Bosch 044 Defective?

[GeeTR]

Hi All,

Have a little worry, I’m hoping some of yall can help me with.

I purchased two new Bosch 044’s, and they make a funny rattling sound when shook the correct way. Attached is a annotated diagram from some Bosch marketing material I found.

I’m looking for people who have a unit handy they can shake around.

On the diagram you can see that you need to move it from side to side on the correct plane.

Note: that if you shake length ways there’s a heavy “thonk thonk” which is, I assume just normal motor shaft / stator hysteresis.

The extra noise I have, just sounds like a small piece of plastic or metal rattling around. I initially though I dropped something into the pump until I realised the un-opened unit had the same noise.

This is stressing me out something wicked, as I got the pump for flow, but mainly to limit the chance of the old one dieing on the dyno !pop!

Any thoughts, suggestions, experience would be massively useful

Thanks!

M

Edited - Pump pics attached

Edited November 24, 2006 by GeeTR

[Abo Bob]

I know this is not really helpful to you but I think it's only a matter of time - and not much of it - until someone blows an engine using these things.

They get cheaper and cheaper and shitter and shitter.

Now back to the point of the thread. Dunno sorry, I've got a GTR pump.

[GeeTR]

Hey Bob, what makes you say "shittier and shittier" ??

Did you buy your GTR pump new? Im planning to use mine orig as a lift pump

Might have to run 4 Walbro's in parallel =)

[raist60]

Hey Bob, what makes you say "shittier and shittier" ??

Did you buy your GTR pump new? Im planning to use mine orig as a lift pump

Might have to run 4 Walbro's in parallel =)

Not too keen on pulling mine out, but just FYI the 044s are a really rattley, loud pump full stop so I'd say its normal. My pump when its running honestly sounds like it has square bearings in it and well so far its been running for a year and a half.

[mad082]

They get cheaper and cheaper and shitter and shitter.

just because you can buy them cheaper doesn't mean that they are shittier. if they are a genuine item and you can get it for half the price of somewhere else then that is just smart buying.

if 2 shops are selling the identical item (same brand, model, everything, from the same supplier) and 1 charges $200 and the other $400, is the $400 a better item because it cost more?

if it is a non genuine item then that is a different story.

[NicsR33]

^^^

just for fun i emailed autobarn to see how much they sell them for. first email i sent:

"just wondering how much bosch 040 are?" and they reply back "bosch 040 coil packs are $1500".

After a giggle i reply'd back saying "they are fuel pumps" and he goes "$400".

so yeh why pay $400 when u can get em half that price.

bak to the thread

[SimonR32]

I know this is not really helpful to you but I think it's only a matter of time - and not much of it - until someone blows an engine using these things.

They get cheaper and cheaper and shitter and shitter.

Now back to the point of the thread. Dunno sorry, I've got a GTR pump.

gtr used 3: failed 3

bosch used 2: failed 0

maybe ur wrong?!?

[Psymon]

^^^

just for fun i emailed autobarn to see how much they sell them for. first email i sent:

"just wondering how much bosch 040 are?" and they reply back "bosch 040 coil packs are $1500".

After a giggle i reply'd back saying "they are fuel pumps" and he goes "$400".

so yeh why pay $400 when u can get em half that price.

bak to the thread

Slightly off topic, but being an Autobarn staff member myself i would like to point out that not all Autobarn workers are that stupid! Also we don't charge that much because we want to, we just don't get as good a buy price as other places.

[moonus]

ur more likely to blow ur engine with a 15 year old pump out of a an r32 (or a bit less with an r33) than a brand new bosch one.

[Cubes]

My bosch pumps been great.

Its done close to 150,000km's and almost 5years of service.

Its always been noisy in the warmer weather, loud gurgling, surging type sound.

In the cool weather its no louder than a V8 commodore pump.

[Husky33]

Depends who you buy it off.

I had an issue a couple years back, i purchased an 040 off a forum member who was selling heaps of 040 and 044's. It failed after 6 months, very loud rattly sound and car starting stuttering and wouldn't rev. Found out to be faultly and not a genuine bosch pump on closer inspection. There are heaps of copies on the net, that's why i buy my bosch stuff from bursons.

