This sounds very familiar.
For some time now the fuel hose, on my 2003 Grand Cherokee
2.7L CRD ( Mercedes engine), from the top of the fuel filter to
the low pressure pump on the front of the engine has been
gathering air from somewhere…(usually overnight).
Cranking the engine for 30seconds or so sometimes re-primes
the system and the engine will start but prolonging the cranking
also runs down the battery!
The obvious difficulty is that you cannot see any diesel fuel leaks
and this strongly suggests that air is leaking into the pipe leading
to the low pressure pump. This is the pump and hose
combination that draws (sucks) fuel through the fuel filter from
the fuel tank. (There is no electric pump in or near the fuel tank.)
To prove that it is an absence of fuel in the low pressure area try
drawing fuel through the priming socket that sits on the top of
the engine alongside the CRD rail. The low pressure pump
should now prime the high pressure pump and the fuel pressure
sensor should be able to initiate an engine start. If the engine
fires then you have identified the problem as an absence of fuel
in the hose from the fuel filter.
The question now is: How do you identify where the air is
getting in? A likely suspect is any one of the tiny “O” ring seals
that forms part of the preformed Mercedes fuel hoses which are
not cheap and very likely to break when you try to remove the
hose just to examine the O rings !!!
Bite the bullet and replace the entire low pressure hose
assembly (including the primer port if that has been used a few
times)
If the problem persists or changing the hose does not cure the
problem then maybe the fuel pressure sensor has failed as well.
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