Right, thank you for all the replies I have received to this and now prepare for an epic tale to rival the feats of Alexander the Great.
I have two A8 4.2 Quattros; a 1995 I have been driving around in for a couple of years and a 1998 I just bought to replace it. The replacement was bought cheaply because it ran out of fuel as described below. The diagnosis of my fellow A8 parts forum member harrybosche echoed what I had researched on the web and I narrowed it down to two options. The first was that the correct pump had been incorrectly fitted, the second was that an incorrect pump had been correctly fitted.
Day 1: I removed the pump, stripped down the subassembly and checked the pump. Diagnosis, a brand new pump of the wrong type (no secondary inlet) had been fitted. However, as my 95 car is now at a yard some 30 miles away being stripped for parts I then had to reinstall the pump into the subassembly and fit the unit back into the tank to drive the new car to get the pump out of the old car. This took a few hours, the bulk of which was fiddling with the subassembly and trying to get it to slot back into position. This time it took about an hour of fiddling. The process is well described here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TVwYspbFC4
The tip about using a pliers and mole grips to avoid buying a special part is genius, as is the tip about securing the inner wiring.
Day 2: was spent stripping all various bits off the 95 car.
Day 3: Today I removed the subassembly from the 98 car, dismantled it and replaced the fuel pump with the one from the 95 car after checking it and confirming it has indeed got the dual inputs. I used the existiing subassembly as the filter and gaskets were almost new and because I knew it had been fitted twice and should fit again! I started jogglin it around at 11am and it eventually slotted into place at 4pm.
I now know the zen secret and will pass it on.
Get the subassembly in position, centred but with no rubber gasket in the tank opening and level with the tank opening but raised about 40mm. It will not want to go down straight. Now for the golden secret. apply some anticlockwise pressure keeping the top of the subassembly level. It will creak a little as the plastic takes the stress, but it should then drop down with both the relevant pipes and spiggots mating perfectly. It should not need any more downard pressure. It is the anti-clockwise turn which mates the various apertures.
Pausing only for a lap of honour and a cup of tea while imagining booting the Audi technician who designed this in the bollocks for 10 hours, I then put the long rod in place and gave it a couple of turns to make sure the whole thing did not come out again, then lilfted it an inch (24.5 mm to you purists) and fitted the rubber gasket to the tank opening. This is another absolute pain in the arse because it seems to be too big. However, you need to prise the "skirt" into the tank opening and keep the "shoulder" around the edge, with the top of the sub assembly centred. It seems too big, but it will go.
I am betting they made it this big because the tank opening has to be big enough to accept the tilted sub assembly. This is like designing a barrel which leaks and then making the lid incorporate a non leaking inner barrel. In other words if they had done the job right in the first place they would not have needed to bugger about with other bits to fix it.
This is way below the standard of engineering which I have come to accept and love from Audi. However, now I can drive it I am starting to feel the love again.
If anyone is in the same situation I will accept commissions at £50 per hour for joggling, plus travel. This is way cheaper than a £200 pump, £150 gasket kit or £700 sub assembly. Strewth!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by harrybosche
Sorry to read about your fuelling problem I have just gone through some issues with my 2001 s8 which relate to yours. As it's a bit long winded I thought it might be easier if you wish to give me a call and I'll explain symptoms and remedy and the costs I incurred - I only got my car back last week.
07745135459 David
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