Spitfire2500 Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 What sort of longevity should I reasonably expect from a Facet Red Top?I'm now on my third one in the space of 22k miles or thereabouts. It's starting to feel a bit excessive :-/ (and expensive ??) ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Wilson Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 that does seem a littel extreme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 11, 2013 Author Share Posted April 11, 2013 I didn't do the original installation and I reckon I might need to do a bit of research into this. The pump is mounted horizontally whereas the references I have found so far seem to indicate that vertical mounting is preferred or that at if mounted horizontally the inlet should be lower than the outlet.The first one became unreliable quite early on but kept going for a while thereafter. The second one's been better and worked fine right up to the point when it died on Friday. They both lasted almost exectly the same mileage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 Hi Bill. That sounds pretty disappointing. My old petrol Land Rover 110 was fitted with a red top. I replaced the pump as although it was in good working order, it looked so old and corroded, and I was worried it would finally rust through. It must have shifted some fuel in it's time as that old Landy was thirstier than Oliver Reed after a packet of peanuts. It went on for years after too doing all sorts of jobs pumping heating oil and sorting floods etc!It's only my guess, but I wonder if there is something about the installation which is making the pump work a bit hard? The original LR installation had the pump mounted vertically near the tank, a little lower and preceded by a filter (small version of the Lucas PI one). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepy Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 Have you cleaned the filter out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepy Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 Straight from their web site! The fuel pump should be mounted with the outlet above the inlet. This will help with eliminate vapor lock issues. Never located the pump so the outlet is below the inlet. Horizontal mounting will not effect fuel delievery performance.http://www.facet-purolator.com/faq.php ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 15, 2013 Author Share Posted April 15, 2013 Glenn/Shaun,Thanks. It's mounted horizontally, below the tank, tucked up beside the chassis right at the front of the rear N/S wheel arch. See pic - BTW that's not a leak, it's spillage left over from when I had the filter out. Curious that the labelling on that old one is quite different from the new Red Top.Its internal filter's as clean as a whistle. What I expected - there's a pre-filter fitted between tank outlet and pump. When starting after it's been sitting for a while it does rattle quite hard for ten to fifteen seconds until the fuel's up to pressure. But don't have anything to directly compare it against so difficult to say if this is unusual to any great extent.I think I might look into fabricating a small bracket so that the new one will sit with the outlet raised slightly.Considering our Volvo V40's nearly at 80k and our Defender 300TDi's nearly at 150k both on their original electric pumps something doesn't seem right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uksnatcher Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 There looks no probs with instalation, ideal for the elec pump being below the tank, so i would look at the electrics IE volts, amps etc......like you say, somethings not right...unless you are so unfortunate to have several faulty units ? (mad) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheepy Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 As Gaz says, the way it's mounted should be fine, but it may be worth mounting it slightly at an angle, nothing to loose by trying it.Will help with any air locks. :)300tdi? No electric pump on them, just the lift pump and injection pump! :) unless you have an auxiliary tank fitted? With an electric transfer pump! (like the long range expedition vehicles) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 17, 2013 Author Share Posted April 17, 2013 4058 wrote:300tdi? No electric pump on them, just the lift pump and injection pump! :) Oops. Got a bit carried away there ;D ;D ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 17, 2013 Author Share Posted April 17, 2013 uksnatcher wrote:i would look at the electrics IE volts, amps etc...I will be looking at that in some detail when I get round to putting the new pump in - hopefully this weekend. Pretty sure the electrics are OK in this instance - 12V is getting as far as the internal connector that the pump's connected to and I think I can hear a thump from the pump when it's switched on (but that's all it appears to be doing).I have had wiring related issues with the installation in the past so it will be getting checked thoroughly. Wiring failed on me one time just after I started home from Birmingham :( but with the help of a forum member who went above and beyond the call of duty we managed to jury rig it by splicing a temporary wrire into the ignition switched 12V which got me home :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Wilson Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 if you can hear the pump, have you got a fuel supply problem?Have you taken the pump off and tried it across a battery with 2 lengths of pipe fitted, see if it pumps then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 17, 2013 Author Share Posted April 17, 2013 4576 wrote:if you can hear the pump, have you got a fuel supply problem?Have only had time to have a cursory look at it so far, but what I do know for certain is that the fuel supply to the pump is OK. Don't ask me how I know... :B ;D ;DRegarding the pump what it sounds like it's doing when it's switched on (in old mechanical pump terms) is that it's completing one stroke and then jamming. It goes "dunk" and then there's nothing...until it's switched off then there's another "dunk". There's no pumping in between :(As you can tell my understanding of the workings of electric fuel pumps is somewehat less than authoritative ;DQuote:Have you taken the pump off and tried it across a battery with 2 lengths of pipe fitted, see if it pumps then.Not yet. That's one of things I'll be testing when I get stuck into it properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 19, 2013 Author Share Posted April 19, 2013 Got time to work on the car this afternoon. Confirmed that the pump was dead.Now up and running again with new Red Top :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulsprint Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 I think the pump is upside down. So can't clear all it air. They use the fuel flowing though them as cooling. Your pipe connection are pointing down . If they pointed upwards then I think all would be we'll Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Wilson Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 hughes448 wrote:I think the pump is upside down. So can't clear all it air. They use the fuel flowing though them as cooling. Your pipe connection are pointing down . If they pointed upwards then I think all would be we'llThat did cross my mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 21, 2013 Author Share Posted April 21, 2013 hughes448 wrote:Your pipe connection are pointing down . If they pointed upwards then I think all would be we'llThat's an interesting point and I can see where you're coming from. I'm going to fire off a query to Facet Tech Support to see what they say.New pump is on as per the old one for the time being but it would be a fairly trivial exercise to make up a couple of brackets to flip the pump the right way up if necessary.No long journeys planned for the Spitfire until the Auto Ecosse so I'll leave off using it too much until I've got an answer either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2500 Posted April 23, 2013 Author Share Posted April 23, 2013 Got a response from Facet:Quote:Thank you for your email and interest in Facet fuel pumps. I have never seen anyone mount the fuel pump in this way but I don't believe it will harm the pump or cause it to function improperly.Will leave it alone for the time being and get on with using the car :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.thumb.jpeg.b15b81ef10abeea1c3039ae03c4a9f3a.jpeg)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.