Car broke...during a Blizzard (again!)

[walky_talky20]

So, yesterday my fuel pump sounded a bit loud when it primed. Should have thought more of it, I guess.

Today, the car stalled while driving. I immediately thought "not another timing belt", but it still had compression on decel. Wouldn't restart. Just had to happen on the day we get a foot of snow. My car is such a jerk.




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[walky_talky20]

Tow truck driver had to go back to get a flatbed. Several people and police have stopped to check on me.


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[xdewaynex]

That sucks man, but at least people were nice enough to stop and check.

[redline380]

Tow truck driver had to go back to get a flatbed. Several people and police have stopped to check on me.

I've had to have two Audi's flatbedded, ironically enough my modded out racecar sedan has never seen a flatbed yet.

I also make damn sure over the phone they send a flatbed. Has worked both times. Sorry to hear about it though. At least it is just a fuel pump. I know what you mean about losing compression though. When my cam gear slipped last spring, I tried restarting not knowing the valves were bent. The engine essentially whirred and it was obvious the starter was not being worked very hard, so it was then I figured I had no compression. A very tough noise to hear!

[AudiSport12]

Oh man, sorry to hear about that. Suspect the fuel pump took a dump?


On another note, those road conditions look awful. It's supposed to be 70* and sunny here today!

[RoadRage]

Do you have AAA?

[walky_talky20]

Nope. Kinda wish I did now.

Currently washing ICE cold gas off my hands in a Wal-Mart bathroom. Thanks to ECS product photo guy for the refresher on how the fuel sender unclips.

Turns out my brother has a spare pump, so that's on the way. Unfortunately, I converted my car to an S4 pump and the connectors are different. So I have to come convert it back. Gah. Can't win.


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[walky_talky20]

Tow truck only took me halfway home because he's on call and can't go that far. He cut me a deal at $150, apparently. Lol, what a deal.


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[walky_talky20]

On the truck:




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[Spectre1130]

Dang. That really sucks. Hope you can get to your house sometime soon.

[tar]

blows, that whole on call shit is lies. he just left you in a parking lot with car? how far from home are you?


also i wish we got snow like that here. today a high of 86...

[SN95Audi87]

Wow! I remember reading your old thread about your timing belt mishap and now this. Is your S4 pump new or you bought it used? I am very very very picky with used parts. Everything that has been replaced on my B5 has been new/oem. Its painful with the price but it saves so many headaches down the road. Quality control is big deal to me, not saying your s4 pump isn't but just in general. How many miles you have on it now?

[walky_talky20]

Ok, just got done with the pump swap in the parking lot.





Car runs. I wasn't able to get the basket clicked back into place. I'll take it back to the shop and mess with it there.

That moment you crank the key and hope you spent the last couple hours finding and swapping the right part...

Previous pump was pulled from a legit stock S4 that was getting K04's and a high performance pump. It had 75k miles on it when I put it in...75k miles ago.


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[Turbo_B5]

this reminds me I need to get my new VDO pump out of my 97.

[SN95Audi87]

So the pump lasted only 150k? Then again its almost a 15-18 year old part.

[walky_talky20]

Yeah. 14 years and 150-160k miles on the pump. Perhaps a little on the early side. My original pump went 200k and 13 years or so.


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[SN95Audi87]

Yeah. 14 years and 150-160k miles on the pump. Perhaps a little on the early side. My original pump went 200k and 13 years or so.


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Yeah thats about normal, only thing that sucks is it happened during a critical time you needed your car. I've noticed that the worst problems arise when the car is either A) too hot outiside B) too cold outside. Anything in between is ok. One of my maintenance items is to redo the fuel system on mine soon. IE: fuel pump, fuel regulator..etc.

[walky_talky20]

I should probably replace the fuel filter at some point. It is original.

Forgot to mention, exactly everyone who stopped to help thought my little car was stuck in the snow. One very cheerful guy stopped with his Volvo XC90, put his gloves on and jogged over. He was like "We can get this out!". Then I was like, "no the fuel pump is dead". And he, still really cheerful, was like "wow, that sucks!". And I'm like "I know, right?". I think somebody stopped every 5 or 10 minutes.

When changing your fuel pump in the cold, there is a fine line between keeping the cold out and asphyxiating yourself with gasoline fumes.

[tchuck]

Man that fuel pump is such a shitty job. I did it in a heated garage and it was still awful.

The trick I found here re getting the basket in place is to use two long screwdrivers crossed against each other like an X as a sort of wrench. It's the only way I could turn it hard enough with the (lack of) space we have down there.

[walky_talky20]

Yeah, that's how I got it out. But when putting it in, I couldn't get resistance when turning it right. It wouldn't seat properly. I'll mess with it some more when I can get the tank run nearly dry and get it in the shop this weekend.

[frankkyA4]

Does the death of fuel pump give any codes? My B5 just died waiting to make a left turn, and wouldn't start.

[B5nDisciple]

Yeah, that's how I got it out. But when putting it in, I couldn't get resistance when turning it right. It wouldn't seat properly. I'll mess with it some more when I can get the tank run nearly dry and get it in the shop this weekend.

