Belmont, CA – Common Toyota Corolla Auto Repair Problems: Fuel Pump Failures

The Toyota Corolla is both one of the most reliable and affordable cars to ever hit the road. You buy a Corolla because you want a no-frills car that you know will start any morning of the year and not leave you stranded. Yet it’s still a car, and you shouldn’t be shocked when failures occur that result in your ride on the back of a flatbed.

Fuel pumps are one of these failures that can make you scratch your head in confusion. Your Corolla’s engine will turn over when you twist the key, but all you hear is the whine of the electric start motor and nothing to the tune of your engine coming to life. Are you out of gas?  No, the needle isn’t anywhere near empty. Is there a warning on the dash or a check engine light?  No, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Is your battery dead?  Obviously not since your starter has enough power to turn the engine over repeatedly. So what gives?

You were on the right track when questioning your fuel level. A fuel pump failure is pretty much what it sounds like – the pump that sucks gas out of your fuel tank and transports it through fuel lines into the engine has failed. Your engine is starved for gas no matter how much is in the tank.

What do you do now?  Unfortunately, this isn’t a repair you should do in a parking lot or on the side of a highway. AAA can’t come save the day with a jumpstart or a tire patch. You’ll need to take the car to a mechanic you trust where they will do their own analysis to confirm your suspicions.

On the brightside, Corollas are generally easy and affordable to work on. Toyota’s approach to engineering follows a more common sense path than several other automakers. Wear components are placed in areas they’re easy to get to rather than having to disassemble a good portion of the car to access the failed component in question. This is the case with your Corolla’s fuel pump – depending on the year, the odds are it is in the top of the fuel tank and accessible by taking off the bottom cushion of your rear seat, unbolting and lifting the pump out of the top of the tank, then dropping the new one back in its place. Some automakers place the pumps inside the fuel tank in a way that requires the car be put on a lift and the tank removed from underneath. This leads to many more hours of work to accomplish the same job – and thus a noticeably higher repair bill. Be glad you drive a Toyota!

Like most things, it’s not a matter of if your car is going to have mechanical problems, but when. You can prolong some components of your car by driving cautiously without hard acceleration or braking, but fuel pumps aren’t one of the mechanisms that can be babied into immortal status. They run without issue until the day they quit. Don’t sweat it when that day comes – just bring us your Corolla and we’ll get you back on the road.