Question for diesel owners

[Metric1]

A woman I work with has a Jetta TDI (diesel) and today she ran it completely dry of diesel. The car has absolutely NO diesel left in the tank. I went to the store and got her a gallon of diesel and put it in the tank but the car won't start at all?

[Swearwolf]

might have to bleed it thru

[Mint]

Diesels get air locked when they have run out of fuel. You need to put some diesel into the fuel filter before trying to start it again.

[Dentafrice]

Coming from someone who owns a diesel, and works on diesels daily.. don't try to start it again yet.

You're going to need to fill the fuel filter with diesel. This should be a self priming system. Is there a wait to start light, or a coil on the dash that you need to wait for before you try to start it?

On most TDs, you're going to need to get up to the engine, at the fuel injection pump.. and crack the line on the injection pump that the fuel comes to.

Usually it goes like this.. :



You need to crack the line with a wrench or socket.. and get your buddy to try to crank the car real fast.. but don't let the car turn over.. just attempt to start it.

You should then see fuel start to flow.. and once it gets all the air out.. tighten the bolt/banjo fitting back up.

It should be a self priming system, so from the injection pump on you shouldn't have to bleed the injectors.

Now try to turn over the car

[tdi]

if it's a jetta tdi then you'll be able to do it automatically. i know, as my fuel pump fuse went and the engine became completely dry. just replaced the fuse after much confusion as to what the problem was and just kept trying to start it (not continuously turning it over though)..
eventually it started again but it'll be quite rough for the first few miles.. it can possibly damage a piston too if it sucks up any gunk at the bottom of the tank.. happened to my mate's car.

[Dentafrice]

if it's a jetta tdi then you'll be able to do it automatically. i know, as my fuel pump fuse went and the engine became completely dry. just replaced the fuse after much confusion as to what the problem was and just kept trying to start it (not continuously turning it over though)..
eventually it started again but it'll be quite rough for the first few miles.. it can possibly damage a piston too if it sucks up any gunk at the bottom of the tank.. happened to my mate's car.

It shouldn't suck up any gunk from the bottom of the tank, the fuel filter should catch that.. and if it doesn't then you need a new FF

[Metric1]

She traded it in today on a 2010 Jetta TDI clean-diesel. The lack of diesel was one of the problems. It needed a bunch of work to the engine including a cam or something. The car would hesitate sometimes so she just got a new one LOL