During the past several years, I’ve encountered many vehicles that were running on their third or fourth new fuel pump in as many years. As with many repeat failures, the initial fuel pump installations were sloppy or a brand of fuel pump with a known high failure rate had been installed. In the remaining cases, an OE or aftermarket-equivalent fuel pump had been installed, but fuel tank contamination had been overlooked as a cause of the premature failure.  

With that said, most import vehicles don’t experience excessive fuel pump failures. But, for the sake of our fuel pump suppliers, our customers and our own bottom lines, we need to consider that, among the more traditional reasons, fuel tank contamination can cause a repeat failure in any new fuel pump installation. We’ll begin our discussion by reviewing fuel pump testing.

SCAN TOOL DIAGNOSIS
On late-model imports, it’s usually much quicker to test the fuel pump with a ...