99 TDI T4 - repair or abandon

[Scroty]

The one Ebay looks OK with a high positive feedback considering the no sold. Can you afford to wait for delivery?
If you needed to return it for any reason you may have to pay return postage & another wait. EDIT Just had another look & it says it's new so probably very little chance of a fault.
If you go for your mech. to recondition your pump, how long will that take? It's probably worth the gamble to pay up to $2500 rather than $3000 for the one that is ready to go.
How long have you owned the van? Has the fuel been drained/checked from the fuel filter on a regular basis? I have never picked up any water in mine after checking, but a friend of mine with a Toyota camper bus always finds some in his, [warning buzzer] after the regular trip he does in the winter from Adelaide to Queensland. He blames it on some of the outback stations he needs to fill up from.
I am pleased you have gone ahead with repairing your van. Any Syncro camper is worth saving & very special. The Americans would love to get hold of what you have [admittedly in LHD] for the Syncro/manual/TDI features.

Thanks for the reply. I can wait for the delivery, and the mechanic said he is happy to as well. I have had the van for 11 years, changed the filter once and opened the tap a few few times, sounds like I should have done it more but every time I did there was no obvious water, just fuel.
Although it does say NEU, it goes onto say it is reconditioned. Like you say though, they have a high turnover and a high rating, so I am going to take the risk for the $1200 saving. I post back to let you know how it goes.

[Umai Naa!!]

Fuel filter on them should be done every 60K/4 years, or sooner, if the car is subjected to dusty conditions.

However, in the real world not many people bother, due to the location of the filter and the difficulty of replacing it.

[jets]

After my friends experience, I will probably drain some fuel from the filter[easy job] after a trip where I have needed to fill at stations that I don't know. In the city, I tend to use the newer stations with new tanks for the reduced chance of ground water leaking in. It is also known to be bought in from the tanker. In the CR & newer diesels, contaminated fuel is a real problem & can be very expensive to rectify any damage. In the Bosch VE style pumps they are more tolerant.

[jets]

Although it does say NEU, it goes onto say it is reconditioned.

I only took a quick look & didn't do a translation but I did wonder about the sandblast or soda or whatever they used finish. It certainly was different to the high gloss cast finish you expect to see on a new pump. I look forward to your reposting of progress.

[Transporter]

After my friends experience, I will probably drain some fuel from the filter[easy job] after a trip where I have needed to fill at stations that I don't know. In the city, I tend to use the newer stations with new tanks for the reduced chance of ground water leaking in. It is also known to be bought in from the tanker. In the CR & newer diesels, contaminated fuel is a real problem & can be very expensive to rectify any damage. In the Bosch VE style pumps they are more tolerant.

From my personal experience, the newer petrol stations could also have contaminated fuel.

[Scroty]

Just to finish the tale - I tried to contact a German e-bay for a fuel pump but go no replies (I did ask in English, and then again in Google Translated german. Maybe if you have a german speaking friend author the email they might reply).
So, then I went through Ribble valley diesel in the UK. They sent one out but it got stopped at the airport and Customs wouldn't deliver is as they said it was "dangerous". Maybe it was leaking or something? Ribble said that had never happened to them before but they refunded me in full.
In the end Sydney Diesel centre sourced one for $2000 (better than the $4200 quote for reconditioning mine!). They fitted it and the reconditioned injectors and it cost me around $6K all up.
The van ran great after that so I cleaned it up and sold it.
Good luck to anyone who has a similar problem, I'm sure you will have better luck then me.