R26 Best place to get a new fuel pump?

Hi,

Can't help with where to get one but I just replace the internal pump in the sender unit yesterday. It's a PITA tbh!

I took my rear seats out to get more access from the rear.

Lemme step it out:
0. Take photos of the whole process. Will help with wires etc when re-assembling.
1. Remove rear seats (horizontal and vertical ones, horizontals just clip out)
2. Remove two torx screws holding the plate in place over the pump.
3. Remove the plastic plug which holds the carpet down.
4. Carefully remove the rubber/plastic cover which sits above the pump. It breaks real easy.
5. Get a vacuum and compressed air, keep running vac while blowing compressed air over the pump top. It gets real dusty in there.
6. Unclip the two fuel lines. Or 1 if your pump is different. Mine has two but also an in line fuel filter under the left wheel area. You might want to release the pressure in the lines first, I remove my fuel filter line but since you dont have one maybe remove line from the fuel rail to release pressure? Maybe someone else has an idea here.
7. I strongly suggest you get a very specific ring lock removal tool that works on the megane. I did not have one so used two big ass flat screwdrivers and a size 20 spanners open end to hook the little extrusions on the ring. I also bend some of the metal on the pump hole surround so again strongly suggest you get the right tool.
8. Once ring is loose, pull the pump out and at some point turn is like 45 degrees to get the float level out, watch out for spillage, surround the tank hole with some towels. (put a plastic bag over the open tank hole)
8.1 Remove the big O-ring which seals the unit and tank. Keep it, you can reuse it.
9. Empty the sender unit from all petrol
10. Remove the float level reader by unclipping its two wires from the inner top. Then slide the reader unit downwards to get it disconnected from the rest of the pump unit. You want it out of the way to not get damaged.
11. Unclip the other two wires, blue and black, one is fatter than the other.
12. Pull the top of the unit upwards so that the two guide pins are out of their guide holes, remove the center spring.
13. Now another tricky part, take something very thin (I used 8x8 RC airplane propeller) and insert it in the notches at the bottom of the unit. The part which has all the lines at the bottom must be removed by unclipping but its a PITA, so take the thin thingy and push it in the side and then pull it around like opening a can. Do on both side and eventually you will see it starts popping open. Then just pull it apart with a bit of muscle.
14. Now you have two pieces, the sender unit top and bottom. The bottom part has another part inserted into it which contains the strainer filter thingy.
15. Remove the pump by just pulling it down, watch out for the o-ring and plastic thingy which looks a bit like a castle.
16. Remove the strainer by pulling upwards. This is in the bottom part we removed earlier.
17. The strainer might be really filthy, Mine was so bad and I could not clean it so I cut it off from the rest of the unit and used a round strainer which came with my new Bosch pump. Modified it a bit buy cutting it down (the connector to the pump) so that when combining the top and bottom parts again it just doesn't press against the pump units bottom.
18. Install the new pump by simply adding the plastic castle looking thingy and then the o-ring. Press into the housing.
19. Insert the strainer part back in the bottom unit if re-using, or like mine the half part since I cut the original part away.
20. Click the bottom and top back onto each other.
21. Insert the units top parts guide pins and spring back in place. Connect the fuel pump wires.
22. Slide the float unit back on its place. Its correct position is 90 degrees with the fpr. Refer to photos taken.
23. Connect the float wires.
24. Connect the sender unit to the wiring loom, insert key in car then press and hold the start button until the ignition turns on, you will hear the pump whirr for a few seconds and stop. This is correct. Chekc that the fuel gauge reads the position of the float level. I switched off the car a few times, changing the position of the float to ensure it works correctly.
25. Turn car off and then insert the sender unit back in its place. There is a single guide key on the unit and you will see it matches a slit in the tanks hole.
26. Only once the sender unit is in but you are not pressing it down, insert the big O-ring. Way easier doing it this way around than before installing the unit.
27. Now press down on the unit aligning the key so its in the correct position.
28. Start swearing again whilst trying to screw the lock ring on without it going skew, The lock ring has a arrow marking on it which points to the starting point of the thread. The starting thread on the tank faces to the rear of the car exactly. You might feel it goes skew a bit when just starting, you can press down on the highest point and it might just click down and then you can continue screwing it down. Keep feeling around the sides of the ring for the remaining threads on the tank. It will give you an idea if it is still skew. All this time you must keep pressing down on the unit to keep it in place until you are sure the threads are straight and your down at least one full turn.
29. Once hand tight, use the tool and tighten it so the arrow points towards the front passenger seat.
30. Connect the harness plug, the repeat the process to turn ignition on/off for about 4 cycles. This will prime the system up to the rail. Start the car, it might take a few swing if its not fully primed yet.
31. Check for any leaks especially when filling up the next time. If the lock ring was not screwed on straight it WILL leak.

