Fuel rail pressure

Dm85

Senior Member
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T6 Pro
Hi,

I’ve been adamant somethings not right as on cold start I can feel more engine vibrations. I would not say misfire but it’s possible they aren’t aggressive. I have OBD11 and I’ve been monitoring fuel rail pressure. When start stop cuts in at traffic lights I can see the reading drop from 32000kpa roughly, to 200kpa in a matter of about 10-15 seconds.

With a warm engine this should go higher not lower, so there’s a leak somewhere. Can the fuel rail pressure regulator be faulty? Could be an injector issue but not getting any exhaust smoke I can notice?

Does the tandem pump have a none return valve on it?
 
When start stop cuts in at traffic lights I can see the reading drop from 32000kpa roughly, to 200kpa in a matter of about 10-15 seconds.

Here's one stop/start event from my CXEB diesel engine for comparison. As you say the pressure starts to drop from stop event and drops in about 15 seconds to neighbourhood of 200 bar until picking up again. Interestingly, there is only a small pressure bump on engine start, but overall rail pressure keeps dropping well into the acceleration following the stop/start event.

1711985914470.webp


I usually run stop/start disabled so don't have much stop/start events recorded. However, here's another one but it's so short the pressure does not really change at all. This is also a warm engine although only some tens of secs into the drive.

1711986522222.webp

With a warm engine this should go higher not lower, so there’s a leak somewhere. Can the fuel rail pressure regulator be faulty?

I don't think this alone says anything about the regulator valve. If the regulator valve would be faulty I would expect the pressure to be unstable or not able to reach highest >2kbar in peaks.
 
Here's one stop/start event from my CXEB diesel engine for comparison. As you say the pressure starts to drop from stop event and drops in about 15 seconds to neighbourhood of 200 bar until picking up again. Interestingly, there is only a small pressure bump on engine start, but overall rail pressure keeps dropping well into the acceleration following the stop/start event.

View attachment 235141


I usually run stop/start disabled so don't have much stop/start events recorded. However, here's another one but it's so short the pressure does not really change at all. This is also a warm engine although only some tens of secs into the drive.

View attachment 235142



I don't think this alone says anything about the regulator valve. If the regulator valve would be faulty I would expect the pressure to be unstable or not able to reach highest >2kbar in peaks.

That’s great info thanks! I was thinking rail pressure should rise but that’s the petrol fuel rails.

How do you check the injectors are within specs other than a leak off test? VCDS only shows time deviation but not actual injector fuel values. Mine just says 0.00mg/stroke. Only thing I can see is overall quantity of around 6mg/stroke. I believe this is because it’s UDS and not CAN in the Engine module.
 
That’s great info thanks! I was thinking rail pressure should rise but that’s the petrol fuel rails.

How do you check the injectors are within specs other than a leak off test? VCDS only shows time deviation but not actual injector fuel values. Mine just says 0.00mg/stroke. Only thing I can see is overall quantity of around 6mg/stroke. I believe this is because it’s UDS and not CAN in the Engine module. Unless you need to login in access and submit a code
 
How do you check the injectors are within specs other than a leak off test? VCDS only shows time deviation but not actual injector fuel values. Mine just says 0.00mg/stroke. Only thing I can see is overall quantity of around 6mg/stroke. I believe this is because it’s UDS and not CAN in the Engine module.

Not sure how to actually check injectors but post #67 and #68 have some injection graphs from mine - although not measured with VCDS they are named after VCDS advanced measuring values and use the same data source on ECU so may help in comparing. I don't think you can see individual injector quantities from anywhere; just the duration and timing.

EDIT: "I don't think you can see individual injector quantities from anywhere; just the duration" - I mean duration is effectively same as quantity, just in different units. A single injection by a single injector does not really drop rail pressure all that much so the quantity is pretty much a linear function of duration.
 
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Hi.

Can you please let me know what should be rail pressure when engine is off ? Please see attached pictures where I have about 288bar when engine is on idle (seems like Injector 3 is giving more fuel than it should) , then it gets up to 410bar when I have around 1400RPM (all injectors balance to 0) and it drops to 1 bar when engine is off.

I am guessing correct I have a leak somewhere ? I have CXEC/199BHP Caravelle with 60.000miles and suddenly car started to have issue with start. I got injectors out and got them tested and they came back as failed on fuel delivery. Symptoms were bad engine start and I could smell almost like unburnt fuel coming out from exhaust. I have then replaced all injectors and coded them via VCDS. With new injectors (same bad start and smell of fuel) you can see my values and I have suspicion on Fuel Rail pressure drop either caused by the sensor or valve or optionally by the High Pressure Pump.

Can you please check the pictures and let me know your opinion on the Rail Pressure ? Also if I have a leak how come I do not see any fuel escape/drops leak around rail or pump ? No fault codes in the entire vehicles so VCDS is saying all is perfect :(

1300 Rpm.jpg

Engine Off.jpg

Engine on iddle.jpg
 
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