Help - metal filings throughout fuel system!
Discussion
Elliot2000 said:
all it takes is for the pump to be run with a small amount of petrol or contaminated fuel to reduce the lubrication in the the pump enough to cause the smallest of flat spots on the roller bearing - and from then onwards it will just wear away and destroy itself .
Unfit for purpose if it can't handle a misfuel without shagging itself. This stuff's just too fragile. Touring442 said:
Unfit for purpose if it can't handle a misfuel without shagging itself. This stuff's just too fragile.
Surely your joking- a car designed to be run on diesel (an oily lubricant type fuel and which lubricates fuel system components as it runs through) but has been run on petrol (a non oil, non lubricating fuel which actually acts as a thinner and causes the pump to run metal to metal) means it’s not fit for purpose? If u ever misfuel any new car - let me know how you get on arguing with the dealer that it should be fixed under warranty because it’s their fault you put completely the wrong fuel in but it should still be fine And anyway - we don’t know if it was misfueled- a Fuel stations underground tanks may have been contaminated with water, or poor quality fuel from refinery or any number of other possibilities.
Elliot2000 said:
Surely your joking
Most surely I'm not.How did all those diesels made before ever survive? I've never, ever changed an M47 pump - just the pressure solenoid. Never heard of one fail in this way and wipe out the injectors. This design pump is also fitted to modern VAG stuff and goes the same way. All those old Merc and Peugeot diesels with all kinds of s
t in the tank didn't go wrong. My local BMW specialist is doing 4 or 5 N47 pumps a month. Are they all misfuelled? If they are, that means there's a lot of bad fuel about, not that it affects the old type pumps. 
Touring442 said:
Most surely I'm not.
How did all those diesels made before ever survive? I've never, ever changed an M47 pump - just the pressure solenoid. Never heard of one fail in this way and wipe out the injectors. This design pump is also fitted to modern VAG stuff and goes the same way. All those old Merc and Peugeot diesels with all kinds of st in the tank didn't go wrong. My local BMW specialist is doing 4 or 5 N47 pumps a month. Are they all misfuelled? If they are, that means there's a lot of bad fuel about, not that it affects the old type pumps.
My point was that your expecting cars that are designed to run on diesel should not be affected if someone tries to run it on petrol? Older diesels would also not run very happily if run on petrol - diesel injector internals would become damaged and increase leak off to the point it would stop running - so should they have created diesel injectors to be able to run on petrol too? No- they are designed to run as efficient as possible on the correct fuel.How did all those diesels made before ever survive? I've never, ever changed an M47 pump - just the pressure solenoid. Never heard of one fail in this way and wipe out the injectors. This design pump is also fitted to modern VAG stuff and goes the same way. All those old Merc and Peugeot diesels with all kinds of s
t in the tank didn't go wrong. My local BMW specialist is doing 4 or 5 N47 pumps a month. Are they all misfuelled? If they are, that means there's a lot of bad fuel about, not that it affects the old type pumps. Older diesels may have been more robust in some ways - like older Mercs and vw’s running on veg oil with no modification- but they were also less efficient on their designed fuel, more polluting and less performance. As tolerances are reduced to improve these aspects, you are going to have to use better quality fuels .
On the point of them actual pumps - it’s not the best design ever, like I mentioned, but you can find flaws in any engine in existence that could be made better. N47 - everyone knows about the chain problems, m47 and m57- swirl flaps snapping off, turbos failing, vag engines breaking or wearing oil pump keyway, rover k series headgaskets, bmw n43 injectors failing, etc etc etc.
But if the OP didn't misfuel his car? That means you are at the mercy of whatever is in the tanks at a petrol station.
How many M47 pumps have failed and wiped out the injectors? None, because they were well designed and properly made so that they could withstand a misfuel.
The ones I know of have had gradual decrease in power to the point they won't run. The diesel in the tank doesn't have a whiff of petrol. This isn't 4 gallons of unleaded in the tank. This is another N47 problem to add to the list.
How many M47 pumps have failed and wiped out the injectors? None, because they were well designed and properly made so that they could withstand a misfuel.
The ones I know of have had gradual decrease in power to the point they won't run. The diesel in the tank doesn't have a whiff of petrol. This isn't 4 gallons of unleaded in the tank. This is another N47 problem to add to the list.
Touring442 said:
But if the OP didn't misfuel his car? That means you are at the mercy of whatever is in the tanks at a petrol station.
How many M47 pumps have failed and wiped out the injectors? None, because they were well designed and properly made so that they could withstand a misfuel.
The ones I know of have had gradual decrease in power to the point they won't run. The diesel in the tank doesn't have a whiff of petrol. This isn't 4 gallons of unleaded in the tank. This is another N47 problem to add to the list.
M47 pumps were not designed to withstand misfuelling. It’s possible they could survive, but that wasn’t part of the design spec. Pumps might survive- but fuel injectors would not- is this because of bad design of the injectors or because they were never designed to have petrol run through them?How many M47 pumps have failed and wiped out the injectors? None, because they were well designed and properly made so that they could withstand a misfuel.
The ones I know of have had gradual decrease in power to the point they won't run. The diesel in the tank doesn't have a whiff of petrol. This isn't 4 gallons of unleaded in the tank. This is another N47 problem to add to the list.
All engines have their weaknesses - that crap design of a roller bearing that could run perpendicular to the cam lobe and cause a flat spot is one of them, but holding up the m47 as the perfect design is wrong - it had plenty of its own flaws, was less efficient, more polluting and had more turbo lag. You are less likely to have a hpfp fail, but more likely to have injectors fail, less likely to have timing chain failure (still happened tho) and more likely to have swirl flap failure destroying the engine.
stevemcs said:
I'd be having the pump replaced, the fuel filter replaced, the tank dropped and cleaned and the fuel lines washed through. But i guess it depends how far the metal has got. I would have hoped the fuel filter stopped any metal hitting the injectors
In regards to this and having the injectors replaced has anyone done this and the car run fine afterwards? I have the same issue with my car bmw want 10k to fix the HPFP went on me and now left with a price to fix worth more than the car. 
1798 said:
In regards to this and having the injectors replaced has anyone done this and the car run fine afterwards? I have the same issue with my car bmw want 10k to fix the HPFP went on me and now left with a price to fix worth more than the car.
OP here I paid approx £7.5k and it ran like new afterwards. Traded it recently for £10k with 70k on a 14 plateGassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff