1.9 D cut out and won't start

[Andrew1967]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum and hoping that you will be able to help out with a problem my father has with his Berlingo.

It's a 1.9 diesel 2002 02 plate model with just 44000 miles on the clock. A couple of months ago, Dad was driving the car and it just died on him, as though it had run out of diesel. It would not immediately restart. He left it about 15 minutes and it fired up on the button. A mile drive home and it cut out again but restarted and then cut out a short time later.

Not really sure what the problem was, we changed the fuel filter and it started up but then cut out again. It was towed to our local garage who put it on the diagnostics but no fault codes were shown. They checked the crank sensor which was OK and the start/stop solenoid which seemed to have a signal (albeit weak ?). After a couple of days they more or less exhausted all avenues and it was towed home.

Speaking to a friend in the trade, he has heard that this is not an uncommon problem on the PSA 1.9 diesel but the manufacturer will not admit to there being a problem. He has a Partner van that does the same and a friend of his has a Berlingo with the same problem. He wondered if it was muck in the tank that was being sucked up onto the internal filter and blocking the fuel supply. We took the tank out to check it ( why on earth is the filler at the BOTTOM of the tank ??!!) but it was clean. We put the tank back in and now the car will not start at all !!!

Any ideas or pointers would be really appreciated as the car is currently only good for scrap.

[brodfather11]

sounds like a fuel supply problem , cant be too serious if it started after a rest. they have a hard to bleed fuel system especially after changing the fuel filter and more so after removing/draining the fuel tank.
Is the fuel pick up in the tank OK?
Are there any fumes out of the exhaust when trying to start it.? if not no fuel is reaching the cyliders.
Is fuel coming out of the injector pump, slightly open a fuel pipe at the injector to see.
Does the fuel primer bulb feel pressurising when pumped?

these may rule out fuel side of things if all OK then its something else,
air supply or electrics

These are some of the things you could try

cratch:

[Andrew1967]

Thanks for your reply with some things to check.

Is there a specific procedure for bleeding the system when removing and refitting the tank? The pick up and internals all seemed ok. We did not replace the seal where the pick up etc fits in although the manual says replacement is necessary. We presumed this was only to prevent potential leakage. Could this have any bearing on the failure to start?

I noticed when bleeding with the primer, which seems to pressurise, that when I press it down, clear diesel is ejected from the drain tube but once it is fully depressed, an awful lot of air bubbles come through. Is this normal when the primer is at full travel or is this showing that there is still air in the system?