Pagoda SL Group
W113 Pagoda SL Group => Drive train, fuel, suspension, steering & brakes => Topic started by: Ferrolanoman on April 23, 2025, 17:14:39
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Last week I filled up with ethanol free gas, came home and upon parking I found a serious fuel leak coming from my fairly recent replacement (expensive!) M-B fuel pump. I drained the tank of 10 gallons, tested it and the car started and ran normally, but it continued leaking so I emptied the gas tank completely. Unwilling to spend $$$ on another M-B pump I fitted the recommended Carter 4601 HP generic replacement, connecting all the hoses correctly I hope (including the by-pass T of the return line) and added approximately 5 gallons of gas. The car started normally and ran for a few minutes in my garage, no leaks anywhere. Next day, I wanted to make sure all was OK with the new pump so I put in more fuel (4-5 gals) prepared to go for a test drive. The car started it with some hesitation, missing a bit which I attributed to the expected brief warm-up period BUT then shortly quit running and would not restart. The Carter pump had stopped working, its bowl noticeably warm to the touch. It was dead.
I removed it and plan to return it to Amazon, hopefully they'll issue a refund but I have no way of knowing whether it was a faulty pump or something I did wrong.
I'm puzzled and wonder if filling or possibly OVER-filling my gas tank is directly related to the M-B pump leaking so much and the Carter failing completely so suddenly. Can someone here lend an opinion as to what may be causing these two failures (I don't believe in coincidences) and what I can do to solve this issue? Did I cause some obstruction that remains, something dislodged by the force of so much fuel pumped in? Did I install the fuel hoses correctly?
Thank you in advance for any and all comments.
Ricardo
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Where exactly, on the Bosch (MB) pump, was the leaking?
Have you gone through the entire fuel system? Starting at the tank (and screen/filter there); down to fuel pump; the lines there; then the soft line connection to the hard line, then the hard lines to the FIP, then the return line to the tank and ensure you don't have any, shall we say, "lack of integrity"?
You had indicated a leak from the Bosch, but a total failure of the Carter; these are different failures.
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The leaks were from behind the plastic cover where the 2 wires exit the mid-body of pump and also from the joint between the bottom plate/cover and the body of the pump. I interpreted this as a sign that the fuel was being forced out of the pump because it was finding an obstruction (loosened by the overfilling [?]) downstream.
What does FIP mean?