VL fuel pump making strange noises and fuel lines rattling

**phrostbyte** · 10-02-2006, 10:14 PM

Ey peeps,

Last few days all of a sudden, I can hear some big knocking sounds coming from underneath my car, around the location of the fuel lines just under the passenger seat of my ae71. After turning on the VL fuel pump and feeling the outlet, it feels like there are big chunks of air coming out of the fuel pump. Strangely enough, this doesn't effect the performance of my 4AGE at all...

When it first started happening, I thought the fuel may have been surging, because my tank was low and I have no surge setup, but after filling the tank right up, it's still happening, and although not effecting performance at all, it is starting to bother me. The great ocean road cruise is coming up this Sunday and is going to be almost a full day of driving, and I can't afford to have to pull over with fuel problems, 150km from home or more...

It basically sounds like someone knocking on my underbody...

Anyone got any ideas? If the pump is dying, that's no problem because I have a spare, but I'd like to know if anyone has encountered this problem before.

Thanks in advance,
Kev.

**Celica RA45** · 11-02-2006, 08:39 AM

on idle make sure its not hot ,if it is its on the way out ,you will need a nother pump

**Rallystanza** · 11-02-2006, 10:02 AM

Put the new spare pump in and see what happens....if it stops then....Im sure you can work the rest out!

Jeremy

**ViPeR_NiPPleX** · 11-02-2006, 10:21 AM

seems like a bigger power is really trying to stop you from going on the GOR

Hope you fix it eh...

tis possible you have sucked up a whole bunch of crap from your tank... is the filter shagged?

**phrostbyte** · 11-02-2006, 04:52 PM

Yeah I think I must have sucked up a whole lot of shit from the tank... When I swapped the tank over a week or two ago I got a fair bit of dirt in it. Seems to be ok now, I pulled the fuel hose off the outlet, let it run for a second, then put it back on, might have been a slight leak or something.

I will be at the cruise even if I'm leaking fuel faster than I'm burning it

.

Kev.

**gianttomato** · 11-02-2006, 06:37 PM

I hope you have some sort of filter before themain EFI pump?

**Yian** · 11-02-2006, 06:42 PM

GT,

Your 'hektik' spec fuel pump was kinda loud also wasn't it?

Oh... also to point out that your rep is 69 ... heh heh.

Yian

**gianttomato** · 11-02-2006, 10:49 PM

Yian, do as I say not as I do.

No surge tank, fuel line partly clagged with scale, 12 micron pre pump filter (rather than a 100 micron strainer) - in other words exactly what I tell others NOT to do - will do that. Unfortunately my 40 year old tank is so full of crud so I'm prepared to sacrifice a secondhand VL pump in order to clear it out. I have actually changed about a dozen filters over the last year. The very first filter clogged after 5 minutes driving - I had to limp home using almost no throttle.

It has gotten worse over the last few months. I have to clean the line and change the filter again.

**phrostbyte** · 11-02-2006, 10:56 PM

Holy shit dude.. why not just take the tank off and get it pressure blasted? I had a bit of dirt in the tank, but i figured the pump would flow it straight through, I still haven't done much about the original problem (still making knocking noises occasionally), but the engine still runs fine, even at WOT. I'll get a filter and put my spare pump in when I have money next...

Kev.