I also just did mine. Line up the notch in the direction of your fuel door. That should make it drop down into the right spot. Then get a bunch of ratchet extensions and combine them to make it long enough to reach down to the basket. Place the open end of the extension (where the ratchet goes) onto one of the lips on the basket so you can gently tap it clockwise with a rubber mallot.

I wired my pump in reverse the first time (due to the black power wire) so I became good at taking it in and out using that method. It also works just as well to get it out without that silly clunky tool.

That scredriver method looks like it would work good too, but extensions work really well.

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[walky_talky20]

I looked at it really carefully and matched it up with the old pump/basket to make sure I was seating it in the exact correct clock position. It's all good anyway, as I have to go back in for another reason. I'm getting long cranking times after it sits for a few hours. Hopefully it's just my lousy clamp on the pressure line that isn't tight enough. As you can see in the photo, it is not the correct kind at all. I didn't go "ham sandwich" on it when tightening because I didn't want to strip the clamp and have a big problem. I just wanted to get home. I'll get the correct EFI type clamp in there and see if that fixes it.

[NeedingAnAudi]

Man I had to replace my fuel pump with a new one from Audi for a ton of money, and I had to do it in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania 9 hours from Chicago. I feel all your pain lol

[Avant Nate]

I don't think changing the pump on these Audis is all that hard. Just swapped pumps on mine and replaced my allroad as well. My Yukon, that's a bitch and a half.

[walky_talky20]

and I had to do it in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania...

Oh, so you've been to my house?

I don't think changing the pump on these Audis is all that hard. Just swapped pumps on mine and replaced my allroad as well. My Yukon, that's a bitch and a half.

Indeed. Lots of cars you need to drop the entire tank to do it. Access inside the car is nice. It's 100 ft/lbs of torque on the stupid locking plastic basket arrangement that makes it a pain. Why can it not just have a clip that releases it? Because then we can't make a ridiculous special tool for it? lol

[Wrath And Tears]

Indeed. Lots of cars you need to drop the entire tank to do it. Access inside the car is nice. It's 100 ft/lbs of torque on the stupid locking plastic basket arrangement that makes it a pain. Why can it not just have a clip that releases it? Because then we can't make a ridiculous special tool for it? lol

That's pretty much it exactly. I will say with the right tool the whole job takes like 5 minutes.

The hardest fuel pump I've ever done was in a newer X5 which used one fuel pump and one exchange pump. The gas tank was split into two with a small funnel connecting them. The crossover pump had tubes that had to be placed just so. In order to fit all the lines had to be bent, but if you bent them too far you ruined the pump. The hardest part was just making sure you got the right hose to the right clip.

Shittiest fuel pump was on a F250 or 350. The car seemed to only have 1/4 tank left in it when the pump died, but unfortunately the level sender was previously broken, unknown to me. So I get ready to drop it when it suddenly started dumping fuel all over me from the open lines as I lowered it down. It ran straight down my arms and started burning the shit out of my armpits. Totally could have been avoided by draining the tank as normal but when there's only 1/4 tank we normally just drop it.

[NeedingAnAudi]

Oh, so you've been to my house?

I mean if your house is 20 miles south of breeze wood lol

[walky_talky20]

Funny story about Breezewood, years ago my family was down there eating at the Denny's (or Hardies or whatever) on the main road there. We had just finished and were standing in front of the restaurant when I hear this car that sounds a bit like a weed-wacker. It was a black B5 A4. It goes past the restaurant somewhat slowly and begins ascending the small hill to the east. Exhaust was a bit dark. Just before it crests the hill the sound gets even louder and the car is instantly obscured by a huge cloud of black smoke.

We figured it was the typical oil pickup clogged, low oil pressure, and finally a catastrophic turbocharger failure. We walked up the hill to take a look, and they had conveniently rolled the car into a repair shop right at the spot it died. Kind of interesting to see the whole thing happen right in front of you.

[walky_talky20]

Fixed car. Ate a...MooLatté?



Now it's tradition.


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[AudiA4001]

Well at least you didn't have to drop the tank because you've accidently dropped something in there... Mine when at 260000kms and i was on the highway when it finally gave up.




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[tchuck]

I bet my subframe looks just like that. :(

#eastcoastcarproblems

[walky_talky20]

You guys still have *paint* on your subframes? lol

[AudiA4001]

I bet my subframe looks just like that. :(

#eastcoastcarproblems

My front subframe needs to be changed asap :( #saltyroads

[maxiz1]

You swapped the pump over a parking lot??? You're genius man!!!

[walky_talky20]

Not a genius. Just a desperate boy...who wanted to go home.

[biketsai]

Glad you got it sorted, and lukcily we have extra parts like this laying around. I also did a parking lot fuel pump job once (turned out to be the relay anyways).

[walky_talky20]

That must have been a bummer, Chris! I admit, I didn't do a complete diagnosis on mine before going in. I didn't check for voltage at the pump connector before I changed it. Something I normally would suggest somebody absolutely do. I just knew it sounded bad the day before, so I that had to be it. I did have a moment of doubt right before I turned the key, though!


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[Wet0willy01]

I've received a phone call for a dead in the water b6 and performed a roadside fuel pump change (I usually have a few spares of everything). Full tank of freezing cold gas. Good times.