Needing prime after sitting?

Rattlenbang · Post by **Rattlenbang** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 8:11 pm

I've noticed that my L300 seems to lose prime after sitting a few weeks and is hard to start without way too much cranking. It seems like the fuel slowly seeps out of the system and takes a lot of starter grinding before it finds its way back to the injectors. I loosen the injector fitting and it takes a long time before fuel shows up. I can prime it with the finger pump on the filter which seems to help. Do others have this issue?

Post by **Growlerbearnz** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 2:17 pm

If the fuel's not leaking out of anywhere obvious*, it's probably be an air leak somewhere letting the fuel fall back into the tank.

The usual suspects are the rubber fuel hoses between the filter, injector pump, and return rail, as they perish and crack near the hose clamps. If you have enough length you might get away with cutting off the perished bit, otherwise they're fairly easy to replace.

Very rarely the diaphragm in the priming pump will fail, but you'd likely notice the fuel coming out when you use the pump.

*Most leaks that let air into the system also let fuel out, so they're easy to spot. usually the fuel filter and water drain seals, the injection pump itself, or the injectors and rails.

Rattlenbang · Post by **Rattlenbang** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 9:01 pm

Yeah, I don't have any fuel leaks anywhere but it just occurred to me that as fuel is leaking out of the fuel lines to the injectors, air must be leaking into the injectors from the nozzle. There's 200k on them; perhaps it's time for new nozzles.

ynwa · Post by **ynwa** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:08 pm

Rattlenbang wrote:Yeah, I don't have any fuel leaks anywhere but it just occurred to me that as fuel is leaking out of the fuel lines to the injectors, air must be leaking into the injectors from the nozzle. There's 200k on them; perhaps it's time for new nozzles.

Hey! Just grabbing this Zombie. Did you end up replacing the nozzles? I plan on doing this in the new year but have not found any how-to's on removing, inspecting and replacing... Cheers! Also did you also have issues with crappy cold start and smoke before? And now? I guess this all goes moot if you're not around anymore. :)

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