I would recommend checking the floor on either side just forward of the rear of the door opening. There are what appear to be reinforcing plates which can trap dirt where they join the floor. If there is any sign of corrosion, remove the front seats and carpet and look from above, it will look worse from here, but also be easier to repair from above. On mine one side was worse than the other and I had to cut out a small section of floorpan which gave me access to the top of the reinforcing plate to remove rust, treat, paint with weld-though primer, then weld in a small repair section to the floor. After paint it was given a good coat of waxoil underneath.

Fuel pump failed today and its only a few months old! Can anyone recommend a pump that will last for more than a year? Last one didn't last much longer.

strange that, hows the inside of your tank looking, any crud and/or rust in there? Or do the cabbies have the plastic tank? Might be worth dropping the tank and giving it a damn good clean out if anything in there.

Do these pumps you've fitted have a gauze on the bottom where it picks up fuel. Any crap in the bottom of the fuel sender? bag filter defo properly fitted properly?

Brand wise, I'd just get one with a known name, walbro, bosch etc and avoid unbranded or unknown names and it should be fine.

Only other thing i can think of is when was the inline filter last changed? Perhaps its a bit clogged and overworking the pump?

I have just ordered a magneti marelli pump, so hopefully that should last a bit longer. The tank is plastic and clean and the pump has both a gauze bag filter and a second filter on the intake. The in-line filter has also been regularly changed. Let's hope this lasts. The annoying thing is that the original pump was still working, but one of the external connectors snapped, so I replaced it. Unfortunately, I threw the original away, but realise with hindsight that I should have kept the motor.

New pump motor arrived in Friday, so I replaced a dead motor in a spare pump assembly. Fitted it to the car and nothing. Ran through all the checks I had made previously, including the fuel cut-off switch (even swapped ecu's and relays). In the end, I thought I would check the ignition circuit was still ok by squirting some easy start into the throttle body. It started as expected, but continued to run. Switched off and started again and it ran perfectly, with the pump working well. Just as an experiment, I plugged the old pump in and it ran as well.


I have tried it a few times over the weekend and it ran perfectly each time, so I am at a loss to know what the problem was in the first place which stopped the pump working. It can't have been the easy start as I had tried the same trick last week and it ran for only as long I squirted the fluid.


On the one hand, it is good to have solved the problem, but on the other, it is bad not knowing what that problem was and whether it is likely to come back!

strange indeed. I dont know the engine well enough to suggest anything to check sadly. If you had a look at some wiring diagrams you might be able to figure it out. I've always run 12v directly to a fuel pump to check it works or not prior to changing it out, would have saved you some time and readies but too late for that.
Where does the power for the pump comes from for example? I'd imagine the ecu will trigger a relay which powers the pump, so i'd be testing continuity and resistance between the pump and that relay first, getting someone to wiggle wires at same time to see if it changes. No issues with wires or the relay then test between the relay and the ecu.
Other than that just try and think what circumstances its stopped working and is there any similarities, has something got wet when it rained perhaps, shorting something to ground or just making relay ddo silly things, something like that...

I think your analysis is correct, possibly the wiring between the relay and the pump, which goes via the emergency shut-off valve. At least I now have a spare pump and it only cost a few pounds.

I think I've found the problem. The pump cut out again, so this time I was able to test the wiring while it was faulty. I found the live feed to the pump was fine, so checked the earth wire. There is an earth point under the dash which I disturbed while fitting the new heater matrix. A little wiggle and the pump came to life. I now need to sort the earth a little more permanently than an occasional wiggle!

Looks like I haven't sorted the problem, the pump has failed again. I had previously checked the earth and everything was and is still fine in that department. I checked every wire on the connector on top of the pump and they are all fine. There is power when the engine is turned. I connected a spare motor (which had worked when last tested), but nothing. Stupidly, I left it with the car, but will bring it home tomorrow and see if I can get it to run with wires direct to the motor, bypassing the pump assembly. If I can get the spare pump to work I should be able to get the car home. However, I need a better solution so that I can use the car without it breaking down.

Today's update:
The pump has stopped working, but there is not a problem with the pump, I have a spare which I have tested off the car, but when I connect it, it doesn't work. I have tested the live feed to the pump and it is fine, it becomes live when the engine is cranked, which is correct. I have also checked the earth, which again is fine. However, when I connect the pump the live feed goes dead. Disconnect it and it is live again. It seems like the car recognises when the pump is connected and kills the live feed. Any ideas out there in Puntoland?

It's fixed!
Turns out that although I was getting the voltage at the pump, I was not getting the current. I traced the wire from the pump relay to the fusebox and gave the connector a wiggle. This did the trick.

Nice one, electrical problems can be a nightmare to sort out [emoji1303]

Took Bertie out today and he ran faultlessly. I even had the opportunity to use the new heater I installed last winter. It made a refreshing change to have heat without steaming up the whole car! However, having covered many miles in our Fiat 500x in the last couple of weeks, I did find the brakes took a little getting used to. They required considerably more pressure than the 500x!

Thought I would give a little update on Bertie. He ran fine for the rest of 2019 until I put him in the garage for winter, then 2020 came with Covid and Bertie stayed where he was, then I retired. I did not then need three cars and Bertie languished in the garage. Last year I sold my XK8 and I thought it was time to resurrect Bertie, so I got him ready for the road. This involved a little welding at the end of the sills and I removed and cleaned the fusebox and all its connections to prevent any of the old problems returning. I then had him MOT'd and taxed and he returned to the road. He has performed faultlessly since and attended the Festival of the Unexceptional. He could do with a respray, although some might call it patina. Since returning from hibernation he has also attracted attention from other motorists, including a taxi driver. Next year he will turn 30 and we will have owned him for 24 years.