How often did you change the fuel filter (routine maintenance)?

"Dave" > wrote in message news:1110502015.6683db5bdf67a943c704bab011c49670@t eranews...
> Has any TDI owners had a problem like this one? Any advice or inputs
> would be most appreciated. Is an injection pump replacement a common
> occurence? The car has 125,000 miles and I changed the fuel filter
> about 10,000 miles ago. If I have no other option but to replace the
> injection pump, is there a good place to get a used pump? Where would
> be the best place to buy a new pump?
>
>
> The Story:
>
> I recently took my 99.5 Jetta TDI on a road trip. Two days driving
> down to FL and two days back to OH.
>
> The trip down was uneventful but the trip back was another story!
>
> The trip back day 1:
> On the way back, after I crossed the GA border (cheaper fuel prices)
> I topped off the tank with diesel. The engine light came on almost
> immediatly after starting the engine and the glo-plug light also
> started blinking. The car was running fine until I stopped for lunch
> in SC. Upon starting the car and leaving the parking lot, it started
> bucking and running like crap. At highway speeds it seemed to do ok
> but I could still feel it "missing" and when I got off the interstate,
> in NC it seemed to run rougher at lower speeds. Finally reached my
> overnight destination.
>
> Day 2:
> I drove to a VW dealer where my brother-in-law works as a mechanic.
> On the way there, the car continued to buck and carry on while at the
> same time sending out a James Bond smoke screen from the tail pipe.
> He hooked up the computer and it had a code for the quantity adjuster.
> The code could not be erased either. He seemed to think it was the
> injection pump going bad. He also said it should make it back to OH.
> To make a long story not as long, the car finally gave out 3 hours
> from home. Just before it died, the idle was very erratic and it
> didn't like the slower stop and go traffic in the small town I was
> passing through. Once it finally decided that it could no longer
> maintain the engine rpm enough to continue, it quit. I couldn't get
> it to start after that. Had a friend pick me up from my home town and
> finally got back. What a long day.
>
> Day 3:
> Let it sit on the side of the road all day in disgust.
>
> Day 4:
> Loaded it on a flat bed trailer. The car actually started and ran
> just enough to get halfway up the ramps onto the trailer and it looked
> like a smoke grenade went off around us. Towed it home and put it in
> the garage where it sits, unable to start.
>
>
>
>
>