So ..... had a complete mare today with my old girl. Smelled petrol when I parked up. Found the end of the fuel rail looked damp and on looking further was actually dripping fuel. It was coming from where the fuel supply line bolts to the little upright union on the rail (not the regulator end, the other end). Wiggling it slightly proved to be a bad idea as the drip turned into a steady squirt. Quickly turned off ignition and pulled fuse 10 from rear right seat fuse box (fuel pump relay fuse).

Removed the fuel rail (cover x3 T30's), wiring harness x3 8mm bolts, rail x4 8mm bolts (harness just unclips one injector at a time pushing the tabs in). The upright union seems to be welded or glued onto the main rail tube. Did a temporary fix with epoxy resin. Ordered used rail on ebay whilst waiting for this to dry. Refitted everything, turned on ignition, now fuel pouring out of the first injector (front of car). All back to bits and found O ring at rail end of injector perished and edge was missing. Must have been nicely sealed until disturbed! Car now stranded at work!!

Anyway I pulled an injector off an old BMW rail I had lying around in my garage and the O ring looks to be identical. Perhaps not surprising as most injectors are pretty generic.So tomorrow my BMW O ring and resin fix will be put to the test!!

I found a full set of refurbed injectors complete with O rings on ebay for £65. Seems like a good deal? I am tempted to order them so I replace the injectors, O rings and used fuel rail all in one go. Any opinions?

 

Flush the new fuel rail before installing

 

The mrs is out friday night so its going in the dishwasher

 

my personal opinion , dishwasher detergent is caustic and not good for metal

Maybe a pressure wash of the inside of the tube with a garden hose and water

Maybe soak with some rust dissolver from the auto parts store before hand

With very fine sandpaper clean up the 6 bosses the injector o - rings seat into

The outside can be cleaned up with a wire brush or a scotch bright and spray painted like I did with mine

Each injector has a basket filter in the inlet that can be removed and replaced

To check for fuel leaks you do not have to run the engine but you must run for a bit to ensure fuel is in the line

The check valve in the fuel pump should hold the 43 psi for days in the line

Vee once suggested using foot powder to better show if a area gets wet

Others may have a different opinion and is welcome

 

Just finished a 180km round trip in the car. Resin repair and BMW injector O ring performed perfectly, not a drop of fuel in sight. Still feel more comfortable with replacement fuel rail when it arrives but at least for now I am back on the road. Another circa 300kms to do in it this week. The big Jag loves to munch miles!!

 

After a "spirited" run (late for a meeting!) up to Malaga, around 150kmph all the way there I was returning when I detected the alarming smell of petrol whilst queuing to pay a road toll. Pulled over at the next stop and was met with dripping petrol through the resin repair. Engine fully hot by this point and outside temp 35 degrees so I stopped for a while to let it cool off. I must admit sitting in the cafe looking at the car through the window wondering if it was going to burst into flames any moment!!! Of course it didn't!!! Fairly nervous journey home and obviously game over for a while until replacement rail arrived .... which it did yesterday. Quick write up on replacing: I won't repeat how to do it as this is in my post above but here are a few snags I encountered:

1) The new rail came with the fuel pipes attached including the whole regulator and bracket (bonus spare regulator!). I took great care in removing the pipe at the inlet end to ensure I didn't damage the upright union, this being the cause of the problem in my original. Vice clamp and careful use of 17mm and 19mm wrenches got this uncoupled
2) The injectors are not very easy to get into the rail. Its very easy to damage the O rings. I ended up damaging the edges of two of them. They either popped easily into place or proved a pig to get in even using silicone spray. I had to farm another two O rings of the BMW injector rail I had ....
3) After fitting I noticed that the pipe on the end of the rail in no way lined up with the regulator on the car. I had to remove the regulator (2nr 8mm bolts), bolt it up to the pipe on the rail and then carefully and slowly bend the pipe on the rail and the bracket on the regulator until it fitted.

Fired straight up and now no more leaks. After 4 days off the road she's back in business.

Sam.

 

Sam,

Congratulations on your successful repair and thank you for posting your journey in such helpful detail. I'm sure your thread will help other members in the future.

If I recall correctly, at least one of the Jaguar service manuals recommends lubricating the fuel injector O-rings with engine oil prior to installation. I typically use dielectric grease.

Just to add my thoughts on the topic of cleaning the fuel rail prior to re-installation, I'm leery of using water by any application method due to the risk of promoting any further corrosion inside the rail. Instead, I have always used solvents such as mineral spirits, naptha or brake cleaner spray.

Cheers,

Don

 

Thanks Don.

My pleasure. In terms of cleaning I used WD40 brake cleaner and squirting a good half a can through the rail as well as giving the outside a clean of grease. End of the day its an engine component so I wasn't bothered about it being spotless, more about the inside. No gunk or anything really came out of it to be honest but I agree using water would go against the grain for me. I was only joking about putting it in the dishwasher!!!

Injector reinstall thats interesting I wouldn't have thought of using engine oil. I would definitely recommend having some spare O rings to hand. The first time I did it (with the resin repaired rail) one damaged one meant the car abandoned at my work overnight and the second time two damaged ones meant stopping the job again to go to my warehouse to farm BMW ones off another rail.

Definitely hope this proves useful to others in the future.

All the best
Sam.