Thread: Fuel Pump Woes

Originally Posted by Beau99

A lot has happened and much has been done and learnt....

For those of you that have an annoying mosquito like buzzing from your pump I have a tale to tell.
Many months ago I had my filter housing replaced. For Purely cosmetic reasons. The housing had snapped off where it bolts onto the chassis. Admittedly it made changing the filter a real ordeal... So I had it done by my mechanic.
Directly afterwords when I collected the car it was making a horrid whine. My fix went as follows....
1. I replaced the filter housing again (this time with one that came off the same year and model Defender)

Didn't Work... Noise still there.

2. I removed the pump and inspected the filters. There was partial clogging (which I cleaned) although it wasn't critical I thought. Anyway I replaced it and....

Noise STILL there.

3. I removed the fuel tank.... Degreased it thoroughly. Returned it with a New VDO pump and rubber seal and New hoses. Result?.....

Noise Still there!!!!! 😡

4. I then revisited the filter housing... Since this is what seemed to be the catalyst for this sudden and irreversible calamity. After thinking about this and revisiting some literature on the configuration of the pipes leading in and out of the filter housing I though I'd check to see whether the hoses hadn't accidentally been placed on incorrectly....

WELL... Yes they had.... After all the expense and effort and worry I discovered that the noise was attributed to the pipes being Misaligned. Unfortunately when I replaced the filter housing I only re established the mistake by replacing the connectors back to where I took them off which was wrong to begin with. It turned out that the Red line (returning from the fuel cooler) had been mixed with the Black line returning back to the tank. Ie their positions on the filter housing had been swapped. This was causing all manner of conflict within the filter chamber which in-turn was the sole cause of the annoying noise!!

If you are suffering from this same annoyance PLEASE check to see that this isn't the cause. It ridiculously simple to fix.

Beau 😉

excellent result beau . ty for the results of your persistent trial and error. lots of dollars to test theories I know. you may just save the next landrover addict a few dollars and a lot of stress. I do note that you didn't have any noise before changing the housing. ? if that's the case is it possible someone may have crossed them during the first case change over? im now going to check mine simply out of curiosity as I haven't ever removed the hoses from behind the filter. and just for your info, my old pump is still working away and the spare still awaits its failure.


as an aside but related to noises, yesterday I noticed an unusual sound while accelerating in first as second after sitting a few hours . thought maybe an idler pulley or viscous fan noise. noise stopped once moving along a little faster. tonight I took a look under the bonnet and while idling, there was a strange sound like a deep rumble but low volume around the engine rear side,,, turned out to be the air filter top not seated correctly AND the breather tube coming from the intake had totally fallen off the filter housing attachment point. it was sucking air from behind the engine and around the filter case ( my doing as I checked the filter a couple of weeks back and no doubt didn't replace the lid correctly. but it was the intake pipe that made the new noise. there ya go. 5 minutes to fix and a thousand dollar worry for 24 hours. bloody landrovers lol


cheers cactus

Cactus it's good to hear that all is well with your pump.... Mate may it never fail and may you never need to replace it but if you do I've certainly got some pointers for you, if you need them.
I'm convinced that we're all gluttons for punishment. Perhaps we didn't get to play with our Lego for a sufficient enough period whilst developing? Don't know but one thing I do know is that we're hooked. Your right to call it an addiction.
Well dude... Thanks for your help... Thank you all!

Beau