Carter P4070 Electric fuel pump failures.

Kevin 007

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Just putting this out here as a FYI on what I have been dealing with; seemingly another poor quality issue arising.

For years I have used Carter P4070 electric fuel pumps on everything from heavy equipment, to automobile applications and have used them for years on our idi's when converting to E-fuel from mechanical. And for years I have had nothing but excellent service from them. Thousands of hours without a hiccup. Over the past year I have experienced 4 pump failures out of the blue on recently purchased pumps, all with under aprox 500hrs on the pumps. 2 of them has less then 100hrs. And 2 of the failures were on idi trucks. ALL pumps were installed with a pre filter, mounted close to the tank and as low as possible. All had fused power and good grounds. All were treated with some form of fuel treatment (usually Howes or Stanadyne) and none were allowed to run on a plugged or partially plugged filter and none had to pump a great vertical distance, and none were subject to great vibration, heat or cold. They had it pretty easy. It seems like they are failing on the electrical side. Some fail suddenly and others still kind of pump but with only about 1psi and they cough and stubble and sound terrible.

Its pretty disheartening to see yet another product that was once a trusted piece of quality, turn into yet another pile of crap.
 

renjaminfrankln

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I had one of these fail with about 1.5 years and 150 hours of use. It looked and sounded fine but would not make enough flow/pressure.
 

Kevin 007

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Ah yeah I believe it. And to add to my original post, I also had one leak from the electrical connector area and the bottom of them pump. It was sucking in air while running and leaking fuel out when off
 

BeastMaster

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I have a P4070 on my 1994 IDI van. Sure is a noisy thing. Mixed blessing, as I easily hear disturbances in my electrical system... Blinkers, glow plugs, brake lights, etc, in the sound it makes.

I am concerned the thing fails in the middle of nowhere. Been thinking of buying an airdog and keeping it around as insurance. I am not after performance... But I insist on reliability. If I can't trust the thing, I have no use for it. That's why I have an IDI.

Kinda scary too when we realize the integrity of a company's product often hinges on one employee who gives a damm. That one employee leaves, then the company sells crap that looks good, but doesn't work right.
 

Cubey

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I had one of these fail with about 1.5 years and 150 hours of use. It looked and sounded fine but would not make enough flow/pressure.

Pretty sad, I have a 2+ year old Mr Gasket 12D on my N/A F250 that a lot of people say don't last very long. Maybe the small engine filter I have between the tank and pump's crappy little filter is what keeps it alive. The filter catches a lot of rust from the tank, which is probably what clogs the pump's tiny filter or even gets past it and ruins the pump.
 

renjaminfrankln

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Pretty sad, I have a 2+ year old Mr Gasket 12D on my N/A F250 that a lot of people say don't last very long. Maybe the small engine filter I have between the tank and pump's crappy little filter is what keeps it alive. The filter catches a lot of rust from the tank, which is probably what clogs the pump's tiny filter or even gets past it and ruins the pump.

I had a fresh 10 micron fuel/water separator just before this pump. It was on a gas inboard fishing boat that I took 40-50 miles offshore and I was very particular about maintenance on it. Tank was spotless (pulled pickup and scoped it) fuel lines new, good filter.. there is no way the pump got any bad or contaminated fuel. When the pump failed (in the freaking bahamas of course) it was the last thing I checked. Fortunately I had a new spare with me, but it wasted a day of vacation.
 

Garbage_Mechan

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I used to have a Cat 613 scraper that had one of these to push fuel from the tank in the very rear of the scraper can to the 3208 mounted in the front. Came from Cat that way. I stocked a spare because the common random failure those days was the little plastic piece that coupled the rotor to the end of the motor shaft. Motor running, rotor not turning. I have disliked this pump since then, 30 years later!
 

franklin2

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I have been impressed with these simple little pumps. Sit it up on the pass side inner fender, it will pull the fuel all the way up there, no problems. One of the problems with an external fuel pump is they want you to position it low so it's not starved for fuel. But guess where any water in the fuel settles to?

I haven't used these exact pumps, but we have one going on 20 years old on a old idi dump truck and it's still going strong. It sits there and makes a ticking sound, and looks just like this pump.

https://www.surpluscenter.com/Brands/Facet/12-Volt-DC-Facet-40106-Electronic-Fuel-Pump-28-1895.axd
 

Kevin 007

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Yeah I have phoned Carter a couple times and ******* about he lack of quality or trying to get some advice on anything I might be doing wrong (which there isn't really) and their support has been dismal to. Im not looking for a refund or return, im just looking for reliability.
Im now carrying a spare 4070 in everything, that's a ready to go, in case I have a failure I can swap out quick. Its too bad I have to do this, but just a sign of the times I guess.

They do seem to be failing on the electrical end more so then the mechanical im thinking of trying to rig up some form of voltage regulator or something to maintain a steady 12.5v or something opposed to being subject to fluctuating voltage from the system or seeing as high as 13.7v + from the 3G alternator when its really putting out. BUT.....one shouldn't have to do this.
 

Thewespaul

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I run a mr gasket 105p in all my trucks, probably a quarter million miles on them all together, haven’t had any issues with them at all.
 

Oledirtypearl86

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Just had a 64 Galaxy 500 with a 390 that had a Carter 4070 just installed 250 miles ago and it crapped out sounds like it locked up inside and it had a pre filter
 

CDX825

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That's sad to hear. Ive got the P4594 on my truck and its been good to me so far knock on wood.

Anyone try any of the facet pumps besides the transi cold ones?
 

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