There are many universal pumps which fit this sender unit but best is usually a Bosch. I had this cheap Autozone one laying around which is 3.8bar. The FPR is 3.5 so it works great. Buying just the pump vs unit is R500 vs R3500 in my currency.

 

It's a pleasure man! Today I wish I took detailed pictures yesterday.

Well, if you have the ring locker tool that works, it'll save a lot of time. I started yesterday at around 15h30 and started the car at 18h30. So round 3 hours. With tool guess you can do it under 2 hours. But its the prepping etc that also takes time. If you have the correct tool you might not need to remove seats too which will save time. Must say it was much easier to re-install/screw on the ring locket whilst sitting on the boot floor with the tank hole between my legs, than from behind the driver seat.

What took me the longest is the locker ring and then second is removing the bottom part of the sender unit with my rc plane propellers.

Maybe take some pictures and we can tie it in with my write up to make more sense for future use.

 

Epic dude! Yeah that will save you a bunch of time. Just make sure the whole assembly is the same since some models only had on outlet on the housing top and some two. mine has two. One out and one for return of unused fuel from the rail.

One of our local Megane guys just let me know this evening that his car is having fuel starvation issues as mine did, so we gonna do his pump as well. I just bench tested my two old pumps in water tub and they still work great. I suspect the strainer is the real culprit. It causes a vacuum and then the pump itself cannot get enough fuel in to pressurize towards the fuel rail, thus causing less lph flow rate resulting in fuel starvation. I can't believe my Bosch pump failed in less than two years. The original Bosch pump lasted from 2006 until I replaced it in late 2015.

I must note one symptom my car had which since I swapped the strainer and pump has disappeared, I have a boost guage fitted and would get 1 bar of pressure for a short time and then it would fall to 0.6 bar and kinda sustain that. I thought this was part of the map to prevent over boost but since I fixed the flow rate the boost is 1.1 bar from 2000rpm right through to 6000rpm ( have not gone past that).

So to sum it up my peak power has increased from sorting the fueling(probably more like factory now although I have the RSTuning map, will need to do a dyno run to get actual results). I don't have any proof to back it up but pre fix I limped home (without any dash faults etc) from fuel starvation doing 20 km/h on the highway just to get home. The issue started without warning just 3 days ago after stopping to get groceries). Replaced the pump and strainer and now everything is perfect and in the 5 years of owning the car the boost pressure is actually sustainable whilst it never was. Now this is probably due to poor fuel quality herein South Africa but hey, I managed to fix it. We are currently hitting 40 degree Celsius summer temps and the car is just behaving like a champ now.

Please feel free to ask me any question whilst you are assembling the pump. I attach the same pics as previous but highlight the strainer which I replaced. My tank was quite empty the past two days and I did not suffer any fuel starvation mid corners. Maybe one might have an issue on track when fuel gets pushed to the side real bad by G-force but tbh the stock setup has a chamber of less than 100ml. My setup now has way more volume so might be even better but I cannot guarantee that. The stock sender units bottom acts as a swirls pot to house some fuel during corners to prevent fuel starvation but like I said the volume is very limited. i suspect my setup allows more volume but unfortunately cannot prove it yet.

Happy spannering!

Joe

 

Here's the pics.

 

To depressurize the fuel lines just pull the fuel pump fuse/disconnect the wiring plug and attempt to start the car

 

Or leave it over night, the pressure will drop off

 

I fitted a DW65c pump to my mk2, that then allowed me to run a rising rate fuel system with a few other mods.

 

You don't have to use its potential but its there if you decide in the future

 

I'm not sure where the fuel pump fuse is on Megane I'm afraid. The method I recommended is the way I've done it whenever I've worked on fuel systems over the years.

 

Props for completing the job man! That fuel pump spanner looks sweet!
Did you just replace the current whole sender unit with the donor unit you dissembled and replaced the pump on earlier?

Must say I didn't have such muck on my unit but plenty of dust. I live in near 0% humidity environment though.

After I did mine like a month or so ago I've hit the open road down to my parents at the ocean and my car has been great! Not a single hiccup whatsoever!

 

The pickup/pull away are also where I noticed a massive difference. In my case massive power increase from 20km/h and cutouts

The better hot start I can also agree on. Previously I'd hit Start and it'll turn a few times before firing up and now it's straight away. For the money spent on this maintenance you and me can agree it's definitely worth it right? Extra peace of mind as well.