So How Can I Tell If My Fuel Pump Sensor Has Gone Faulty? Erratic Fuel GaugeOne of the most obvious signs that you have a bad fuel pump sensor is that your fuel gauge is never consistent. As the name implies, the fuel pump sensor (also called a fuel level sensor) reads how much gas you have in your tank for the benefit of your car's built-in gauge. Drivers often notice erratic fuel readings when this sensor fails, such as the gauge quickly falling from full to empty or permanently sticking at one location. According to industry figures, flawed sensors are responsible for as many as 10 percent of the fuel system faults that car owners report.
Modern cars contain a fuel pump sensor, among other items including the fuel-pressure sensor and the engine control unit (ECU) to help ensure accuracy during fuel delivery and monitoring. The sensor may deliver bad data to the ECU which leads in leaner or richer air/fuel mixture. This, not only has an effect on fuel efficiency (up to 15% in some cases), also decreases the engine's overall performance. This will cause hesitation or poor throttle response because the pressure changes that the sensor is detecting are not being read accurately and the E required fuel adjustments by the ECU are miscalculated.
Using an OBD-II scanner is one of the most basic methods to diagnose a failing fuel pump sensor. This system, which is standard in most cars made after 1996 and can read error codes related to fuel pump sensors. One very common diagnostic code for sensor failure is P0463 (Fuel Level Sensor Circuit High Input). Both mechanics and DIY car pros alike use these error codes to narrow it down and the good news is they contain a lot of specific info for the malfunction.
One rather memorable sensor failure came to light after a recall of over 54,000 vehicles; the fuel pump sensors of the affected vehicles were producing inaccurate readings with the gauges consequently displaying that these owners had more gas in their tanks than they actually did, sending them off peacefully into battle and subsequently running out of gas (and maybe thinking what a terrible place Belgium is where you can't even stop for an innocent strudel). A situation that clearly demonstrated the requirement for high quality sensor data to keep vehicles operational and safe.
The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.—Nikola Tesla Although sensor technology has improved and parts are more reliable than ever before, they can still go wrong; even in modern vehicles_systematic warning of components reaching the end of life must be a high priority<|endoftext|(function() { var spacing = parseInt("2")!= ')'); })();segment.If you missed Episode 1,…_ Routine vehicle inspections are important because they can find these problems early (before turning into a fuel pump relacement)
A fuel pump sensor costs much less than an entire new fuel pump, typically from $150 to $400. Nonetheless, malfunctions in the sensors can result to imprecision in fuel delivery and that could eventually harm the fuel pump or injectors, hiking up the repair bill significantly.
And there you have it, finding a broken fuel pump sensor with the use of symptoms such as erratic fuel gauge readings, diagnostic tools to monitor switch test values and how a bad fuel flow might effect vehicle performance. To learn more about Fuel Pump, please visit Fuel Pump.