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Engine Specific Info and Questions => IDI Engine => Topic started by: dieselsnowmobile on March 22, 2007, 12:54:43 pm

Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: dieselsnowmobile on March 22, 2007, 12:54:43 pm
I am curious how many injection pumps in your IDI have been affected by the ULSD (15 ppm diesel).  Are 100% of VW diesel pumps leaking due to ULSD?  Or are just 50% of them having problems?  Or are just pumps with 200,000 miles leaking due the ULSD?  Is the news of several pumps leaking blowing out of proportion the ULSD fuel issue?

I am looking into getting another diesel Jetta and by the sound of it over the phone, the pump has not been rebuilt (the guy has no maintainence records which I am weary of).  With this in mind, how soon if at all will the pump start to leak due to ULSD?  I am wondering if everyone else has had 100% of their diesel leak due to ULSD.  Between my brother and I, we had 4 pumps leak within a month of each other out of 4 VW diesels, 100% failure due to ULSD.  I am curious if everyone else has ran into the same situation.

Thanks for voting.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: foxracer1 on March 22, 2007, 02:31:15 pm
Not yet but the milage sucks. i got my fingers crossed.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: SMOKEYDUB on March 22, 2007, 04:12:18 pm
USE LOTS OF LUBE! (its your best friend in many ways)
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: boosted_diesel_84 on March 22, 2007, 05:56:45 pm
yea, mine started leaking a little bit also, but it has over 300,000 miles on it, so it has a right, and i noticed a drop of 2-3 mpg, but a semi driver delivering he fuel said to use a little canola oil in the fuel tank to help lubricate the IP, not sure on that though, anyone have an answer?
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: 91 ECO on March 22, 2007, 07:09:34 pm
Mine started leaking within 30 days of the low sulfur fuel.  Granted it had a lot of miles.  If I was trying to extend the life of the pump, I would use an additive to increase lubricity.  We can debate all day about what works best (2 stroke oil, motor oil, veg oil, etc).
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: burn_your_money on March 23, 2007, 02:24:24 am
Mine started leaking a few weeks ago. 444xxx kms on it though, can't really complain about that, it needed to be rebuilt anyways
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: clbanman on March 23, 2007, 04:00:53 am
330,000 kms, no leaks yet.  I have all vehicle service records and the pump has never been serviced.  ULSD since I bought it, so can't speak to a mileage drop.  I am putting in additive (trans fluid or Power Service) in at least every other tank.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: RabbitJockey on March 23, 2007, 09:57:38 am
3 diesels at my house 0 problems.  i think any pump that goes kapoot was on its way out anyway, and there is really no evidence to prove what made a pump leak.  extra lube is always good but i really don't feel it's required.  and i don't see how it could have effected fuel economy since it actually has more fuel content, i think most people have been mistaken by winter fuel economy which is always worse because fo all the winterization additives in diesel, which reduce fuel content.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: insdtanoodles on March 23, 2007, 12:10:57 pm
246,xxx kms on it and its leaking, putting in some 2 stroke oil with the fuel stopped some of the leaking but I am getting a new one soon enough.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: dieselsnowmobile on March 23, 2007, 01:27:23 pm
That is good that it is not happening to everybody like I thought it was.  I have seen and heard of so many pumps leaking, I figured it was across the board.  I will keep that in mind that there is about a 66% chance it will not leak and a 33% chance it will.  Hopefully, if I get this car, it will not leak for a long time.  It has 223,000 miles on it so it should still have some life on the pump.

Keep voting though, the more votes cast will lead to a more acturate poll for others to know.  Thanks
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: jtanguay on March 23, 2007, 02:24:18 pm
supposedly if your pump leaks you can just add two stroke oil as a stop leak and lubricator...

imo it would be a temporary fix until a rebuild can be done... two stroke oil is some pretty stinky stuff!!
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: insdtanoodles on March 23, 2007, 03:39:05 pm
Quote from: jtanguay
supposedly if your pump leaks you can just add two stroke oil as a stop leak and lubricator...

imo it would be a temporary fix until a rebuild can be done... two stroke oil is some pretty stinky stuff!!


yeah thats what my mechanic told me to do, it has stopped some of the leaks but not off of them (still leaks from cold start advance) but its just a quick fix so I have a bit more time before I need to replace it.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: hipifreq on March 23, 2007, 04:22:29 pm
I haven't put in much ULSD diesel since I got the car last summer. It's been almost all B99 with the exception of the occassional 50/50 mix when the temperature dropped.

My IP is leaking, and I'm not sure where. With 289,000 miles I'm not at all suprised that its leaking. I don't have the resources just yet to fix it, so I haven't bothered poking around.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: clbanman on March 24, 2007, 04:17:17 am
Quote from: Trev0rbr
and i don't see how it could have effected fuel economy since it actually has more fuel content, i think most people have been mistaken by winter fuel economy which is always worse because fo all the winterization additives in diesel, which reduce fuel content.


