My Bronco Died Today, Deep Into a Remote Trail [Fuel Pump Failure]

[Razorbak86]

Ooohhhh… it’s happening again!

Looks like my Bronco is back in the shop and work is proceeding, so the fuel pump must have arrived from Nashville.

The SecuriAlert messages are a little strange, so they may be running diagnostics?

Either that or @Tricky Dick secretly swapped his Bronco for mine.

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[Tricky Dick]

Ooohhhh… it’s happening again!

Looks like my Bronco is back in the shop and work is proceeding, so the fuel pump must have arrived from Nashville.

The SecuriAlert messages are a little strange, so they may be running diagnostics?

Either that or @Tricky Dick secretly swapped his Bronco for mine.

Haha sucka! Enjoy ordering parts every week for the next 2 months!

 

[Razorbak86]

Haha sucka! Enjoy ordering parts every week for the next 2 months!

Alright, that’s it!

Now it’s a race. Whoever gets their Bronco back the latest owes the other a pineapple.

I’m even calling @ZackDanger back from retirement to act as referee, in case any disputes arise.

 

[Razorbak86]

Strange, right? Aren't talking about that much distance so it almost has to be height due to tank size.

Probably, but different heights seems unnecessary too. The USCAR standard pumps Ford has been using have a spring loaded basket and have about 4" of height adjustability.

This is really interesting. In their diagnosis, the fuel pump motor seized, which then killed the module. I would have thought that an expected failure condition would be a fuel pump motor seize, which would have required the fuel pump driver module to be designed to handle that appropriately (rather than to become overloaded itself and then subsequently fail). I would have expected a failure in the opposite order, where the driver module fails, which then burns out the pump. Regardless, since I don't design or build cars, what I would have expected doesn't much matter.

This is good data to hopefully inform the "Bronco died on an incline" threads. Thank you for sharing it.

Outstanding work on this. Amazing that the dealership is able to provide all this. Hopefully from the detailed tests and codes we can assess the order of failure. I still can't get over a brand new fuel pump dying and taking the control module with it.

I guess if a pump is going to fail due to a manufacturing defect it's most likely to fail early in it's life.

FWIW, @Chase Gentry just posted an interesting video in which his buddy’s stock, 4-Door Badlands Sasquatch went down a 41-degree pitch at High Dive, where he paused for a few photos, and his fuel pump did not starve and fail.

At this point, I’m leaning towards infant mortality due to a manufacturing defect in the pump.

 

[Razorbak86]

Update

My service advisor called late yesterday to inform me that the fuel pump arrived and the fuel system repairs are now complete, but during the test drive, they noticed a few unrelated warning lights on the dash, so they did some more investigating and found one of the wheel speed sensor's tubes containing two very thin wires cut clean in two, so that also must be repaired.

So that specific part of the total service bill in not going to be a warranty repair. The good news is that it’s not an expensive repair ($33 sensor + 0.8 hrs labor, ~$140-$150), but the part has to come from Michigan (normally 4 days), so he placed an E-order to hopefully get it delivered faster. The bad news is the timing will be cutting things close relative to the loaner car return date (Monday), so I may have to return the loaner before the repair is complete and then come back to pick up the vehicle.

This probably explains one of the alerts that I received from SecuriAlerts late Wednesday afternoon regarding an 'Anti-Lock Brake Fault' warning, which was probably related to the wheel speed sensor.

I don’t recall running over anything on the trail or getting wheel sensor alerts on my IP cluster, but maybe I ran over a rock or log? Maybe it got damaged during the trail recovery tow? Or maybe it got damaged during the Roadside Assistance recovery on the flat-bed back to the dealer?

Anyway, regardless of how it was severed, it still has to be fixed.

PS - I blame @Tricky Dick, who clearly resorts to cross-country sabotage just to win a silly pineapple!

So @ZackDanger, please take note, because I want this blatant infraction on the record!!!

 

[vrtical]

just caught up on the issue, fried FPCM due to pump frying causing a downstream trigger after the FPCM fries. Thats a little messed up in design if you ask me, there should be a failsafe to the FPCM because you are screwed in this situation as just changing the fuel pump would have not fixed this issue. So in regards to off roading and angles, you sure have a good chance of potentially getting heat into the fuel pump which can cause a failure, but it shouldn't nuke the FPCM along the way.

 

[Razorbak86]

just caught up on the issue, fried FPCM due to pump frying causing a downstream trigger after the FPCM fries. Thats a little messed up in design if you ask me, there should be a failsafe to the FPCM because you are screwed in this situation as just changing the fuel pump would have not fixed this issue. So in regards to off roading and angles, you sure have a good chance of potentially getting heat into the fuel pump which can cause a failure, but it shouldn't nuke the FPCM along the way.

You raise some good points. Something about that preliminary assessment seems a little off, but since no Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) were listed and no Pinpoint Tests (PPTs) were referenced, so I am waiting for the final write-up before drawing any firm conclusions. The dealer will need to justify the repair for warranty reimbursement, so those details are typically provided on the final invoice to meet Ford’s requirements.

 

[mpeugeot]

Seems odd that these errors weren't there before. That would suggest that they could have been caused during the repair on the fuel tank. I would want to see what failed and why. Sure, if you caused the damage fine, but if it was damaged by a tech removing the tank, that's on them.

 

[Tricky Dick]

Maybe it got damaged during the trail recovery tow? Or maybe it got damaged during the Roadside Assistance recovery on the flat-bed back to the dealer?

I vote this. It's certainly not any sort of trickery.

 

[Razorbak86]

I vote this. It's certainly not any sort of trickery.

If I get down there, and they point to this...

... I'm filing another official protest with @ZackDanger!

 

[ZackDanger]

If I get down there, and they point to this...

... I'm filing another official protest with @ZackDanger!

Why you dragging me into this?!

 

[Razorbak86]

Why you dragging me into this?!

Because we need a neutral referee, and a pineapple is at stake!

Plus, we all miss you, man.

 

[66GT]

FWIW, @Chase Gentry just posted an interesting video in which his buddy’s stock, 4-Door Badlands Sasquatch went down a 41-degree pitch at High Dive, where he paused for a few photos, and his fuel pump did not starve and fail.

At this point, I’m leaning towards infant mortality due to a manufacturing defect in the pump.

Epic raw footage. CG rocks.
... and 41!

 

[Razorbak86]

Update

Repairs are complete, and she’s back home again!

There is a cool but long-winded story about how the vehicle pick-up went down, and the fortuitous aftermath of the timing, so I will share more details later when I’ve had time to write it all down.

 

[kodiakisland]

Did they wash it? Looks shinier than I remember.

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