Don't think we've had a Fuel Pump Thread for a while...

Don't think we've had a Fuel Pump Thread for a while...

Author
Discussion

Dave2P

Original Poster:

795 posts

187 months

Sunday 8th May 2016
quotequote all
... so here's one ...

Ran the Nob up to Brands today; round trip of about 260 miles and pleasantly warm... During the journey home became aware of the "angry bees" sound; not sure if it suddenly came on or gradually got louder as we were a) on the motorway and b) still had ears recovering from the GT cars.

From a quick scan there have been many discussions in the past but what's the "best / latest" thoughts on why the pump gets noisy / what to do about it / replace it with?

FWIW, the fuel pump wiring was upgraded at the last service (about 600 miles ago); could that conceivably be pushing more current/amps/magic beans to the pump, or is that completely unlikely?

And, finally, does it just get noisier until you get sick of it or does the pump fail at some point?

TIA, Dave

Adrian W

14,412 posts

235 months

Monday 9th May 2016
quotequote all
cavitation as the fuel warms up

Dave2P

Original Poster:

795 posts

187 months

Monday 9th May 2016
quotequote all
Adrian W said:
cavitation as the fuel warms up
Thanks Adrian - this looks like the right answer as no angry bees detected this morning.

So is the ultimate fix to re-locate the fuel pump (when it's time to upgrade), or will improving the engine bay cooling generally be enough? I have the tunnel cooling mod done, so time to look at venting the clam?

andygtt

8,345 posts

271 months

Monday 9th May 2016
quotequote all
your pump is in the side pod, coolest location it could be.... fuel tank is in the engine bay next to the turbo, hottest location it could be.

The issue is with the fuel tank/system design and the pumps having to 'suck' fuel out of the tank through a filter... the pumps we run are not designed to suck and thus when fuel gets hot or fuel level drops low they can buzz due to the additional effort they are doing outside their design.... the 044's are the worst offenders as they are terrible at sucking. They need a small feed pressure to work properly, so them having to suck is bad news.

They don't tend to fail though... you just have an unhappy / noisy pump.


I run 2 044's within an inch or 2 of the front exhaust and mine only buzz when i run the car out of fuel (which unfortunately i managed to do a few times a while back frown ).. i completely changed the fuel system though and run a swirl pot and 2 additional lifter pumps so it wasn't the simplest of solutions lol

Dave2P

Original Poster:

795 posts

187 months

Monday 9th May 2016
quotequote all
Thanks for the clear explanation Andy! Evidently I need to do a bit more reading (of the older threads) but looks like nothing to worry unduly about right now.

Cheers both.

TuxMan

9,011 posts

245 months

Monday 9th May 2016
quotequote all
They all buzz a bit when they get hot , a full tank of fuel helps as you get good gravity feed to the pump , also check your breather to make sure its not blocked this can create a vacuum in the tank as it empty s

St00ge

11 posts

111 months

Wednesday 11th May 2016
quotequote all
I'm upgrading my fuel pump, I have a fully functional one from a 3R that I will probably put up on eBay soonish.

GTO600

1,877 posts

258 months

Wednesday 11th May 2016
quotequote all
St00ge said:
I'm upgrading my fuel pump, I have a fully functional one from a 3R that I will probably put up on eBay soonish.
Why ?

St00ge

11 posts

111 months

Saturday 28th May 2016
quotequote all
GTO600 said:
Why ?
Want more power smile

cdhoole

113 posts

157 months

Monday 30th May 2016
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I have had a fuel pump buzzing away since I bought the car. Having read through the forums for an explanation I began to appreciate this was not unusual, and in any case I got use to it (I mean a fast, serious sports car would have a noisy fuel pump wouldn't it?), but then the car was in for a service at SWL and they replaced the fuel filter and just like that it is now indiscernible! Not sure which I preferred tbh and now I hear all sorts of other rattles and stuff previously overwhelmed......