Monthly Archives: December 2013

Fuel Pump Blues

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The fuel pump on my my 1984 BMW 633 CSi had progressively gotten more and more loud recently, but I ignored that. I drove to my fenced storage sheds in the middle of the night to get something out of there, and when I tried to start the car, it wouldn’t.

Getting out of there was interesting since the place has high fences, and the exit door opens when a car approaches it. It took some Jackie Chan moves for me to actually get out. Later, I towed the car to my office, and checked … the fuel rail has no pressure.

I prefer working on parts while they’re on my warm, clean workbench, as opposed to underneath the car. So, I removed the fuel pump from the car.

The pump and filter are mounted on a plate that locates them together. To remove the plate from the car, loosen the two 10mm nuts at the back, and the nut at the front. Push the front bolt in, and then slide the plate out of its rear mounting. This gives you some flexibility that helps you get to the two electrical connectors on the actual pump. To get to them, slide the covering electrical insulation hoods down, and then use sockets or wrenches. The two nuts are not the same size. As I recall, one is 8mm and one is 7mm. Then, loosen the 8mm bolt that affixes the clamp that locates the fuel hose so it doesn’t pull loose from the filter. Undo the clamp for the fuel line that goes into the fuel pump, and the clamp for the fuel line that goes into the filter. Now, you’re ready for your gasoline shower, and you realize you should have put on gloves on each hand, and brought a larger drip try, and wow, the splashes travel far. Blink often.

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I drained the filter (by turning it into all sorts of positions so the fuel spills out) and then separated the fuel pump from the filter. When you put the filter down on a workbench, be aware that some fuel might still leak out.

Away from the worst gasoline fumes, I touched two 12V leads, one + and one -, to the two electrical connections on the fuel pump. It made a spark and there was a sort of jolt but no sound like a pump going. So, this means it’s a bad fuel pump.

A new unit is more than $100, and it’s not just about replacing the main fuel pump. Often, its failure has a root cause that’s the failure of the transfer fuel pump that’s located in the gas tank and is supposed to help reduce vapor lock by keeping the fuel inside the fuel line under pressure at all times.

Some say that when the in-tank pump fails, the main fuel pump basically overworks itself. If that’s true then replacing just the main fuel pump is thus false economy.

A New Business Model for Owning an E24

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This idea might be of value to you if you own, or want to own, an E24 car.

Part-time, I sell used parts for 1980s BMW cars. In the process I sometimes have the opportunity to buy a good-deal car, so I do. I tend to hang onto such cars for many years in the interim. For example, this one I’ve owned for more than 10 years but now it is for sale.

Often, the person who buys a car like this has owned one in the past, or owns one currently. For many people, the decision to sell a car like this means a lost battle against expensive repairs. As someone who owns several of these cars, I know. That’s what inspired me to start my part-time BMW-used-parts business. I needed a steering rack for my E30 and it was going to cost me $400+ just for the part.

If you own a car like this, perhaps in the last year or two you’ve spent $500 on a new exhaust, $300 to get the interior improved, put new tires and brakes on the car for another $900 and so on. And now the transmission is going out or you’re facing some such expensive new problem.

You are upset not just because you finally have to admit defeat and let the car go. You also don’t like how you sunk all that money into it for parts that are now going to go away. At most you’re going to get a couple of hundred bucks for the car in its present, damaged state.

Here’s my proposition: trade in your car for mine … and mark your new parts with special paint, and tell me what they are. I’ll transfer these valuable-to-you items from your car to mine. And, I’ll include some sort of peace-of-mind warranty since my mechanic is savvy about working on these cars plus I have a stash of used parts. So, you end up driving the same kind of car you used to drive, but now it’s covered in case something big breaks, plus your investment in parts was carried forward from your old car to the replacement one: the new exhaust, the interior, the tires and brakes … whatever you value, gets moved from your old car to the replacement car as part of the deal.

If you like this idea, please let me know what you have vs. what you’d like. Many of these parts fit multiple models, so if you have an E28 and you want an E24 instead, many of your high-value parts will move across.