So, on Saturday, on the regulat Trivandrum to Ernakulam drive, after about 150 kms, the engine lost power, turned on blinkers and coasted to the road side. The check engine light is on. That is definitely not normal, the scanguage II was connected as usual, so quickly checked for the error code -
P0089. Noted that down. Shutdown, restart, the engine is back to normal, and I start my drive, around 2 kms later the same thing, this time the car is refusing to start. So, I shut down the whole thing and started googling for
P0089. The high-pressure diesel pump, attached to the intake manifold is malfunctioning. OK, so, why is not going to the limp home mode, it cannot cause further issues down road, I suspected, high accelerations as culprit. Tried starting the car, and it started again, this time, I kept the speed below 60 and it was fine for another 30 odd kilometers, before bogging down. This time, I was overtaking a slow lorry, luckily I had my windows down, so I turned on blinkers and wavexd to the lorry driver, who understood something was wrong and braked. Coasted to the side of the road and called RSA. A guy came over on a 2 wheeler and I showed him the code, he concurred about the high pressure pump, and we took the car to the nearby workshop as he said that, this may happen again and the next time, it happens, the car may refuse to start. It is better to leave it at the workshop (MASS) rather than getting towed. So, took the car slowly on a 2.5 kms journey to the nearby MASS. (HERCULES CHUNGAM, ALAPUZHA) , took an uber rest of the way.
Follow up with HERCULES - the SA calls me at 3 PM and says that there is no code and he took the car on a 30km test drive. I am like, what, it should be in the stored codes! He says, sorry, he may need the car for a longer time. I said, sorry, I am coming to pick up the car tomorrow (Sunday)
I was devasted so, I called up the kerala TSM, sivakumar sir, who is a very kind gentleman, who listened to my issues and said he will talk to the workshop manager of HERCULES CHUNGAM, Mr Abhilash.
Sunday morning, I had a function at home and post lunch, I was ready to go to HERCULES again (50 kms from home) when I got a call from the HERCULES, stating that they were able to read the error this time. So, I asked what happened from yesterday, and he said that they put the car on idle for a long time and it popped up.
So, today, I went to that place for a visit, so that I can take the photo of the failed part, and I spoke to the technician, who said, that they needed to upgrade their software. They were unable to communicate to the car the first time, and this time, they were able to 'talk' to the car.
The high-pressure fuel pump is due for warranty replacement. The part to arrive on Tuesday, I can collect the car on Wednesday. I asked for photo of their test results.
The warranty is over at 80,000 km failure happened at 79,120 km. Cost of the new high-pressure pump, approximately, 28k.
