problem starting Saab diesel after running out of fuel

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Trespassers W - 22 Jan 2007 11:24 GMT

I foolishly ran out of fuel in Saab 9-5 3.0TiD yesterday 10 miles from home
(the display showed I still had enough fuel for 30 miles). An insurance
company man brought me 10 liters of fuel and it took me 1.5 hrs to start the
engine. At times I turned the starter for as long as 30 secs. I
unsuccessfully tried to locate a fuel filter or a fuel pump somewhere under
the hood. Finally, when the battery was half-dead, the engine started. My
questions are as follows:
What is one supposed to do in such situations (other than make sure they do
not happen)?
What are the risks/potential damage?
Where is the fuel pump located anyway?
Thanks and best regards
TW

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kingdoodlesquat - 22 Jan 2007 23:33 GMT

> I foolishly ran out of fuel in Saab 9-5 3.0TiD yesterday 10 miles from home
> (the display showed I still had enough fuel for 30 miles). An insurance
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> What is one supposed to do in such situations (other than make sure they do
> not happen)?

Whenever a diesel system on any engine runs out of fuel, it is always
difficult to get going again because the air drawn into the fuel system
creates loads of airlocks & are always hard to shift. The best way I know of
to get rid of the air in the system is to crack the pipe at the most
convenient point by loosening off a union as close to the fuel injectors as
you can get. When you switch the key on I think the fuel pump pressurises
the fuel system without having to turn the engine over, so hopefully it will
continually try to pressurise the system & push the air out of the cracked
point. When fuel comes out, switch off the ignition & tighten up the union.
Hopefully your car should then start within 2 or 3 times.

> What are the risks/potential damage?

The only risks I am aware of is that if you repeated try & start the car,
anything that is fuel lubricated is likely to get damaged very quickly, so
you might have damaged the fuel pump, but this should be apparent is you
notice a drop in performance of your car.

> Where is the fuel pump located anyway?

Don't know - sorry

> Thanks and best regards
> TW

HTH

kds:-)

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Trespassers W - 23 Jan 2007 09:33 GMT

_____________
What are the risks/potential damage?

> The only risks I am aware of is that if you repeated try & start the car,
> anything that is fuel lubricated is likely to get damaged very quickly, so
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> HTH
>_________

Thanks a lot for a professional piece of advice.
Best regards
TW

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Everett M. Greene - 23 Jan 2007 18:16 GMT

> > I foolishly ran out of fuel in Saab 9-5 3.0TiD yesterday 10 miles from
> home
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> point. When fuel comes out, switch off the ignition & tighten up the union.
> Hopefully your car should then start within 2 or 3 times.

War story: Caterpillar tractors are all but impossible
to start again even with a starting engine if the main
engine is run out of fuel. Did you ever try towing a
D8 Cat to get it started?

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kingdoodlesquat - 23 Jan 2007 20:22 GMT

> > > I foolishly ran out of fuel in Saab 9-5 3.0TiD yesterday 10 miles from
> > home
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> engine is run out of fuel. Did you ever try towing a
> D8 Cat to get it started?

You could always push it downhill with a prevailing wind!!! I've had similar
nightmares trying to get train engines started.

kds :-)

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Richard - 23 Jan 2007 23:05 GMT

>> > > I foolishly ran out of fuel in Saab 9-5 3.0TiD yesterday 10 miles
>> > > from
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> start
>> > the

{SNIP}

>> > continually try to pressurise the system & push the air out of the
> cracked
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> kds :-)

Hello,
are you really serious about this?
I just can not imagine a "larger" diesel engine to NOT have some sort of
bleeding mechanism. All the marine diesels I have come across had a sort of
manual pump that includes an automatic bleeding valve....

How do they start those big engines up for the first time (at the factory) ?

Just curious.

Richard.

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MH - 23 Jan 2007 23:13 GMT

> All the marine diesels I have come across had a sort of
> manual pump that includes an automatic bleeding valve....

That's what I remember exactly...

> How do they start those big engines up for the first time (at the factory) ?

They probably prime all the fuel lines with an electric pump.

Signature

MH
'72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96
'91 900i

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kingdoodlesquat - 24 Jan 2007 00:47 GMT

> Hello,
> are you really serious about this?
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Richard.

I've worked on diesel generators in the Royal Navy & on diesel engines /
heaters on trains after I left & I've had nothing but heartache getting air
out the fuel systems. All the problems I found always seemed to occur with
fuel lines which had plenty of bends in the pipework & presumably plenty of
places for air to be trapped, but I never came across anything which had
built in bleed valves in the fuel system specifically for this purposes or
manually operated pumps (I think). I'd put that down to typical British
engineering & design. I seem to remember that on the new built trains, we
had a bloke who had a series of portable pumps to charge the fluid systems,
but I might be wrong, it was some years ago.

kds :-)

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MH - 23 Jan 2007 23:10 GMT

> ... The best way I know of to get rid of the air in the system is to crack
> the pipe at the most convenient point by loosening off a union as close to
> the fuel injectors as you can get.

I remember on the older Diesel engines there used to be a lever on the fuel pump
that you could operate by hand, to bleed the fuel lines of air.

Signature

MH
'72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96
'91 900i

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Christoph Kessler - 24 Jan 2007 00:16 GMT

Trespassers W schrieb:

> I foolishly ran out of fuel in Saab 9-5 3.0TiD yesterday 10 miles from home
> (the display showed I still had enough fuel for 30 miles). An insurance
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Thanks and best regards
> TW

hi tw,
i had this prob a long time ago: as i ran out of fuel, i parked my car
on the right side, called the saab assistance and got the
adac-helping-guy send to my place. he electricaly connected his van to
mine and tried starting the engine several times. after not longer then
5 min the engine ran for itself. no other probs no discussion.
afterwards, few months later, i had to change the (damaged) battery. as
a serviceman from "banner" told my, the batteries in our 3.0 tid are to
small in capacity and larger ones do not fit in the same place.
best wishes to u
chris

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