VW Golf 1.8 petrol 1994
The other day a mum came and knocked about her car that her son had been driving. Soon after putting in fuel it had died, various things had been tried to revive it but it would occasionally start then die again, would I fix it.
I took a look, good spark, good compression, some fuel getting there, but no life. Fuel delivery pressure was too low and a bit intermittent with air bubbles in and fuel coming from the return pipe (which seemed odd), the fuel was definitely petrol with no hint of diesel (my original first thought. There were empty petrol cans in the boot and the kid driver was a bit of a herbert. Asking a long term mechanic friend, he immediately said 'I'll bet its a kid that boots it around everywhere' Which I thought was pretty astute, his diagnosis was new fuel pump needed, he had changed loads which cured it every time. The new pump is encased in a swirl pot and gets fitted as a complete lump in the tank. I decided to look at the old one before just replacing on spec. I took the swirl pot apart and found an internal filter which was blocked with fine debris. A quick clean and away it went! Asking round no-one seems to know this filter is in there, so I thought I'd spread the word.
Mr Very Cheerful !