Fuel pump this time?

So, the ongoing saga of the breaking Golf continues. It used to randomly stop, and my mechanic cleaned out the fuel tank at my request. All went fine after that, although after very short drives of just a few minutes, I have to let it sit for another minute or two before it restarts.

It started doing the random stopping thing again a few months ago. The fuel filler neck is NOT rusty at all so I wasn't convinced it was something in the tank. My mechanic replaced the fuel filter, but that hasn't fixed it. It's happening so regularly that it stopped again trying to get it to the mechanic - while just idling (seems to do it most often when idling or when trying to restart). Managed eventually to restart it and get it to a closer mechanic who is sure it's the fuel pump, based on the noise it's making. The thing is it's always made a noise.

Do you reckon he's on the mark? If so, how much would it cost in the UK to get a replacement part (new - no point fitting an old one if it does the same thing in a few years) and get it fitted?

Nobody has had this problem???

The mechanic has quoted me three hundred and something euros for the part alone. Does this sound right?

Sounds like a lot for a fuel pump, has the car had a good service? Could be the carb?

It's fuel injected so definitely not the carb. I checked with VW and the part is €325, so the mechanic gave me the right price.

However, it's taken him until today to say he doesn't have time to fix it. I've called him at least five times and aRGGGHHHHHHH I'm sooooo frustrated about this! My car hasn't worked for most of bloody summer thanks to mechanics being extremely crap. Third mechanic lucky. Don't move to rural France if you expect any standard of timely service.

Browse to euro car parts or GSF to find the £ price, IIRC its about £100-130 for a new Bosch one. Have you considered it might be the accumulator? Basically anything/everything in the fuel system needs cleaning out after a rust episode. If its cutting out regularly, then it would be easy to find out for sure, since you can do a fuel pressure test and if the pressure drops just as it cuts out….

Thanks Paul. I'll try to explain that to the mechanic. The fuel filler neck on this one is still not rusty and the tank was cleaned out about three or so years ago when I got the car and it kept randomly stopping. That seemed to solve it that time.

It now cuts out every few minutes, and after the first cut-out won't restart for up to an hour. I've left it at a different mechanic who saw the problem first hand, so hopefully that will help (it hasn't happened regularly enough in the past for the mechanics to see the problem occur). Off to check out GSF etc.

Thanks again for the helpful advice.