High-pitched whine

[DC3 0]

My VR6 has a continuous high-pitched whine that seems to come from the exhaust region(!), under the car and towards the back. Not engine bay, anyway. It's more noticeable at slow speeds and when ticking over at rest (but that might be because road noise drowns it out at higher revs) and seems to build up in volume as the car reaches normal operating temperature. Again, more noticeable if the windows are open. Everything else seems OK and the car runs well. 84,000 miles covered.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[dan 0]

Might be your fuel pump, its just under the drivers side back seat under the car (if that makes sense). You can see it if you look under the car

[DC3 0]

Thanks, Dan. It sounds as though I need to get it up on a ramp.

 

Chris

[dan 0]

Thanks, Dan. It sounds as though I need to get it up on a ramp.

 

Chris

No need for a ramp to check it, just get down on your knees & look under. (maybe say a prayer while your down there :) ) The pump is exposed under there, you can see the fuel lines running from the tank into it and then they run up to the engine. Have the car idle and you'll hear the pump working

[pete_griff 0]

on a vr6 the fuel pump is in the tank - the only thing visible where you describe on the outside of the car is the fuel filter.

early valvers (not sure about later ones) and some early g60's etc have the pump on the underside

 

you can still hear the pump from outside the car, but it's less noticable, but that will still be a good place to start if it's not coming from the engine bay...

[The_Dude 0]

Tell your missus to sit in the front. :lol:

[DC3 0]

OK, I've established it's the fuel pump (moving the wife didn't work, The Dude). I know this has been covered before on the forum but I'm still confused. The main agents want £251 for a new one (without fitting) but they are on eBay for just under £100. Am I missing something? Do I need to buy a separate sender unit, for example? And do the parts still vary from car to car or has the replacement part been standardised for all VR6's? I'm quite happy to try to fit this myself but don't want to end up with the wrong part.

 

The other option would be to find someone in the Sheffield area who knows what they are doing and would take it on for a sensible price.

 

Anyone?

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[mimjed 0]

there pretty simple to fit to be honest, did one on my 200sx.

 

hammer and big screwdriver to crack the plastic cap on top of the tank. spin it off (make note if which side of the the cap takes send/return, picture?). then the pump should be attached to a rail inside the tank. remove this, remove old pump. make sure you solder the living day lights out of the wires on the new pump as this is your insulation. bolt it back up and jobs a good one.

 

shoul be able to find a write up with pics form google somewhere i imagine.

[markrtw 0]

Does it actually need changing? Is it that loud. Mine was always noisy, but it was still fine when I came to sell it after after 4 years.

[DC3 0]

Does it actually need changing? Is it that loud. Mine was always noisy, but it was still fine when I came to sell it after after 4 years.

 

Oh yes, it definitely needs changing. The one you sold - it wasn't a storm grey one, was it? If so, thanks a bunch. :roll:

[markrtw 0]

It wasn't that loud (the noise did not change over the 4 years and it worked perfectly!)

 

It wasn’t storm grey, but I have heard on the grapevine of a conspiracy to bring down the owners of grey cars... :)

[pete_griff 0]

after you've popped the cap off the pumps are mounted onto the base of the tank with like a bayonet fitting (like you get on lightbulbs...)

 

they are pretty straightforward to change; just reach in and twist it and it should come out!

 

what year is you car? some of the earlier pumps were slightly different and had different sender units for the fuel gauge. basically if you have a pierburg pump (the earlier type), you have to run a pierburg sender and it's the same with the (later) vda pumps and senders.

 

they are interchangable if you have the early one, as (as far as i know) only the later style is now available.

 

if you're swapping like for like then happy days - it will be very straightforward.

if not...

you simply cut the hose clips off the early pump and get some decent jubilee clips (fuel line specific items are favourite here) and stick the hoses onto the new pump.

as for the sender, cut the existing wires as long as you can. then you can either solder them onto the joints, or use crimp-ons...

solder is usually favourite, but.... they looked like a bit of a pain in the arse to solder and personally i didn't want to risk any damage to the pump by burning it with fat fingers!

if you get hold of some decent crimps (as long as they go on tight), i don't see why they should be much worse than soldering. they shouldn't rust much as obviously all that goes in the tank is petrol...

anyway - you can look here for some pics that should help you out.

 

any more help needed, just ask! :)

 

 

 

oh last thing - if you do end up buying a pump from ebay, try and get a genuine VDA pump as they "should" essentially be what you'll buy from the dealer anyway...