2002 Diesel with random cutout & starting problems

[Markski]

Thought I would start a new thread as my last post was suggesting problems with bleeder pipes on the fuel tank and diesel cap. My bongo friendly garage has now found out that these are not my problem.

Here is a quick summary of the problems encountered;

Engine cuts out when hot and then is really difficult to restart. This has happened whilst sitting in stationary traffic and also when braking and stopping at a junction. In both cases the dashboard goes red and the the engine stops.

Some days the engine will start on the first turn of the key, other days it will take a lot of pumping of the accelerator. On one occasion even this approach did not work. I left if for a day and it then started. Random but hey thats life!

My bongo garage had the car for three days under test conditions and on one day it would not start (the other days it ran perfectly without any fault). The mechanic had a look at the injectors and there was no pressure the fuel was not even dribbling out. After a period of cranking the engine the he managed to get it started.

I am reliably informed by my mechanic that the 2002 Bongo has got is a lot more electronics than my 2000 Bongo. Even I can tell there are different electronic components by comparing under the drivers seat. They have plugged it into a computer and unfortunately there are no stored fault codes. My mechanic has not seen many of these more electronic Bongos so is unable to fix my problem.

He thinks that it could be a sensor problem but without diagnostics he doesn't just want to start replacing parts.

Anyone had a similar problem with a new Bongo.

It seems that the fuel pump does have some electronics on it. Could that be the suspect.

Grateful for any thoughts.

Cheers

Mark

[dandywarhol]

I'm not familiar with the exact setup on the "fly by wire" Bongo injection system but I do know that the fuel pump relies on a signal from a potentiometer on the throttle pedal sending a signal to one of the ECUs. There's no throttle cable, so the correct signal is imperative. "Pumping" the pedal could give the ECU a spurious signal and allow fuel to reach the injectors intermitantly.

As it happens when hot, there's the chance that a coolant sensor is at fault, as it will also send a signal to the ECU to tell" the pump how much fuel is being requested.

The guy who seems to know about these pumps is Julian at 321 Away who contributes much more wisdom on here than I can give you - why not give him a shout?

[Markski]

I'm not familiar with the exact setup on the "fly by wire" Bongo injection system but I do know that the fuel pump relies on a signal from a potentiometer on the throttle pedal sending a signal to one of the ECUs. There's no throttle cable, so the correct signal is imperative. "Pumping" the pedal could give the ECU a spurious signal and allow fuel to reach the injectors intermitantly.

As it happens when hot, there's the chance that a coolant sensor is at fault, as it will also send a signal to the ECU to tell" the pump how much fuel is being requested.

The guy who seems to know about these pumps is Julian at 321 Away who contributes much more wisdom on here than I can give you - why not give him a shout?

Thanks for the info. The garage are confident the throttle pedal is giving accurate signals to the ECU and it is certainly very responsive when the vehicle is running it is only when it stalls or won't start.

I will give 321 Away a call (I have a Montague side conversion from them).

Cheers

Mark

[321Away]

from your description i would suspect the fuel pump seal and/or blocked fuel tank breather

Julian

[Markski]

from your description i would suspect the fuel pump seal and/or blocked fuel tank breather

Julian

Hi I have just had someone else mention the fuel pump seal. Do you know if the seal for a 2002 Diesel is the same as the seals on all the Diesel Bongo's?

Just ordered from AVA Leisure the seal but the very helpful chap was unable to tell me if the seal would fit my 2002 Bongo.

Cheers

Mark

[321Away]

I've changed pump seals on all ages of bongo and have only ever replaced them with the same 1 so i'm hoping they're all the same lol The 1's we have are from Zexel and have part number 9 461 615 373 -3CA written on the packaging

Julian

[Markski]

I've changed pump seals on all ages of bongo and have only ever replaced them with the same 1 so i'm hoping they're all the same lol The 1's we have are from Zexel and have part number 9 461 615 373 -3CA written on the packaging

Julian

Thanks Julian, hopefully the seals I have coming from AVA will do the trick.

[Markski]

I've changed pump seals on all ages of bongo and have only ever replaced them with the same 1 so i'm hoping they're all the same lol The 1's we have are from Zexel and have part number 9 461 615 373 -3CA written on the packaging

Julian

Thanks Julian, hopefully the seals I have coming from AVA will do the trick.

Julian

The seal's from AVA were a different part number. However are they the same as in the Members Factsheet - Diesel fuel injector pump (updated 3 Oct 2008) picture 9 (the green ones). If they are the correct seals my garage could not work out where they go and therefore I still don't have a healthy Bongo. One point on that is that I don't have any fuel leakage from the pump so therefore no indciation that a seal may be a problem.

Is this a job that you would be interested in taking on via the 321 workshop? Do you think you could solve the problem or get to the bottom of the problem.

I am desperate for a resolution to this problem as the van is going to be used as a wife and children carrier for 95% of the time so I can't have it being unreliable. My wife is refusing to take the kids out in it due to its tendancy to randomly cut out when idling and then being a real 'B' to restart.

Another reason for being desperate is that we really want to take it to France on a trip down to the French Alps at half-term in February and I can't take it if its still not behaving.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Mark

[321Away]

The fuel pump seal is internal as such you wont get any 'leakage', you have to strip engine as tho your doing cambelt to access the main nut taht hold the pump shaft into is drive (woodruff key), then remove injector piping etc.

Doing the job is no problem.9 461 615 373 is the actual part number as the same pump is fitted to various other vehicles,if you google it you'll see lots of mitsubishi posts about it.

Julian