Fuel Pump On Its Way Out?

[LNah]

Hi all.

Having a problem recently. Whenever the fuel gauge needle points to the middle of the last quarter of the gauge ( almost to the empty mark, but no light on), the fuel system seems to act up and the car would start sputtering like it's dying out. Happened once when I was pulling into the servo and another time today when I was stopping on a downslope at my workplace. The car decided to cut out and wouldn't start until I rolled it down to level ground before it fired up normally. Both times had my fuel gauge pointing close to empty. But this doesn't happen at all whenever the needle points to anywhere above the quarter mark. Hence comes my conclusion that the fuel pump can't seem to be drawing fuel whenever there's too little fuel. But I've had this much fuel left in the tank many times before and never had this happen before until recently. Does this mean a dying fuel pump or can anyone offer any advice on this? Tried the search button but not sure if this is similar to others' problems or not.

[Moodles2]

Do you know if the factory fuel pump has been replaced with a Bosch or Walbro fuel pump? If so they don't take too kindly to the fuel levels reaching 1/4 left (to do with the physical mounting position inside the tank and the sock attached to the bottom of the pump).

That said, a fuel pump has to work harder when the tank is nearly empty vs a full tank.

[mad082]

yeah it sounds like it has an aftermarket fuel pump that is sitting up a bit high. having said that, if done well, an aftermarket pump should be able to still operate until the fuel light comes on.

other possibility is that his fuel gauge isn't accurate and is reading higher than what it should, but he could rule that out by simply taking note of how many litres he puts in when the issue occurs. but my money is still on it being an aftermarket pump

[r33cruiser]

If it is indeed a stock fuel pump, the pump may not be the problem.

I have had two fuel pumps fail.

I had no warning, it didn't gradually 'lean' out.

The car will simply stall and die. Luckily for me both times were on the track and not the road!!

Edited February 4, 2012 by r33cruiser

[LNah]

Not sure if the pump is stock or not. But thanks all for the feedback. Asked the old man about this and he reckons that it's just a dirty fuel filter getting constantly blocked up by sludge in the tank when the fuel level is low. Might change the filter anyway as it looks like it hasn't been changed since the car rolled out from the factory. But can anyone confirm this?

mad082: When this happened at the servo, I put in around 56-57 litres, which makes about 8-9 litres left. It didn't happen again after that until it reached about the same level and I topped up about the same amount. Odd that it should happen at 9 litres when the missu's civic had only 5 litres left once and didn't have anything happen to it other than leaning out slightly.

Edited February 8, 2012 by LNah

[DVS JEZ]

Take the fuel pump cap off and have a look to see if its stock.

Good chance its what Mad said, the aftermarket pump isnt fitted To the correct height