John's Blog

Fixing my fuel injection pump. Or why I love the internet.

So I took my Jetta in for 60k mile service yesterday. Incidentally, after I scheduled the appointment last week, the MIL came on over the weekend. No noticeable power loss.

According to Troy at Langan VW the fault p-code is:

p0182 "Fuel Temperature Sensor A Circuit - Low - Sporatic"

They tried clearing the code and it came right back.

The bad news is that the only way to replace the sensor is to replace the entire fuel injection pump, which costs $1200. Thankfully, Troy told me he did NOT want to just throw a $1200 part at the problem since the car drives just fine and is generating no other codes/problems.

Then he asked if I was running BD. I suspect the biodiesel sticker on the back might have tipped him off. Troy said he didn't really know anything about BD, but thought that switching back and forth between biodiesel and petrodiesel may have "confused" the sensor.

So then I posted my story to TDIclub around 4 o'clock yesterday. Within 2 and half hours, there were two replies. The first said that water in either biodiesel or petrodiesel can damage the temp sensor and that it is only a $20 part to replace, but you need to use a special tool to open the injection pump yourself since the dealer will only replace the entire unit. The second post was from a guy that lives 15 minutes from me. He has offered to let me borrow the special tool and provided a link to a step by step guide on how to replace the sensor.

Online communities rock.

I still might be leary about opening the FIP myself, but coincidentally, my friend with a fully equiped shop just so happens to be an engineer that used to work at Stanadyne, a diesel injection pump manufacturer.

:)

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