Problems with Fuel Delivery System Repairs?

Posted 1/5/2009
From the AASA Fuel Pump Manufacturers Council
Parts images courtesy of Delphi Product and Service Solutions

Shown is the home page of the Fuel Pump Manufacturers Council (FPMC) Web site, which is designed to provide professional technicians with information about the latest trends in fuel system diagnosis and repair. FPMC members value your input as professional technicians. The FPMC asks that you visit its Web site and give your opinions on the site’s usefulness to you and ways the site might be improved. Contact the FPMC by phoning (919) 406-8830 or via its Web site: info@fuelpumpinfo.org.

Warranty jobs can be a drain on your business, both in time and money. You want to do a job once - and of all the jobs that enter your shop, repairing fuel delivery systems is a messy job that you don't want to do twice.

The AASA Fuel Pump Manufacturers Council (FPMC) is here to help you get fuel delivery systems in and out of your bays in one trip.

The FPMC is a council of the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA), dedicated to the education of professional technicians in diagnosis and repair of fuel delivery systems, including fuel pumps and in-tank fuel modules.

Don't feel alone if you are frustrated by the fuel pump and module work entering your shop. Warranties in this area are near double digits in the automotive aftermarket industry. This causes a domino effect, resulting in increased administrative expense for all levels of distribution for freight and handling, loss in confidence of the product you are selling or installing, and - more importantly - higher downstream prices for the product to cover the additional expense.

The FPMC membership is more than qualified to handle this task, because its membership includes all the major fuel pump manufacturers: ACDelco, Airtex, Bosch, Carter/Federal-Mogul, Continental, Delphi, Denso and Walbro.

One word is the answer to reducing warranty in the distribution chain: Diagnosis.

Every professional technician must check four critical items in the fuel delivery system prior to simply replacing the fuel pump:

• System pressure

• Volume or fuel flow

• Voltage at the fuel pump connector, and

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

• The amperage or current draw of the fuel pump circuit. In too many repair cases, the fuel pump is replaced when there may have been something else wrong with the system, which resulted in a drop in flow or pressure.

At the parts manufacturer level of the automotive aftermarket, an analysis of warranty claims indicated problems that could be solved by better education.

The following problem situations were identified:

• The fuel pump was contaminated with foreign materials stuck in the strainer or inside the bucket of the fuel module. These included: sand, dirt, water or any other foreign material. (Figure 1)

• Physical damage of the fuel pump or fuel module can be observed easily in the form of missing, partially assembled and broken or obviously damaged areas of the fuel pump or module, i.e.: the supply and return tubes on the module cover. (Figure 2)

• Overheated and damaged terminals can be seen readily by inspecting the electrical connections on the pump or fuel module. (Figure 3)

Parts with these problems should not find their way back through the distribution chain as warrantable.