-ness you need to drop the fuel-tank and look for a nasty gloopy mass of algae and sludge on the fuel-pickup filter. Alternatively, check the air-filter: I have memories of a combine-harvester whose deeply-lethargic response-to-throttle was because the local fieldmice had stuffed the air-filter casing with a range of well-chewed nuts leaves grains and husks-of-berries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve b Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 1 check the cap/tank breather - drive until it dies away and stop and remove the cap . any hissing/suction means blockrd breather 2 change fuel filter 3 then start looking for rubber connections/collapsing fuel lines my 2p is on the fuel filter , I have found my local tesc*s to be less than clean on the diesel pumps.... cheers Steveb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 There's a lot of talk of filters. Is it that common for them to block? I would have thought it would take a lot of dirt to produce a blockage that would cause a noticeable drop in power? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan bomber Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 There's a lot of talk of filters. Is it that common for them to block? I would have thought it would take a lot of dirt to produce a blockage that would cause a noticeable drop in power? Depends how often there changed, one one ocassion I was coming back from London doing a healthy 70 (disco 200 in a 110) and all of a sudden we slowed down... to 50 to the next services for a look see. anyway, undid the drain whatsit on the filter and nothing, not a single bean or drip. So a slow cruise back to Lutterworth, hunt throught the shed for my spare filter swapped it over and sent the 110 on its way.. Back doing a jolly 70.. I change my 110 and Disco's fuel filters once a year, decent filters a 5er so why not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snailracer Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 Cheers for the replies. Looks like I'll be changing the fuel filter and checking the pick-up and breather. Hopefully that sorts it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 I had an usual chance to play around with fuel deprivation not that long ago, and a really interesting issue is that the engine will idle happily on a thimble full of fuel, and what happens is you just can't rev the engine at all, meaning there is absolutely zero throttle response, and after a good 5 minutes the engine just stalls. So going by what I found, it definitely sounds like you're having some kind of delayed fuel deprivation. Its also worth taking out the banjo bolts on the fuel filter housing and checking those, I took my feed banjo off when I swapped the engine over and was quite honestly shocked to find what looked like a small knot of grass sticking out of the bolt feed holes, and that was after the filter too. This can be a tricky issue so make sure you're logical and systematic with your approach, you should sort it, apart from the smelly diesel its not a huge thing, as the engines are good at self priming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snailracer Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 Cheers. Is it worth blowing through the line from tank to filter with the filter off to clear anything that may be there? Also if I need to replace the fuel line(s) is it best to use the standard plastic pipe and where's the best place to get it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snailracer Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 So after further inspection I decided to renew the pipe from fuel tank to lift pump and the fuel filter. I also took the fuel lines off from the filter and cleaned them. The tank pick up filter and fuel filter both had an orange slimy substance in them. Someone has told me this is probably water in the diesel. Not entirely sure. Hopefully the tank isn't letting in water as its only a few years old. The only difference otherwise is that i filled up from tesco to use a money off voucher. Anyway... Took her out for a drive and all running fine. Fuel gauge was reading low so went and put £20 in (not from tesco) and it still didn't move. Went home to investigate and found that the float had come off! Cue some diesel fishing without any luck.... Luckily we had a spare in a long buried box so it now works but I have a float drifting about my fuel tank. So I think its problem sorted. If I have got water in the diesel do I need to drain the tank or can I just keep topping it up to dilute it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve b Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 It won't dilute but it may get to the filter/water trap , the only way to get it out would be take the tank out and roll it around upside down and out the filler neck . A litre of petrol to wash the inside as you roll it wouldn't hurt either . Or just keep changing the filter regularly for a while until you are happy to go back to normal service intervals good you got it sorted cheers Steveb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Diesel will sit on top of any water in the tank, but wash out any residue as suggested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snailracer Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 I spoke to a friend at our local chandlery today and he recommended Marine 16 diesel treatment. http://www.marine16.co.uk/acatalog/Diesel-Fuel-Complete-500ml-60.html http://www.marine16.co.uk/acatalog/Fuel-Treatments-Guide.html He reckons all the yachties think its great, and as they have to deal with diesel issues far more often I thought I'd give it a go. I have also been told it will reduce fuel consumption and make the engine run far better..... I may well start another thread to keep updated with my findings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex Member Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Yes, some good diesel fuel conditioner that absorbs any water is a good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 I have used 'fuel set* before with reasonable results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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