According to a service bulletin we sent out to our customers, ULSD is not only changed by the reduction of sulfur content, but by "eliminating fractions in the oil having a heavy molecular structure".  This results in a "lower specific energy content than standard diesel fuel, in some cases by as much as 15%".
This would definitely have an effect on mileage.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: jtanguay on March 24, 2007, 04:55:30 am
well i'll tell you guys... my leaky pump had so much power... it was great! no issues whatsoever!!!!!! I'd honestly say that the pump would have lasted another 100'000km had i found a way to recycle the leaking fuel... it had no real sign of power loss due to pump leakage at all.

so i do believe that ULSD shrinks the seals back to normal, and it creates a minor void.  that void is where the diesel pee's out of the pump.

i do notice a difference in power when i use shell diesel vs sunoco gold diesel.  the difference is quite astonishing actually...  shell's premium diesel is garbage.  gold diesel is the shiznit!

i've heard of an old mining camp way up north here in Ontario where there is approximately 1'000'000 litres of diesel fuel...  it was abandoned in the 80's when gold prices fell too low to be profitable... the fuel remains!!  but is it okay to use? hmmm...!!!!  The location is so remote that you would need to fly up there though... so don't get any ideas  :lol:
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: clbanman on March 24, 2007, 06:19:35 am
Quote from: jtanguay
I've heard of an old mining camp way up north here in Ontario where there is approximately 1'000'000 litres of diesel fuel...  it was abandoned in the 80's when gold prices fell too low to be profitable... the fuel remains!!  but is it okay to use? hmmm...!!!!  The location is so remote that you would need to fly up there though... so don't get any ideas  :lol:


What is the storage life of diesel? If that story is true at current prices it's a fair chunk of change.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: burn_your_money on March 24, 2007, 06:23:33 am
It's probably garbage. If they ran out of money they wouldn't have put additives in it to preserve it or anything like that. It's probably full of algae
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: dieselsnowmobile on March 28, 2007, 08:13:41 am
Well, I looked at the car, 92 Jetta GL ECODiesel.

 See the car Here (http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp;jsessionid=O4EAMTYIQPTCPLAYIEPU2VI;?tracktype=usedcc&searchType=22&pageNumber=0&numResultsPerPage=250&largeNumResultsPerPage=0&sortorder=descending&sortfield=PRICE+descending&certifiedOnly=false&criteria=K-Diesel%7CE-ANY%7CM-_48_%7CB-5000%7CH-%7CD-_447_%7CN-N%7CR-10000%7CI-1%7CP-PRICE+descending%7CQ-descending%7CX-popular%7CZ-65202&aff=national&paId=133841961&recnum=3&leadExists=true)

When I got there, he had just sold it under fiancing, and I told him I had cash, but he sold it for $1,995, which I was not going to pay unless it was in perfect condition.  It was out for cleaning, but he went and got it.  I took it for a test drive and everything seemed ok except the pump was leaking.  When I returned the car, he asked what I liked about the car and I told him the good points and as soon as I mentioned the leaky pump, he just pushed me aside.   I did not know whether he knew if the pump was leaking, but I knew he said goodbye as soon as I mentioned the pump. For some reason, I thought he might be an honest car salesman (fat chance) and would tell the customer buying the car that the pump was leaking, an expensive repare depending on who is buying.  I thought I might be able to get a good price, but nope.  So avoid 2 Brothers Motor Sports in Bradley, IL, http://www.2brothersmotorsports.com.  I imagine he paid too much for the car and does not know anything about VW diesel, and is trying to make up his lost.  

For anyone keeping tabs on 92 ECOdiesel, supposedly only 47, but the onwer of the ECODiesel site has later said he thinks there is more like 470. See LINK (http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2935616).  This VIN is correct - WVWRF21G0NW014210.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: Kantdrive55 on March 28, 2007, 01:57:13 pm
We have seen quite a few pumps coming in for rebuilds since the switch.  Lots of leaks, mine included.  For addative use a good one.  Stanodine Performance formula is the only addative Bosch reccomends.  I use it in every tank.  I see about an extra 75k out of every tank with it.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: foxracer1 on March 28, 2007, 02:32:32 pm
Why would the gov mandate ***ty fuel? Lets make the fuel put out less emissions! Then we will make it so it is less efficent so people have to burn more of our unusable fuel resource.  :shock:  Since we are burning more fuel we are emitting probably close to the same amount of "bad" emissions due to the fact the fuel has less energy than a stray alley cats piss. What is the fuel like in europe? The majority of engines there are diesels so i think they know what they are doing.
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: dieselsnowmobile on March 28, 2007, 03:09:21 pm
Plus, the refinery plant refining the sulfur out of diesel is going to be polluting more doing that extra work and using more watts from the local power plant.  They also miss calculated the amount of diesel litering on the ground from all of the leaky pumps, and I am sure the EPA likes having diesel fuel all over the roads.  So, does the ULSD really save the environment???
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: jtanguay on March 28, 2007, 03:31:51 pm
Quote from: "dieselsnowmobile"
Plus, the refinery plant refining the sulfur out of diesel is going to be polluting more doing that extra work and using more watts from the local power plant.  They also miss calculated the amount of diesel litering on the ground from all of the leaky pumps, and I am sure the EPA likes having diesel fuel all over the roads.  So, does the ULSD really save the environment???


i can honestly say that i've leaked probably 1-2 litres of diesel fuel or more when my pump started pissing...

and true about the fact that it takes MORE energy to remove the sulphur.

thing is though, sulfur does cause acid rain... and if you're using nuclear energy to refine the diesel, then its a good start...
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: deadcaddy on April 01, 2007, 06:02:36 am
Quote from: jtanguay

i've heard of an old mining camp way up north here in Ontario where there is approximately 1'000'000 litres of diesel fuel...  it was abandoned in the 80's when gold prices fell too low to be profitable... the fuel remains!!  but is it okay to use? hmmm...!!!!  The location is so remote that you would need to fly up there though... so don't get any ideas  :lol:

I don't think I'd put that in my car if I were you.... :shock:
Title: How has ULSD affected your pump?
Post by: burn_your_money on April 01, 2007, 07:14:12 am
If I'm remebering correctly the ULSD isn't for old school diesel owners like us. It's for the new cars, and the ones that we don't have yet because our fuel quality it too poor. The ones with all the emisions equiptment can't run on our fuel because there is so much crap in it that it kills the emmision equiptment.

I see ULSD as a step in the right direction. It is allowing the diesel market to grow like it has in europe, with new advancements to diesel engines.

I'm still pissed that my pump leaks though.