A lady I know has a Renault Mobus 1.5 diesel auto, 43000 miles, out of warranty. It conked out and a fuel injection fault was diagnosed by an AA man and also the franchised dealer, who fitted a new fuel filter for £189. Not long after it conked out again, with an injection fault red light on the dash. She went back to dealer who now quoted £4000 (pounds four thousand) to deal with the problem, including a new fuel tank, but suggested she buy a new car from them instead...
The car was still in limping mode and she took it to (used) French car and spare parts specialists Cit-Ren. They found the injector pump had broken up and bits of metal had got into the rest of the fuel system, from tank (no idea that could happen) to (new) filter. They quoted £739.52, including £150 labour, to clean out the system, fit a used pump (56000 miles, guaranteed for a further 3 months), used injectors, new cam belt and 10 litres of fresh diesel. They reckoned 100,000 miles is the average life for an injector pump.
They also said they would have done the job with new parts for £1800-£2000. On the face of it, then, a powerful case for shopping around. The car is no longer produced but she loves it and wants to know what the best new replacement for it is. Suggestions welcomed as I have never owned or even driven a diesel car.
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>>and bits of metal had got into the rest of the fuel system, from tank
>>(no idea that could happen) to (new) filter.
Fuel return lines to the tank are not uncommon, I think the Mk2 RS2000 had this in the 70s.
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A large number of cars in the 70's had return lines-both fuel injection and carburetted-it keeps the fuel cool amongst other things.
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>> >>and bits of metal had got into the rest of the fuel system, from tank
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>> >>(no idea that could happen) to (new) filter.
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Another way for this to happen is for the fuel pump in the tank to break up, but the debris should only get as far as the filter. Once there is debris anywhere in the fuel system I think the high pressure pumps days are numbered.
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The Nissan Note is basically the same car as the Renault Modus.
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All common rail diesels have fuel return lines.
The fuel pressure in the fuel (common) rail is generated by the high pressure pump, and controlled by the ECU via a regulator valve mounted in the rail itself. When pressure reaches a predetermined level, the ECU signals the valve to open and return the appropriate amount of fuel to the tank to maintain the correct pressure.
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Noted with thanks but should an injector pump fail so early in its life?
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>> Noted with thanks but should an injector pump fail so early in its life?
An injector pump should outlast the car, but they do sometimes fail early. There are several things commonly implicated in premature pump failure.
The most common is putting petrol in the tank. High pressure pumps rely on the lubricating properties of the diesel. Petrol is not only a bad lubricant, but it is very effective at washing away any film of diesel lubricant. This destroys high pressure pumps. Even if it doesn't fail immediately, it can damage the hardening on the pump internals so they then go on to fail some time later.
Poor quality or contaminated diesel can also be the cause. As above, the diesel is almost as important as a lubricant as it is a fuel, and if the fuel is contaminated or its lubrication properties are not up to scratch, this can put stress on the pump.
Finally, poor maintenance such as not draining or changing fuel filters at the manufacturer's recommendation will also kill the pump, as it will eventually let water or other contaminants through into the system.
Sometimes, stuff unfortunately just happens. :-(
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Good bit of money saved, astounded that the main dealer wanted to throw half the stores at the car..:-)
Indy's invariably wipe the floor with main dealers, find them and cherish them.
How come lorry fuel systems manage to run for over a million miles in almost every case without the pumps disintegrating, OK they throw turbos now and again where that was unheard of 15 or 20 years ago, and some German lorries eat CHG's, but the pumps just go on and on.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Thu 6 Dec 12 at 19:32
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I don't suppose many trucks get mis-fuelled with petrol at any point in their lives.
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>> I don't suppose many trucks get mis-fuelled with petrol at any point in their lives.
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Thats a good point, though enough water and general muck finds its way in over time through the huge filler hole when your topping up for 5 minutes in a deluge.
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>>enough water and general muck finds its way in over
>> time through the huge filler hole when your topping up for 5 minutes in a
>> deluge.
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There is also the danger of condensation. This I found out in the nick of time before tackling the hairy trip, in my diesel-powered narrowboat, from the calm canal system at Sharpness down to Bristol. It was not something it ever occurred to me to check before but the tank contents, after three years' use, contained enough water to have been sucked into the system in the choppy conditions of the Severn.
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>> astounded that the main dealer wanted to throw half the
>> stores at the car..:-)
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A crazy quote but the answer may be that an inmate migrated to it from a nearby mental home in the past. I worked there for a while and some of the inmates were very plausible.
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>> A crazy quote but the answer may be that an inmate migrated to it from
>> a nearby mental home in the past. I worked there for a while and some
>> of the inmates were very plausible.
>>
That would explain the siting of the Renault dealership. Know your market......
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Our old Renault dealer was superb. Helpful, friendly and relatively cheap. Unfortunately, I get the impression the Renault thing was kind of foisted on them as a consequence of MG Rover collapsing (their previous franchise).
The dealer went under a couple of years ago, I'm sorry to say. Trying to apply customer care and value for money like that to such fundamentally unreliable vehicles was never going to be profitable.
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I can't believe it cost £189 to change a fuel filter.
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A powerful case for shopping around - Slidingpillar
