Mark: Hey, it's Mark Bossert here.
Producer of the Pawlik Automotive podcast.
We're here with Mr. Bernie Pawlik in Vancouver.
How are you doing this morning Bernie?
Bernie: I'm doing well.
Mark: So, 19 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver and 37 years of repairing vehicles
and maintaining vehicles in Vancouver.
We're going to talk about a 2002 VW Jetta TDI that wouldn't start.
What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: Yeah.
So, this vehicle was towed to our shop with a no start condition.
The engine would crank over fine, but it just wouldn't catch, wouldn't start.
So, we did some diagnostics on it, as we usually do, and found a few interesting things.
Mark: What did you find during your diagnosis?
Bernie: Well, the first thing is, is the gas gauge was reading fully empty and that kinda
had us concerned.
So we talked to the owner and he said, "Well, the gas gauge is kind of intermittent.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
There was definitely an issue going on with the gas gauge sending unit.
We did verify, in fact, that we couldn't pull any fuel out of the fuel tank.
So, our first step was to find out is it actually in fact out of fuel.
We did verify that it was out of fuel, but there was another interesting thing that we
found known addition to that too.
Mark: So, what was the extra problem that you found that was more than just fuel?
Bernie: So, we found, actually, that even after we'd added fuel the fuel tank strainer
was blocked.
That sits, fortunately for the client who had a malfunctioning gas gauge the strainer
and the gas gauge sending unit are all one piece.
We pulled ... You can access this through the rear of the vehicle.
You don't have to drop the fuel tank as you do in a lot of vehicles.
We were able to access the fuel pick up unit with the sending assembly, gauge sender assembly
through the back seat of the vehicle, under the back seat and remove it.
We found the strainer was plugged full of debris, which is not an uncommon issue on
these vehicles.
It does happen from ... not a lot, but from time to time.
So, we'll just go into some pictures right now.
So, there's a nice specimen of a 2002 VW Jetta TDI.
And onto pictures ... So, this is the fuel sending unit.
This is the old one in the vehicle.
And this is a sort of bowl where the fuel sits, and fuel is stored in here and it's
picked up and sucked through here.
You can see all of this black debris.
That has basically blocked off the fuel system from sucking any fuel into the fuel pump,
the fuel injection pump.
So, the new unit ... We'll get to right here.
That is basically the new fuel sending assembly.
So, this is the whole unit together.
This is the gas gauge sender.
So there's a float here, and this floats up and down in your gas tank.
You can see its got a little arm, and this'll float, move up and down depending on how much
fuel's in the vehicle.
This little electrical rio stat here will send a signal to the gas gauge and then you'll
know how much fuel you have.
So this item wasn't working.
Also, the strainer which is inside here, that was the picture you were looking at, sort
of the view looking down here.
That's been replaced so kind of killed two birds with one stone in this case.
Mark: So, I've had a couple of newer versions like this vehicle.
They were a little bit less forgiving, perhaps, because they were high pressure fuel systems.
But I definitely had issues with running bio diesel in cold weather.
Was there any kind of issue in that regard?
Like, why was there so much dirt in there, or debris?
Bernie: I mean ... I think it's just that it accumulated over time.
I'm not really certain how that dirt got in.
But, I mean normally fuel is filtered when you buy it but it's never 100%.
That's why vehicles have fuel filters.
Although, interestingly enough most gasoline engines, actually for the last 20 years or
more, have actually had ... The fuel filters been largely eliminated as an extra piece.
The actual filtration happens right in the gas tank.
Rarely with a gas engine do we ever see any problems.
Because I think the fuel processing system and delivery is just so clean that it actually
works that way.
In the past, you know, it wouldn't have been so.
But, with diesel I guess, you know obviously there's some debris and things have accumulated
over time.
These vehicles usually last a long time too.
So, you know, it's a 2002 that makes it, what, 16 years old.
You know, there's quite a few kilometres and years of pumping fuel through the vehicle.
So, the debris just builds up.
Mark: And as you mentioned, this is a 2002 Jetta.
How is it for reliability?
Bernie: These are still really good vehicles.
The fuel system is ... it's more mechanical in this version than it is on the newer ones.
More mechanical, less electronic.
It works really well.
It's kind of a nice, sort of, era where the blend between the fully mechanical and the
more electronic diesel's ... It's kind of half way in between that.
It actually works pretty well.
I mean, these cars are getting ... you know, they don't have as much value as they used
to.
So, repairs can get expensive.
But over all they're still pretty good cars.
The actual base engine itself is really solid.
It just, often the fuel system starts to cost money when you get to this age of the vehicle.
But, this was a fairly simple repair and not to costly.
Mark: There you go.
If you're looking for service for your Jetta, TDI or otherwise, in Vancouver the guys to
see are Pawlik Automotive.
You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment.
You have to book ahead, they're busy.
Or, check out their website pawlikautomotive.com.
Our You Tube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair.
We've got hundreds of videos on there, or of course hopefully you're listening on our
lovely new iTunes podcast here.
Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thanks Mark.