T4 California fresh water pump problem

[Hubble]

Hi
Out of the blue the tap has developed a fault. The battery is healthy (12.5v +) and the fuse is fine. Turn the tap on and nothing happens, no pump noise, no water coming out. The thing is, after a few seconds the pump sometimes kicks in and water comes out. Fresh water tank is about half full.
Anyone experienced this?

 

[mrcheesbrough]

Hey there. This could be a number of things. As you've probably come to expect owning a Westy. First check you can perform is to go under the sink and disconnect the electric plug to the tap and complete the circuit and see if the pump runs. If it does the pump is fine and the problem lies with the microswitch in the tap. These get 'sooted' up over time and don't allow the full voltage/current to flow and operate the pump. I'm not sure what age your Westy is but ours, from 2001, has a tap that can be dismantled and the switch cleaned. Alternatively the Forum shop sells a direct quality replacement much cheaper than VW would.

Hopefully that's helpful for you.

 

[Hubble]

Very helpful. Thanks.

 

[Chriswoody]

How long since you last used the tap? When we weren't using the tap very often we would have the same issue. I've put it down to the fact that all the water drains back into the tank and it takes a while for the tap to draw through all the air and fill the pipe with water. Could be completely wrong, but after a few days of regular use it was no longer a problem and the water would come out as soon as the tap was switched on. The water tank and pump have been drained all winter so I'm expecting the problem to recur when we start using the tap again.

 

[Maxi-Mizer-T6]

Sounds like a microswitch issue to me. I've put together a guide to help people identify which problem they actually have:

https://medium.com/@maxi-mizer/fix-vw-california-ocean-coast-kitchen-water-issues-43a19d0d893a

I hope it helps! I'll update this thread as I complete the detailed step-by-step guides (feel free to drop by that article and give me some claps and comments for motivation!)

 

[sidepod]

wow.

 

[Maxi-Mizer-T6]

OK, for any one browsing this thread in search for a guide on how to replace the water pump, here's a guide I've put together after replacing mine:
https://medium.com/@maxi-mizer/how-to-replace-the-vw-california-water-pump-b8ec3aac2868

If you are not sure if you need to replace your water pump or not, you can use my previous article to determine what problem is affecting your van:
https://medium.com/@maxi-mizer/fix-vw-california-ocean-coast-kitchen-water-issues-43a19d0d893a

I hope it helps!

 

[sidepod]

Should this be moved to the 6 section?

4s never break anyway

 

[AlisonF]

OK, for any one browsing this thread in search for a guide on how to replace the water pump, here's a guide I've put together after replacing mine:
https://medium.com/@maxi-mizer/how-to-replace-the-vw-california-water-pump-b8ec3aac2868

If you are not sure if you need to replace your water pump or not, you can use my previous article to determine what problem is affecting your van:
https://medium.com/@maxi-mizer/fix-vw-california-ocean-coast-kitchen-water-issues-43a19d0d893a

I hope it helps!

Rather than post the same thing in so many places… can you maybe just link to it in the other posts? There are going to have threads all over the place on the same issue otherwise which will not help future users.