Dirty Fuel

I have been having an occasional problem with my HiLux over the last 12 months or so. After driving a rough road/track, I would have symptoms of fuel starvation, and occasionally when at its worst, I would loose heaps of power to the point where 40 - 50 kmh was top speed and the engine warning light would come on on the dash. Took it to the local mechanic, who at first couldn;t work it out. He took it to the local Toyota dealer who put the car on their diagnostic gear which told them the injector pump was stuffed. Fortunately he didn't think that was right, and sought advice from the local diesel expert, Chris Philp. They took off the fuel line into the filter and blew back through it, clearing a blockage in the tank pickup. It happened to me a couple more times and each time I cleared it by blowing back through the fuel line into the tank. By now convinced it was something blocking the pick up, I drained the tank and flushed it several times. A lot of metallic bits came out, mostly stuck to the magnetic drain plug, but also a lump of fibrous nylonny stuff, which is what I suspect was the problem. Hopefully all cured now, but local Toyota dealer wanted to sell me a new injector pump. Thank goodness for decent local mechanics unaffiliated with dealers.

GB