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Fuel Rail Spraying in engine compartment!

T

trijeep

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Minnesota
2001 CHerokee Ltd. 4.0
123,000 miles

I've been having trouble with fuel delivery, but today it went to an entirely new level. First, as a background, i've been losing fuel pressure and I've reverted to priming the pump twice before it starts. It'll start up, stuble for two seconds, and then run fine.

I drove it to work this morning, no problems, however after work I left for home, and smelled a strong odor of gas. I pulled over right away and opened the hood. There was a puddle of gas sitting under the fuel rail on top of the intake manifold. I'm very lucky it didn't start on fire!

I evaluated the problem, and I have a fuel leak coming from the small nodule in the middle of the fuel rail. First, does anyone know what this is? I've done some looking around, could it be the fuel pressure damper?? I've searched around some, but I'm not sure and I could really use some help on this.

Thanks in advance!

~Luke
 
sounds to me like its your injectors that are leaking. dealership or napa has replacement o rings for about 7 bucks.
 
It's not coming out of the injectors. There is another device between the third and fourth injectors, attached to the fuel rail. It looks like a pressure regulator without a vacuum port.
 
How does it come out? I tried to twist it and it wouldn't disengage from the fuel rail. Also, does anyone know what it is?
 
Fuel pressure damper. I don't think it detaches from the rail, but there's a snap ring on the side facing the engine- I'm looking at the rail I have from a late 99, and it appears that you can pull the guts out of it.

Image016-1.jpg


Image015.jpg


You can see the retaining tabs for the snapring, and the ring itself. Hope that helps.
 
Last edited:
it's a damper. supposed to smooth out the pressure pulses, or something to that effect. i wouldn't bother taking it apart, as it's not serviceable on it's own-only sold/serviced with a new fuel rail. probably a hole in the diaphragm.

damn, beat me to it...
 
If it can be taken apart, so can one at a salvage yard.

I would at least try that before buying a new fuel rail.
 
That's definitely the part. I'll call the stealership and salvage yard tomorrow to see if they have it. I really appreciate all the help!
 
Followup:

I replaced the fuel rail with a new one from the stealership. Cost: $220. Everything appeared to be working fine, however when I drove over to the gas station to fuel up it wouldn't start again. It cranked over for about 10 minutes without starting. As I was waiting for a friend to give me a tow I tried starting it again. i heard a loud POP, which came from the fuel line slipping off the hose barb connected to the fuel rail. Apparently I had a little too much fuel pressure. We managed to get the fuel line back on, and I was able to start it and drive it home. I believe the only thing left for me to replace is the fuel pump, so I ordered on today and I'll be dropping it in this weekend.

Thanks again for the help, I'll try to post once I have the new pump in.
 
Why do you assume that you have too much fuel pressure and that the problem is not in the fuel rail connection or the way you reconnected it? Fuel pressure regulator failure that causes excessive pressure is a very rare failure mode. Concentrate on your connection quality or test for excessive pressure with a gage.
 
I was assuming it wasn't the connection because the blow off occured on the fuel pump side of the factory connection (where I had disconnected and reconnected the fuel rail). Also, the new factory fuel rail does not have a shcrader valve for checking the pressure. I did not think putting the old one on, checking the pressure, and replacing with the new one would give me accurate results. Since the problem persisted with a new fuel rail (the problem being high pressure) I assumed it wasn't the fuel injectors, and the next most obvious part was the fuel pump. Also when I can install the new fuel pump it is much more economical than buying a new set of injectors (which I doubt the injectors would cause pressure spikes).

At any rate I dropped the tank last night and ordered the fuel pump. I'll have it installed by friday.
 
Good luck with that!

I took the fuel line off the rail of my '90 once, cost me $20 to put it back on. I thought that was pretty special. :(
 
I purchased a new fuel pump from Rock Auto last week. The installation went great, and the problem seems to be fixed. I've only driven it about 30 miles, however it starts immediately every time, and hasn't leaked any more fuel or blown any fittings/gaskets/orings/connections. Looking back I should have just started with the fuel pump, but it's only too clear now.
 
I went with the Spectra Premium. The only difference so far is that it runs a little louder. Otherwise it was a bolt-in replacement, and looked virtually the same. I did notice that the electrical connector was longer and the level sensor float had an oval profile rather than round, like the stock one.
 
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