Hey all, been here a few times this past year. I'm a very amateur repairman, very limited skillset.

I have a guy that's helped me repair a few parts on the cheap this past year - sensors and the like. I've replaced the heater core and blower motor.

Over the past six months, the idle has been extremely rough. The lower the gas in the tank, the rougher the idle, to the point of stalling. I hear the fuel pump whining.

Perhaps without diagnosing the problem more like a should have, I get the fuel pump replaced yesterday. It now drives like a charm, but after a few minutes of driving, the new fuel pump is making a much louder noise than it had the first minute I turned it on, a high whining struggling sound that I can hear from the front seat. The guy who replaced the pump says to change the fuel filter... which was four years old. I replaced the fuel filter this morning... the fuel pump is still making a loud whining noise.

Here's another small detail: when I replaced the fuel filter, I had bled the line of pressure. When I was priming the system, after putting the filter in - turning the car's power on and off three times to prime the pump, the fuel pump was nice and quiet - the first two 'primes.' On the third prime, once the fuel hit the engine, suddenly the pump became super loud, and hasn't quieted down since.

So, because the car starts great and drives great, I can either just keep driving it until whatever is causing that noise causes another problem and go from there, or try and figure it out. I was reading online that possible the Fuel Pressure Regulator may be another culprit? I really don't have any idea, and am loathe to take the car to a fancy mechanic when it's actually still driving, but that noise is so worrisome.

Thanks for your help diagnosing this.

 

Do you have a full tank or half tank? What kind of noise? What make is the replacement pump?

 

refilled the tank after I had the pump replaced, it's 2/3 full now. Haven't listened on a nearly empty tank, I will in a few days. The pump is admittedly a used pump, about a year old, put in by my mechanic friend who helps me out. I'm bugging him at the moment but he's a bit of a hard to get a hold of guy. He rebuilt my engine for next to nothing last year, so ever since I've been trying to teach myself how to fix it because it's not worth taking to a shop. I can ask him what brand it was.

the noise is like when you dial a modem with your phone, a high pitched watery gurgling, consistently whining the whole time the engine is running or the pump priming- except for the first time I primed it after replacing the fuel filter. It's quite loud with the car off, gets drowned out when I get to about 30 mph.

 

If the sounds is coming from the pump inside the tank, I think you should not waste time replacing other things. There is no fixing a thing like that. You will just have to decide whether to run it or throw it away.


You could pull it and take a really good look at it, that wouldn't hurt anything.

 

Buy a new replacement pump. I used Standard Fitment Fuel Pumps : DW200 In-Tank Fuel Pump | DeatschWerks .