Bring your car, truck, or utility vehicle to Peerless Automotive if it is doing the things listed below. These five things are signs that the fuel pump is going bad and needs to be replaced. Your automobile’s engine relies on the pump to deliver fuel while it is running. A faulty fuel pump can affect your engine’s performance in numerous ways. Here is what they are.
1. Poor Engine Performance
You may end up with lagging engine performance and acceleration when your vehicle is under stress or when you are driving at high speeds. These driving conditions require extra fuel in the combustion chamber in order for the engine to maintain power. A lack of fuel will cause the engine to lag.
Your engine may also start to surge unexpectedly if it is receiving too much fuel from a malfunctioning pump. This can make driving your automobile unpredictable and dangerous because you will not know when it will pick up speed. Replacing the pump solves these problems.
2. Reduction in Gas Mileage
Until you replace the faulty pump, you will see a reduction in your vehicle’s gas mileage. This is a result of the engine performance problems we just discussed. Any time the engine is struggling to run or surging, it will burn more fuel than it normally does when it is operating efficiently.
3. Rising Engine Temperatures
If your engine has been overheating lately, it could beat that the fuel pump motor is transferring heat into it. If the pump is malfunctioning, it may not draw enough fuel to keep the motor cool. Consequently, the pump motor will overheat and transfer this excess heat to the engine.
4. Reduced Fuel Pressure
If you suspect that your fuel pump is going bad and you have a fuel pressure gauge in your toolbox, test your vehicle’s fuel pressure to see if it is below a normal reading. If it is, this is a sign that the pump is malfunctioning and cannot produce the correct amount of fuel pressure in the engine.
5. Difficult Starts/No Starts
Finally, any time the engine is starved for fuel, it will be difficult to start it if you can get it started at all. Unfortunately, if your fuel pump dies completely, you will be stranded with a dead engine.
Call Peerless Automotive in Olathe, KS, today if your vehicle is having any of the problems listed above. We can test the fuel pump and replace it if it has gone bad.