Was travelling across the M62 last Thursday when the car stalled in the fast lane. Thankfully plenty of momentum and a downhill to get into the services.

After a quick stop it re-started although sounded lumpy. I got no more than 1/4 mile down the road, this time on the inside lane, when she stalled again, not to restart.

After a recovery to the services by the AA the generic fault finding software was plugged in and no fault codes registered!!

I got the car recovered to my local garage who have diagnosed a faulty fuel injector......at £500 a pop!!! With labour I'm looking at about £800. How bloody pricey!! Anyone else had this problem?

Is the car diesel or petrol?

Strangely enough I had exactly the same thing happen to me last week en route to Looe on our holiday! Car cut out at about 50mph and was towed into Seat Exeter where it was diagnosed with exactly the same issue. Luckily mine is a company car. Mine is a 170 diesel PD engine

Edited 23 August, 201015 yr by Moley RUFC

Is the car diesel or petrol?

A diesel PD 170

Have you been running it on vegetable oil or anything?

Very unusual for an injector to fail unless the car has done a lot of miles.

I take it they have considered the chance of it being the loom not the injector?

I'd be changing the injector loom at a much lower cost fist if it was my money.

Have you been running it on vegetable oil or anything?

Very unusual for an injector to fail unless the car has done a lot of miles.

No, only ever used Shell Vpower diesel.

Up to 65k mioles, so not that high. I'm changing the loom too as that's a no brainer at £67

Fault codes were:

Injector Valve Group 1

Injector Power Supply

Is it worth me asking them to just try the loom first

No, only ever used Shell Vpower diesel.

Up to 65k mioles, so not that high. I'm changing the loom too as that's a no brainer at £67

Fault codes were:

Injector Valve Group 1

Injector Power Supply

Is it worth me asking them to just try the loom first

I sure as heck would yes as that sounds like the injector isn't getting a good power feed and my first source for that would be the wiring AKA loom.

IIRC the PD170 has piezoelectric injectors, so I would think a mechanical failure is unlikely.

Edited 23 August, 201015 yr by cheezemonkhai

The injectors at £500 sound extremely pricey - my mercedes ML needed 5 of these but they cost around £180-200 each (reconditioned ones can be had for less). My mechanic advised that I should always fill up with a minumim of 1/4 of the tank left, and use injector cleaner once every 3-4 refills.

TBH people sing the praises of diesel engines in terms of economy, but my experience of diesel ownership leads me to believe that the increased engine complexity. the DPF, and the chances of something going wrong are not worth the hassle of a few extra mpg. That's why I have ordered the petrol vRS.

Not having a pop at diesels (drove my ML for 7 years), it's just my own experience...

The MB injectors will be less complex though as they are not PD unit injectors and so will be cheaper each.

I'm still taking a shot on it being the loom myself.

I've read loads about injectors failing on VAG PD engines in the VW Passat. I'm not sure if there was some mention of Bosch vs some other brand of injectors, and one being more prone to failure. Not sure if this is connected to your issue, but it certainly doesn't appear as widespread on the Octavia. The VW owners suffering this issue are also receiving very high quotes to replace failed injectors.

+1 for the loom. I had mine replaced a while back for coughing and spluttering (PD140 though). All 4 injectors are going strong at 144,000 miles

PD injectors double up as ultra high pressure pumps driven from the camshaft.

This means they are much more complicated (and more expensive) than CR injectors as CR has a separate common pump to handle the high pressure side of things. Check out the cost of a new CR pump and it'll give you a fright.

PD units are generally pretty reliable in themselves and it is indeed more likely that something external to the PD unit has given up the ghost - ie the wiring loom. The loom runs through the cylinder head and lives in a pretty harsh environment.