About a year ago I acquired this beautiful Saffron V70R from a family friend/mechanic who was downsizing his collection.
It’s been an absolute joy to own/drive except for one major hangup: the fuel pump. Back in January, on the return trip from a day spent in Omaha, the original Volvo fuel pump died at around 230K miles, stranding us at a gas station 2 hours from home. Luckily, I have AAA and was able to have the car towed all the way home for free. After diagnosing the crank no start as the fuel pump, I cut a hole in the floor and replaced the whole unit with one of these from AutoHausAZ (link in separate comment below)
The wiring harness on the replacement unit was slightly different but I quickly figured it out and the car fired right up. However, I immediately noticed that the new pump was incredibly loud, even after putting the interior back together. I was very concerned by this, and started to do a lot of research. From all that I could find, these PPS units have Walbro pumps in them, and many said that Walbro pumps are quite loud. After learning to accept the noise level of the new pump, I went on driving the car. When over about 25 or 30 mph, the pump became much less noisy, which I also thought was odd. After about 300 miles, this new pump bound up and left me stranded in the middle of an extremely busy intersection. It was a miracle we didn’t get rear ended. Once again, AAA came through and we had the car towed to the local Volvo dealer. Unsurprisingly, they diagnosed the problem as a bad fuel pump. They wanted to replace it, the gasket and the fuel pressure regulator for around $2.5k. I declined the service and had it towed to my Volvo indy guy. We confirmed that the ejector pump was properly transferring fuel to the electric pump, and there was still over 2/3s of a tank of gas left when this fuel pump died. I ordered another unit from the previously mentioned website and we stuck it in. Once again, the car started right up and it seemed to be a bit quieter than the last pump.
Fast forward to today: after around 300 or so miles, this new pump is once again, incredibly loud and sounds like it’s about to let go. I have the car parked and it’s sidelined again until I can get to the bottom of this. Below is a video I recorded of the car at idle. Notice just how insanely loud and annoying the pump is (link in comment below).
I know the parts situation with all makes/models/years is pretty bad, but did I really get two bad pumps in a row? Are there any drop in Bosch or DW pumps? I’m willing to do surgery on the old units and swap in a good (and hopefully significantly quieter) pump. I’m just at my wits end with this. I want to drive this thing but I can’t trust it right now with this issue. It’s worth noting that the gas gauge has always read empty, but we confirmed that the senders are working properly, so it has to be something to do with the cluster. Any thoughts/advice/guidance would be MUCH appreciated. I’m willing to pay for a NOS Volvo pump if someone has one.
Thanks guys!
Liam