Having some issues with my 318is. Around a week ago my fuel pump suddenly died whilst driving. Got towed home and replaced it with a proven pump. The car fired straight up again, took it for a test drive and it died again a mile up the road. I purchased another pump put and put it in the car. I wired this pump directly from the battery with a fuse and a switch. I even removed the fuel lines from the rail to see if all the lines was okay, which they were. I plumbed all the lines back on and fired it up. And about another mile up the road this pump also failed. The pumps are burning out, I can sometimes if i connect them up to a battery and knock them get them to come alive again.
Any suggestions?
the car has also just had a new tank fitted
Fuel Pumps keep burning out
Moderator: martauto
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Brianmoooore
- E30 Zone Team Member
- Posts: 49359
- Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:00 pm
They are not 'burning out' - I've never seen one that has 'burnt out'.
E30 fuel pumps fail in two different ways: 1) The copper commutator, that the carbon brushes in the motor rub against wears completely through. Very unusual for the brushes in a motor to outlast the commutator, but that's what happens with these. At first there will just be small gaps in the copper, so that if the motor happens to stop with a brush on one of these gaps, it will not restart. A good thump usually gets it going again, but over a couple of thousand miles, the gaps will get bigger, and it will become more and more difficult to restart, and will fail to start more often.
A characteristic of this failure is that the motor makes a loud whine while running, which can easily be heard over the noise of the engine.
2) The gears that comprise the actual pump wear and begin to jamb the motor. This can also be temporarily cured by thumping the motor, but the deterioration is usually slower than with the worn commutator, and the pump doesn't sound much different from normal when it's running.
I suspect your pumps are all in the second category, and my theory of what happens, after experiencing your problem myself, is that the gears in the pump are worn, but not yet enough to cause problems, but have now corroded slightly while the pump has been stored, and this is enough to turn a working pump into a scrap one.
I now pour a little oil into the bottom of pumps when I remove them from scrappers and store them.
E30 fuel pumps fail in two different ways: 1) The copper commutator, that the carbon brushes in the motor rub against wears completely through. Very unusual for the brushes in a motor to outlast the commutator, but that's what happens with these. At first there will just be small gaps in the copper, so that if the motor happens to stop with a brush on one of these gaps, it will not restart. A good thump usually gets it going again, but over a couple of thousand miles, the gaps will get bigger, and it will become more and more difficult to restart, and will fail to start more often.
A characteristic of this failure is that the motor makes a loud whine while running, which can easily be heard over the noise of the engine.
2) The gears that comprise the actual pump wear and begin to jamb the motor. This can also be temporarily cured by thumping the motor, but the deterioration is usually slower than with the worn commutator, and the pump doesn't sound much different from normal when it's running.
I suspect your pumps are all in the second category, and my theory of what happens, after experiencing your problem myself, is that the gears in the pump are worn, but not yet enough to cause problems, but have now corroded slightly while the pump has been stored, and this is enough to turn a working pump into a scrap one.
I now pour a little oil into the bottom of pumps when I remove them from scrappers and store them.
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CarlNewman
- E30 Zone Newbie
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:00 pm
Great thanks alot, number two kind of sounds about right! but the strange thing is the second pump i put in was working perfectly the day before in my other e30 and has been for months. But as soon as i put it in my 1.8is it died with in 5 minutes. The 3rd pump i put in was also out of a running car and worked again for only about 5 minutes
-Following on from Ben's comment above are you using the same filter ( plastic flat gauze at teh bottom ) on both pumps ? If not, does the gauze on both look dirty when they come out.BenHar wrote:Is it possible that the new tank is full of crud?
Ben
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CarlNewman
- E30 Zone Newbie
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:00 pm
Sorry i forgot to mention, The tank was washed out with petrol a good few times and was spotless inside. The filter at the bottom was replaced with a almost new clean one and also the fuel filter was changed. im really lost on this one