Just be careful

[Craved]

Depends who you buy it off.

I had an issue a couple years back, i purchased an 040 off a forum member who was selling heaps of 040 and 044's. It failed after 6 months, very loud rattly sound and car starting stuttering and wouldn't rev. Found out to be faultly and not a genuine bosch pump on closer inspection. There are heaps of copies on the net, that's why i buy my bosch stuff from bursons.

Just be careful

and the closer inspection revealed what to say it wasnt genuine?

just curious as it may help everyone out if there are signs

[GeeTR]

Cheers everyone for you input... how a simple component upgrade became soo much more difficult hehe

Im not trusting a 15yo stock GTR pump to maintain pressure for my engine. I know original Bosch equipment is (was?) good, im not disputing that.

My original Q: was a) do normal OEM 044's have a rattle when shook side to side.. along one plane of direction [as per attached pic] and b) how could i tell orig from a CCC (cheap Chinese copy)

I guess im looking for someone who has a spare 044 sitting around, and a digi camera.

Again, thanks for all your input and thoughts… except you Abo-Bob! hah JK

I’m aware to the fact that a particular devices manufacturing quality could drop, this happens, id just like to know now, so I can start hoiking PCP for a

>> http://www.sx-performance.com/pumps%20(4%20kinds).jpg

ps - i'll post some detailed photos of mine tonight

Cheers

M

[Husky33]

and the closer inspection revealed what to say it wasnt genuine?

just curious as it may help everyone out if there are signs

I believe it was missing the serial number.

[GeeTR]

Pics added

- Cheers

[Abo Bob]

Haha, yeah sorry for the O/T.

To clarify a couple of things. I use an R34 GTR pump which I don't think is quite the same as using one from an R32.

Also, by shitter and shitter I mean that I've noticed lately on the forums in an increase in the amount of bosch fuel pumps failing. This has coincided with them becoming more readily available and also cheaper.

Maybe they are copies. Maybe bosch are manufacturing them somewhere else now so they are genuine but not as good as they used to be. I don't know.

I certainly don't mean that paying more for the same pump makes it more reliable.

[Beer Baron]

I can think of many people with failed bosch pumps. no doubt some of these were down to incorrect installation. which is why for intank pump I would chose nismo. no hesitation. i have never heard of even 1 nismo pump failure. for external pumps for big power the choice is not so clear. bosch was the default choice for years but lately it seems to me the failure rate has been creeping up.

[aDrew_C]

Someone's got to be on-topic here

Got a 044 I purchased a few months ago online still in the box and plastic with manual in german.

I can confirm the same sound when shaking it from side to side regardless of what way its facing etc. As long as I'm shaking it along the axis you specified I get the sound you described.

Again, it's still in the sealed plastic and has never been used. It seems like it's either a design thing or something easily damaged in transport (I knocked mine once when in the box, it fell from upright to on its side, made a bit of a noise but i doubt it would've affected it). So here's to hoping it's normal. Hope I helped.

[gun32gtr]

i hope these aint going to fail i just purchased 1...

heard lots of good results 2

[FATGTS-R]

My opinion is that because they have such a big reputation that a lot of them get purchased. And with all of these purchases there is always going to be some failures whether it be due to manufacturing error, transport damage or installation procedure.

People only highlight the bad experiences as thats our nature. I bet on this forum alone that for every person that has had a failure with one that mentioned it there is 50 others that have had no trouble at all.

In saying that, my mate has a potent engine(well over 1,000bhp) and has killed a few of them. One died after less than 1,000km of use. But he did run very very high fuel pressure.

He took it as a given that they could fail and at one stage only required two of them to give him the fuel he required but had four wired up to allow for failure and still have the fuel up there. When he installed decent fuel filters before the pumps the failure rate diminished but didnt disappear.

He gave up on that idea and now has a single big red one in there capable of feeding his requirements. Forget the brand..magnaflow/magnafuel or something.