Two cars, Two faults - Intermittent air in fuel line - Intermittent power loss
07-09-2014, 05:41 AM
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Mercedes A class
Two cars, Two faults - Intermittent air in fuel line - Intermittent power loss
Hi, I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction, to narrow down the faults in both my cars!
Car one (we will call this the shiny blue one!) W168, A class, A170, 1999 (diesel and has a diesel pre heater thing for when its cold) . This one developed a seepage problem with the fuel tank, new (2nd hand but very good condition and shiny inside) fuel tank fitted ran fine for about 2 weeks then started dying, generally when there was less than 1/4 tank - ( re used original gubbins attached to top of tank) so decided that perhaps the internal dimensions of the tank were slightly different as my car was one of a few to have diesel pre heater! Decided 1/4 was the new empty..... a few days however the problem started showing up under high load - it would just splutter to a stop and then would take several attempts to re start - during this time if you looked at the clear fuel line under the bonnet it was full of air - but once restarted the air would disappear until it started running rough. Changed fuel filter as we had one on order anyway but problem still persists.
Any ideas how to isolate where the air may be entering?
Car two ( we will call this the other blue one!) Also a W168, A class, A170, but its a LWB and a 2001. This one is more drivable fault but still irritating! History to the car - bought as a winter run around but someone drove into it and caused panel damage so it was taken off road to repair and then failled MOT on front sub frame so ended off road for a year while it was fixed in any spare time. When it came to restarting it wouldn't - some sort of fuel problem? Anyway after a week or so of trying it and recharging the battery it finally spluttered into life as the threat of scrapping was mentioned! Passed MOT however the current problem never came to light until you came to large hill after a long flat/ downhill. Problem is intermittent - in 3 weeks of driving daily I have had 4 occasions where it hasn't occurred - each day has been the nicest warmest sunniest day in the world (well for where we live!) Basically car accelerates normally everything is happy and good then after driving along the flat or down hill for a few min when you get to a hill or any sort of incline you notice a lack of power and the revs wont go above 3000rpm. You can get up hills but you need to manually knock the gears down to about 3rd and crawl up at 20 mph! Also the kick down doesn't work. If you turn off the car and restart the problem disappears and you have power again! I have discovered that if you always have the car under acceleration the problem never arises - although its a bit difficult to maintain unless its quiet roads - accelerate - brake - accelerate again! This car also has a worrying metallic tapping noise - it almost sounds like the sort of noise a metal disc would make as it settled in a spiral fashion - if that makes any sort of sense!
Hope someone can give me some pointers, thanks x P.S. I love the Shiny one more
Car one (we will call this the shiny blue one!) W168, A class, A170, 1999 (diesel and has a diesel pre heater thing for when its cold) . This one developed a seepage problem with the fuel tank, new (2nd hand but very good condition and shiny inside) fuel tank fitted ran fine for about 2 weeks then started dying, generally when there was less than 1/4 tank - ( re used original gubbins attached to top of tank) so decided that perhaps the internal dimensions of the tank were slightly different as my car was one of a few to have diesel pre heater! Decided 1/4 was the new empty..... a few days however the problem started showing up under high load - it would just splutter to a stop and then would take several attempts to re start - during this time if you looked at the clear fuel line under the bonnet it was full of air - but once restarted the air would disappear until it started running rough. Changed fuel filter as we had one on order anyway but problem still persists.
Any ideas how to isolate where the air may be entering?
Car two ( we will call this the other blue one!) Also a W168, A class, A170, but its a LWB and a 2001. This one is more drivable fault but still irritating! History to the car - bought as a winter run around but someone drove into it and caused panel damage so it was taken off road to repair and then failled MOT on front sub frame so ended off road for a year while it was fixed in any spare time. When it came to restarting it wouldn't - some sort of fuel problem? Anyway after a week or so of trying it and recharging the battery it finally spluttered into life as the threat of scrapping was mentioned! Passed MOT however the current problem never came to light until you came to large hill after a long flat/ downhill. Problem is intermittent - in 3 weeks of driving daily I have had 4 occasions where it hasn't occurred - each day has been the nicest warmest sunniest day in the world (well for where we live!) Basically car accelerates normally everything is happy and good then after driving along the flat or down hill for a few min when you get to a hill or any sort of incline you notice a lack of power and the revs wont go above 3000rpm. You can get up hills but you need to manually knock the gears down to about 3rd and crawl up at 20 mph! Also the kick down doesn't work. If you turn off the car and restart the problem disappears and you have power again! I have discovered that if you always have the car under acceleration the problem never arises - although its a bit difficult to maintain unless its quiet roads - accelerate - brake - accelerate again! This car also has a worrying metallic tapping noise - it almost sounds like the sort of noise a metal disc would make as it settled in a spiral fashion - if that makes any sort of sense!
Hope someone can give me some pointers, thanks x P.S. I love the Shiny one more
