Diesel Fuel Pump

Golden Horde

My car died last week and I suspect it needs a new fuel pump. How much can I expect to pay for this on a 2008 Ford S Max through a Ford dealer...?

Plug

I have never seen a fuel pump fail on the 1.8 or 2.0 diesels, what makes you think its the pump?

Golden Horde

The garage suspects it may be as the fuel is not reaching the engine. They're to call me in the morning so I wanted to find out about the likely cost so I don't get ripped off. I know next to nothing about engines.

Plug

What litre is it? Im not sure about cost but they are expensive. Big bucks.
Refuses to start?

Golden Horde

Yeah...turns over but won't start - 1.8 litre.

I was turning onto a main road and accelerating to get up to speed of traffic. 2nd into 3rd gear(revved probably a bit too high) and engine suddenly died. Dash came up as engine malfunction. Recovery guy looked at it at side of road and he said fuel not reaching engine.

Garage say same thing. You say big bucks - what's a ballpark..?

OldmanMondeo

Priced a VW one today, €300 plus Vat, approx...

Plug

Have you or can you get the fault codes that were up?
Im not saying the pump is fcuked but there might be a chance its not either. Have they tried anything with the inlet metering valve, pressure relief valves etc? Usually a pump won't jsut decide to pack in, it will start to give trouble over a period of time, hard to start, low power etc.

Golden Horde

As I say they just suspect it might be that - nothing definitive. I'll put those suggestions to them in the morning. I get the feeling that they're still not sure as anytime I rang to see what's the story I kept hearing they were on to Ford for wiring blueprints.

They haven't been too urgent about it either so when I doorstepped them this evening I got the fuel pump story. I told them to get a definite response and give me a price before they go ahead. Main ford dealer if that's of any use to me.

Plug

If you get me the fault codes I may be able to help you.

Golden Horde

Thanks...I'll follow up with them in the morning.

Golden Horde

Finally got my car back. After much toing and froing they finally settled on the cause - a 10 amp fuse blown in power line to the pump/fuel rail. So simple.

Except I've been billed €358 for the privelege. They claim they spent 8 hours on it looking for the fault and have billed me for 3.5 hours labour and an element.

Is this par for the course or have I been done...?

Golden Horde

Golden Horde wrote: »

Finally got my car back. After much toing and froing they finally settled on the cause - a 10 amp fuse blown in power line to the pump/fuel rail. So simple.

Except I've been billed €358 for the privelege. They claim they spent 8 hours on it looking for the fault and have billed me for 3.5 hours labour and an element.

Is this par for the course or have I been done...?

Jesus :eek:

I don't know alot about cars, but if the fuel pump was suspected, surely they would check it was getting power?

Basic troubleshooting I would think.

No power, then check the fuses

edenbridge146

The fuel pump on my 07 Diesel s max went yesterday

Car died on the side of the road outside Adare on a bank holiday weekend.
I was 200 miles from home. Nightmare
Roadside assistance collected the car and said it was the fuel pump
He's gonna call with the cost on Tuesday.
Have to drive all the way back to limerick to collect car

Anyone any idea how much this will cost??
Just put a new clutch in it 2 weeks ago and that cost 1100.
Last year it was the power steering pump which cost 1400.
Seriously thinking of getting rid of this car....

MarkR

Golden Horde wrote: »

Finally got my car back. After much toing and froing they finally settled on the cause - a 10 amp fuse blown in power line to the pump/fuel rail. So simple.

Except I've been billed €358 for the privelege. They claim they spent 8 hours on it looking for the fault and have billed me for 3.5 hours labour and an element.

Is this par for the course or have I been done...?

That's mad. Should be the time it takes to change, rather than how long they were scratching their heads!

Nissan doctor

MarkR wrote: »

That's mad. Should be the time it takes to change, rather than how long they were scratching their heads!

In this case, it sounds like they didn't check the basic things first, however in general, the above statment is rubbish.

An example I used before, I once spend two days tracking an electrical fault through the wiring loom of a VW transporter, when I finally found the break in the wire...it took about 2 mins to solder it back together and seal. So by your mindset, I should only charge for 2 mins work?

paddydriver

This is eerie now... we have a 08 S-Max and has been coming up with "Engine Malfunction" every few days over last 4 weeks. Had it in for service on Friday as it was near due so got them to (try) trace the issue. We had discussed beforehand re fuel filter as its not due changing till 40k miles, mine has ~26k miles, but is near 4 years old so I said change it.

Anyway, mechanic said likely issue is fuel filter as diagnostics was showing "Fuel Pressure" issue. So changed filter and did service.

Today.. poxy error back up! I don't drive it much as it is my wives car and only used for dropping kids about.. the usual:rolleyes:

It seems to occur when car is slightly starved or in too high a gear.. you know when engine slightly starts to shudder for sec or two before you give it more pedal. Car starts fine everyday and no cut outs etc but dreading thats next and we are over to UK for a week and Easter so need to try get resolved.

All sorts of costs and probable's going thru my head now and have visions of endless troubleshooting visits to try track it down...

Any help or input much appreciated.

Thanks
Paddy

pred racer

Nissan doctor wrote: »

In this case, it sounds like they didn't check the basic things first, however in general, the above statment is rubbish.

An example I used before, I once spend two days tracking an electrical fault through the wiring loom of a VW transporter, when I finally found the break in the wire...it took about 2 mins to solder it back together and seal. So by your mindset, I should only charge for 2 mins work?

Agree 100%.
I work in maintanence and repair also (not cars)
I tell my manager all the time, "fixing stuff is easy, its finding whats wrong is the hard part"

But having said that, I'd expect a main dealer to be able to diagnose a blown fuse in less than 8 hours:cool:

MarkR

I suppose billing by the hour is the only fair way, provided they do proper troubleshooting, rather then guesswork.

In this case it seems that the fuel pump wasn't (for some reason) sending on the fuel. Same thing happened in my car, engine wasn't getting fuel. So they started from the fuel tank, and worked forward.

If the pump wasn't pumping, then it should narrow down the time it takes to find out the problem. Particularly as it seems to be a fairly simple fix of a blown fuse. Wouldn't it be obvious that the pump wasn't getting power?