Well this morning I had a real go at this power loss fault. The fault has been getting worse over the last couple of weeks.
Earlier this week I was beginning to doubt that I was going to make it to work, the power loss was so bad.
Mid week I thought I'd do a running current test on the fuel pump. This showed no real problem, the pump current was a stable 6.10 Amps.
One thing I had noticed after this weeks bad running, the fault really shows its self after a longish period of running, particularly if I switch off for a few minutes. After the restart, the engine was all over the place, with stalling, hunting and power loss.
I hunted out a fuel filter, as I suspected that it was the original. The vehicle has only done 41800 miles, but giving the amount of fuel it uses, the filter will have cleaned a lot of fuel.
Now rather oddly, all petrol Freelanders have the fuel filter in the tank as part of the pump assembly.
This means that the pump has to be removed from the tank and stripped to its component parts to replace the filter.
The filter that I found was slightly different in the way it seals, this ment making up a new seal but it was easy to do.
While the pump was in pieces, I think I might have found the fault. I noticed that the electric connections to the pump looked like they have been getting hot.
This would follow the fault and the fact that it is worse when the fuel level is below 1/2 a tank.
I'm guessing that the connections warm up if fuel isn't in contact with them. The plastic boot on the+ wire had begun to shrink, as they do when heated.
So I cleaned the pump connections and squeezed the spades on the feed wires.
I also noticed that the filter is before the pressure regulator. This means the filter passes every drop of fuel the pump passes. This would clog a filter much faster than an in line filter design.
So I rebuilt the pump assembly, refitted it into the tank and tightened the locking ring.
I turned on the ignition 3 or 4 times, giving time for the pump to prime the filter and charge the fuel line.
The note given by the pump dropped as system pressure was restored.
I started the engine allowing it to idle for 10 minutes. It did have a couple of missed beats as a few air bubbles came through but I was expecting that.
I thought I'd give the system a pressure test. Not having my pressure tester to hand, I had to use some ingenuity. I have a cycle Styrrup pump with a reasonably accurate gauge. This hooked up to the schrader valve on the fuel line worked well giving a nice steady 50+ psi of fuel pressure.
After this I gave the engine a good blast. It was amazing how much power it now has. Planting the throttle in first resulted in instant wheel spin (currently FWD) the TC kicked in and the Freelander surged forward at a pace I'd forgotten it could muster. The tacho needle raced round to 6700 before the box selected 2nd. As 2nd engaged, the tires let me know with a screech that engine was connected to them once more. I kept my foot hard down until I hit the legal limit and eased off.
So the engine has definitely got its power back, I suspect that a new filter has a lot to do with that.
As to whether the fault is gone, time will tell.
I've put on a few pictures. A couple are out of focus but I'm sure you will get the idea.