I'm sitting here kicking myself at the moment due to my clumsiness! I was replacing a short section of leaky fuel hose and while tightening the connector, accidently pulled on the fuel pipe I was connecting to and felt it 'give'. I lifted the access plate over the fuel pump and discovered I had snapped the plastic pipe connector on the top of the fuel pump. I cannot see a way of repairing this connector, so assume I will have to replace the whole pump. Has anyone else had this same problem? Can the plastic top part of the pump be replaced without having to replace the whole pump assembly?


Below is a picture of the broken connector. It is from a 1.6 Cabrio 90 ELX. The pump is only a couple of years old. Does anyone have a spare pump for sale?

cant be glued, you need a new one

Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of bodging a repair with a high pressure fuel line. My question is really whether it is possible to replace the plastic top of the fuel pump without having to replace the whole thing, or is this a false economy?

I think you can get the plastic housing/fuel sender part separately and just install your existing pump into that?

Found one, here

Thanks for the link, that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Unfortunately, although it lists the 1.6, the unit illustrated is not the correct one, although it may just be for illustrative purposes. I have found a complete after market new pump assembly for just under £50, so may plump for that. I have noticed that there is another pump for the Punto MK1 which outwardly looks the same, but operates at about 1.2 Bar, whereas the pump for the 1.6 operates at 3.1 Bar.
It is especially frustrating that I had everything I needed to fit the original leaking pipe, it was just my clumsiness that created the problem with the pump!

its possible to replace just the plastic probably, but no one is gonna sell you only that

Just checked the link again and confirmed that the item pictured is just for illustrative purposes, not the actual unit. Interestingly, reading the description, it is the whole unit complete with pump and sender, not just the plastic and it is cheaper than the one I found. It might be worth my while buying this one and keeping the old pump for spare parts.

Found it for £23.98 http://www.bestpartstore.co.uk/46427664-oen

cheap for a new pump, but still you can used one for pocket change

"cheap for a new pump, but still you can used one for pocket change"


Unfortunately not the case any more. There are very few cars out there with the correct pump for the 1.6 engine. I could only find one and the seller wanted £45. New pump is ordered.

ohh 1.6, forgot

renaultvation said:

"cheap for a new pump, but still you can used one for pocket change"


Unfortunately not the case any more. There are very few cars out there with the correct pump for the 1.6 engine. I could only find one and the seller wanted £45. New pump is ordered.

Click to expand...

could you please take a few pics when you do the job,

would be good to compare with the other 2 x punto guides (1.1 /1.2's)

thx, Charlie

yes i would have thought the sender unit itself would be basically the same unit as the FIRE engined cars just with a different pump in it. I can tell you the pump itself can be changed as i have taken one out a 16v punto sender and fit it into a cinq one... I would have thought you could have got a sender unit from any mk1 and just swapped your actual pump over - and tbh if you bought that one for £23 or whatever it was i'd be swapping my factory pump into the unit myself even though its old now

I was thinking the same thing as the pump is only a couple of years old. Whatever I do, I will keep the old one for the pump even if I don't swap it right away.

Does the pump on your 1.6 whine much? Mine whines quite a bit but I don't know if its normal, also it has very little petrol in it since its not on the road at the moment so I guess it could be that.

No, it's very quiet in operation. So much so, that when I was having electrical problems I found it very difficult to tell whether the pump was working at all. It was!

Probably means mine is on its way out then... But thanks for confirming.

Would it have been possible to drill the housing and bond in a new metal pipe?

New pump arrived today, so here are the pictures which were requested.


Step 1: Undo fuel filler cap to release pressure from the tank (thank you to my wife for that tip):





Step 2: Undo electrical connector and fuel lines:





Step 3: Remove collar:





Step 4: Remove pump assembly from tank:





Step 5: Transfer rubber seal from old pump to new:









Step 6: Fit new pump, connect fuel lines and connector and the job is done. Check for leaks with the engine running.





This is the old pump with broken plastic nozzle, otherwise in perfect order.

Yes it can be glued and I've done it on my own pump. My repair has now lasted over 10 years so it's permanent, strong, and easy to do. There is no need to remove the pump from the tank.

Get a short length of straight copper tube or pipe about 1/4" outside diameter and about 3/16" inside diameter. If you get metric stuff it will be 6mm x 4mm or so. Cut enough to go right into the pump pipe stub and reach out to the end of the original pipe, probably about 1, 1/2" or so

It will not fit inside the plastic pipe nor the short stub you have left on the pump head without a little rubbing down on a broad flat fine file or some fine wet-n-dry paper on a flat plate. Rub it down evenly all round until it will just slip inside without any slop. Takes about half an hour.

Then using 24-hour araldite or similar fine epoxy resin coat the tube and wipe some inside the stub and broken piece with a cotton bud. Press in the copper tube right home making sure the broken edges mate as before. Clear right down the pipe with a clean cotton bud so the spare glue doesn't block the hole right up.

Leave it a full 48 hours to get hard. Making sure there is free passage for the petrol through the repair, tidy up the area and refit to the car. It will now be much stronger than before and should last the life of the car.

The hole is now a little smaller, I don't think that makes the slightest difference if your pump is working as it should be.

RB