Replacing the fuel pump

[gromit190]

Hi,



The fuel pump on my 1.6L 2000 is really noisy. Since I'd like to prevent it from breaking down at a very inconvenient time, I want to try to replace it.

First challenge is to actually locate it. From videos I've seen online of people changing the fuel pump on their Peugeots, looks like it's located under the back passenger seat. I'm seeing a black cover, and it sounds like the fuel pump is just under it. I tried removing the cover, but it was incredibly hard to get out so I had to give up until later.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ORh9QA...byqyx4NOnQ

Been looking at this video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUIcCTMlFB4

I was planning to buy the pump today, drive home and try to replace it during the weekend.



http://www.biltema.no/no/Bil---MC/Bilres...000036967/

What do you guys think? Is this (link above) the correct fuel pump?

[Mighty306]

Your quote: .".watching a video ....it seemed a bit tricky to pull the pump out of the tank and get the new one back in. That was a little off-putting to me.  Did it take long for you to replace the pump?"

The one I've just done was the second so didn't take long - about an hours work n that included cleaning up the sender unit & fitting the new pump inside it.  It will take longer the first time you do it. 

It's impossible to get the pump out without spilling a bit of fuel because the sender unit will be full of fuel even if you've run the tank almost dry.  You then then have to tilt it to get the float arm/float to clear the tank.  I found if you lift it out and tilt it very gradually much of the fuel in the sender unit will drain out in to the tank.  You can also press on the filter at the bottom of the sender unit to encourage a bit more fuel to drain out. It's a good idea to put rags around the access hole to catch any inevitable spills though.  I also had an old plastic bowl sitting in the foot well to drop the pump/sender unit in to as soon as it was out.

I'm not convinced the pump you linked to above is the right one.  Am pretty sure it wouldn't have fitted in the Valeo sender fitted in my 306, but that's an early phase 2 2.0 16v model.  What year was your car?  Can try to look up what sender/pump it has.

[Mighty306]

Just had a look on Servicebox.  Your car has the same pump as mine which is different in design to the one in the video you've linked to.

This looks much more like the pump you'd need (providing that is the issue) but I'm not saying this is the correct one. There's not enough info on the website.  http://www.biltema.no/no/Bil---MC/Bilres...000026830/

Apart from the pump being noisy btw (which they normally aren't), have you got any other symptoms?  Poor starting? Hesitation under load?  If not I wouldn't rush to replace it until you're

a) more confident the pump is on the way out
b) have a better idea of the correct part you need if it is failing
c) have more time to understand what you need to do.

If you're not sure when the fuel filter was last replaced then do that too or get your mechanic to do it.  Should only be a 15 min job for them, incl getting it on & off the ramp.

[gromit190]

Sorry for a late reply on my end here.

I'm not convinced the pump you linked to above is the right one.  Am pretty sure it wouldn't have fitted in the Valeo sender fitted in my 306, but that's an early phase 2 2.0 16v model.  What year was your car?  Can try to look up what sender/pump it has.

My car is a 1.6L 2000year 306 (I guess that makes it a phase 3). I'm not sure how to get more details than that

Apart from the pump being noisy btw (which they normally aren't), have you got any other symptoms?  Poor starting? Hesitation under load?  If not I wouldn't rush to replace it until you're

a) more confident the pump is on the way out
b) have a better idea of the correct part you need if it is failing
c) have more time to understand what you need to do.

If you're not sure when the fuel filter was last replaced then do that too or get your mechanic to do it.  Should only be a 15 min job for them, incl getting it on & off the ramp.

Sorry, what do you mean by "pump is on the way out"? That it is failing?

Apart from the noise from the pump, I haven't really noticed any other symptoms that I think is relevant. Another problem with the car is that sometimes after I've driven the car for a while and stop the engine, it has a hard time starting the engine. It spends like 30 seconds to "trying to start" before it actually starts. Then, the idle RPM goes up (more than normal) for a couple of seconds before it stabilizes. I'll try to make a video of this. But I guess that is probably caused by something else? Or could it be because the pump fails to provide enough fuel for the engine (but then why after I've been driving for a while)?

I'm not going to try to get it done this weekend, after all.

Thanks you so much for helping me out, really appreciate it!

[Welshy_Pete]

The other thing fuel pumps will struggle with old blocked fuel filters. The fuel strainer on the fuel pump if that's clogged up and partially blocked that will cause a fuel pump to make a lot of noise to.

[Mighty306]

Yep, 'on the way out' means failing.  As said before, the pumps aren't normally noisy so that does need investigating.  Ideally you should do some diagnostics though otherwise you may go down the route of replacing a series of parts without solving the problem.  It may be something down the line which is putting strain on the pump, which you'd want to rule out before possibly damaging a new pump.

Here are some useful links ...

https://itstillruns.com/noisy-fuel-pump-...15988.html

http://www.aa1car.com/library/fuel_pump_diagnose.htm

[gromit190]

Okay.

Today, after driving for about 25 minutes, the engine just stopped while I was parking. I switched off the ignition, then on again (fuel pump did not start humming, but I guess this is normal since the engine was just running moments before), engine cranking but it wouldn't start. Is this a symptom of a failing fuel pump, or is it more likely to me some other problem with the car causing this?

[Mighty306]

First thing is to check is whether you get power at the fuel pump plug with the ignition switched on. If you do n the pump isn't running then the pump is dead.

If no power with ignition on then things get a bit more complicated!

[gromit190]

But the pump starts humming when I'm initiating a cold start. But once I shut down the engine for a restart (like, this morning when the engine shut down "by itself"), it doesn't. But I don't know what's normal here. Should the fuel pump be starting when I turn on the ignition, regardless state?

EDIT: Some hours later, I tried restarting the car. The fuel pump didn't start (no humming from the back) when I turned on the ignition. But still, the engine started right away without any problems. This leads me to believe that there's not really any correlation between my noisy fuel pump and the problems I've been having... Another mystery to solve