Test 2 - Citroen Xantia 2.0 HDi Fuel Tank Pump - Air in pumped fuel. P0230 Fault

Air is getting into the pumped fuel.
Initially I did this with no restriction on the 8mm clear pipe and I thought this may be a simptom of a very high flow rate which the pump wouldn't normally see. So I squeezed the 8mm tube with Mole grips so that the current drawn by the pump was about the same as when it is pumping through the engine fuel filter at 2.5 Bar. (Or perhaps 2 Bar in my case - see "Test 1 - Citroen Xantia 2.0 HDi Fuel Filter / Primary Pressure Regulator Home Test. P0230 Fault").
After pumping good fuel for about 9 seconds it starts pumping mostly air. The tank is just below half full. The car is on a slight hill. (Front up hill). I have recently run the tank until the empty warning light was on and filled it up to full then done 300 miles. It has had the same erratic idle with engine warning light and fault P0230 with all tank fill levels. Sometimes it runs fine with no warning light for a few journeys.
I have checked the pump pressure into a blanked off tube and it appears to be over 5 Bar. I think the current was about 6 Amps at that and the motor sounded like it was straining a bit so I cut the power!
On re-connecting the pump outlet to the filter/regulator it runs at the same current (I assume same pressure/flow rate) and appears to be no air. See Test 3 video.

I now know why there was air at the pump outlet. See my video "Xantia 2.0 HDi Fuel Tank Pump Tests with Pump removed from Tank - P0230 Fault Code"

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• P0230
• Citroen
• Xantia
• Fuel
• Tank
• Pump
• Filter
• Pressure
• Diesel
• Peugeot
• 406
• 306
• Fault
• Code
• Reader
• Diagnostic

[AerosPhantom]

@hoppinonabronzeleg

That's exactly what I was thinking after I'd done this test. I did get a second hand pump from eBay but there isn't actually any problem with this pump! It's just that it requires a return flow of fuel into the return feed on top of the white fuel pump housing otherwise it will behave like in this video. (Unless the tank is 90+% full). See my video "Xantia 2.0 HDi Fuel Tank Pump Tests with Pump removed from Tank - P0230 Fault Code" for an explanation of the "jet" pump.

[hoppinonabronzeleg]

What a pain, I remember that sound!!! I reckon the unit itself, has a holed pick up pipeabove the level of the fuel. does it do it with a full tank?