any ideas. it cut out on me thrusday and now only starts for five seconds then cuts out.

Does it immediately restart on the key Tony?

yeah

Any EML?

eml?

Sorry- any warning lights. And I should have asked: whats the engine, and any service work done to it recently? It hasn’t run out of fuel in recent times, has it?

its never ran out of fuel. gets regualr service. i was driving it thursday in heavy rain and it orangey light came on and it said stop then cut out

OK; what’s the year and engine model?

o5 2.0 tdi berlingo

tdi? Can’t be that.

HDi?

er yeah. as you can tell i’m rubbish at motors 🙂

🙂

I need to head out now- but the first thing I’d check (and its easy) is the tank lift pump- this is an electric pump that raises fuel from the tank up to the high-pressure pump in the engine bay.

On yours, if you lift up the back seat, you should be able to hear it whirring at key-on. Get an assistant to turn the key to on while you listen closely under the seat.

Cover for lift pump looks a bit like this:

Beneath it, its a bit like:

its a van. dont think it has electric pump

If its a 2.0HDi, the lift pump is a low-pressure pump that’s solely used to get diesel up to the high-pressure fuel pump at the engine. Its definitely electric.

The pump like that went on my xantia and it wouldn’t start at all.

just tried it and it ran for two minutes before cutting out

This sounds stupid but stick with me…
Bang the fuel tank from under the car/van
Few good hits with a hammer/wheel brace/big stick…
Try starting it?
If it starts then it’s the low pressure pump in the tank like ^ suspected common on 2.0 hdi
I did one on Friday!!! Dealer price is £160 for the pump and gauge(one unit)
Some don’t have low pressure pumps but it’s worth a try!!!

Pretty sure this will be the same issue it had last year Tony?

I suspect you’ve got a dodgy O ring somewhere in the fuel system, allowing the High Pressure pump to pull in air (pretty sure it’s hasn’t got a lift pump, as it has the rubber “hand” bleeding bulb on the fuel line from the tank)

You could lash up a “gravity fed” fuel feed, direct to the HP pump, using something like an plastic coke bottle etc. Hang this a few feet above the engine (off the bonnet catch with the bonnet off??) You’ll have to jury rig that to the HP pump fuel feed pipe, probably try to uncouple the feed line just in front of the rubber bulb?

In effect, any leak will now be outwards rather than inwards, as you have exchanged suction for pressure. If this gets it to start and run, then the next issue is finding the leak, which could be anywhere in the fuel system, and even in the HP pump itself ;-(

Sorry pressed enter too soon.
The fuel pressure needs to be a required pressure for the Ecu to fire the injectors so it must be attaining that pressure for even a short amount of time. And all else must be good or it would nt run for the 5 seconds.
There is a common fault with a 3 wire yellow connector that goes to the fuel pressure sensor. High resistance causes similar faults corrosion on the pins, cut out or clean and replace.

If it’s a problem with the lift pump perhaps Tony could find a really steep hill and see if the car runs when it’s facing down hill 😀 obviously getting it to a really steep hill could be an issue that being the flaw in my genius plan 😉

If it has a lift pump it need to attaine 4.5 bar… Don’t think they do hills that big!!!

Ah, has this done this before then Tony? Interesting. It certainly sounds like a low-side fuel supply issue.

did it last year and started three days later and never had issue again til thiursday

Jedi, did you try banging the tank?

It now works again and I did nothing