987.2 Fuel Pump Failures?

There was a thread started on ******** about '09+ owners having fuel pump failures. For those that don't already know high pressure fuel pump (HPFP) failures are a major issue on the BMW twin turbo motors (135/335). Have any owners with 987 DFI cars had a failure? If so, please post details. Thanks

I was recently talking with a mechanic at my favorite local dealer and he mentioned this as the biggest issue they've seen so far on the direct-injected engines. Sort of makes sense, considering the ridiculously high pressures involved with direct injection. Having said that, I'm sure Bosch or whoever the OEM is is right on top of it and either has it sorted or will in no time.

No one has reported any here on this website that I know of and my local dealership hasn't seen a failure yet, but those data points are as good as any others. If there were a rash of them or a significant problem I would expect that we'd have seen it by now, but that doesn't mean that there haven't been some failures or that whatever failures have occurred aren't within some normal to be expected number or percentage.

I know of one fuel pump failure in a Gen II 911 (local PCA member), but have not heard of any others and none in the 987's.

You would think that but that hasn't been the case with BMW. 3 model years and no solution. I wouldn't be surprised if their OEM was Bosch as well. Go figure. Here's hoping the Porsche failures reported on ******** are an anomaly.

My '06 Audi 3.2 DI has been flawless for 55K miles of daily driving....One more data point?

I never had a problem with my 335i. BMW did send a letter telling me that my pump would be warranted for 10 years. At 6000 miles on my '09' CS I have not had any fuel pump issues.

On my 2nd 335i, no HPFP problems in any of those. Let's hope it stays the same when I pick up my CS this week.

Related issue, but my HPFP failed after using Launch Control for the first time on my 997.2 S... car had about 2100 miles on it at the time.

Here's a great idea. Don't run your DI car out of gas...That would go for running low fuel around a track. I imagine pumping a lot of air would be rough on them. Boobernackle, how much fuel was in the tank when you launch controlled it??? Wouldn't this make a little sense?

Yep, I've just had one! A 'Reduced Engine Power' message was followed by what seemed like 'limp home' mode. Seconds earlier I heard two, not very loud popping/cracking sounds (or something like that) coming from the engine. My dealership advised that I don't drive the car to them, and Porsche Assist recovered it. I've just been informed that the HPFP is the culprit, and will be replaced. The car is a Gen 2 Boxster S , supplied in March 2009, 7,000 miles.

Thanks Dori. Hope they get it resolved quickly for you. It would be very helpful for the rest of the board if you can get as much info as possible from your dealer tech after they repair it.

Thanks ChrisF; I'll try! Incidentally, this is my third Boxster S (preceded by a 986 and a (gen 1) 3.4 987), and the very first engine-related issue I've encountered. This mishap notwithstanding, the DI engine has been a revelation, so I'm not too perturbed by what is probably a solvable teething problem.

Very strange experience tonight. I went for a quick canyon run and after about 20 minutes of running the car around 6/10ths, i got on the throttle exiting a corner and the car just bogged. I backed off then tried again; bog bog; no CEL. Drove very easily until I got to the bottom of the canyon then tried again. Power came back on. I also noticed earlier in the day that on startup it took 4x the normal number of cranks to turnover. This was the tell tale sign of a pending HPFP failure on my wife's 335i so I'm wondering if this was a coincidence. I have a few little niggling complaints to get addressed with the car so I'm going to take the car in and see if they find anything. I'll report back.

Strange indeed! The HPFP failure on my car was not preceded by either of these symptoms. When the HPFT failed, I thought that the very noisy idle I had noticed in the preceding days must have been related; however, now with the new HPFP installed, the idle noise is exactly the same (if not louder still - I'm not sure). Incidentally, I promised an update last month and omitted to deliver - apologies. I asked the service manager, as well as the technician who worked on my car, about other such failures, and whether there's any reason to assume that it won't reoccur. To date, they have had four such failures on 911s , but mine was the very first the dealership encountered in a 987. According to the technician, the HPFP itself has now been modified twice: he said the previous one he'd installed in a 911 was an updated version, and mine looked like a second update. The work was of course covered by the warranty, but I was also told that the part is a relatively inexpensive £350. Out of warranty, with labour, it probably would have been something around £1000.

I'm officially now a victim of a bad HPFP. After my last post, my car stopped running completely. On startup it would idle barely before dying. For a little while, i thought maybe I had blown up the motor. Car went in today and they already diagnosed and replaced the fuel pump . The other very ironic thing for me is that my wife's 335i also started acting up today and went in for what will probably be fuel pump #2. Hopefully the pump that went in my car today is an updated design and I won't have to deal with this again.

With two cars having the same issue, I'd be curious about the gas you're buying for these cars. Possible they're using the same pump.

I tend to use Chevron or Unocal Super in both. My other cars have fared well on the same diet so I don't think it's the fuel. There are 100's of other BMW owners going through the same thing and they live all over the country and use all kinds of different gas.

Could be Porsche is buying fuel pumps from the same vendor who's buying their rubber gaskets from the same guy....Something like that.

Hpfp replaced about a month ago in my '08 335/12k miles. Symptoms were slightly rough idle and several cranks before finally starting.

Odd...isn't '08 non-DFI?

08' 335i= BMW

PWND by lack of reading comprehension

One mechanic suggested to me most FP failures are caused by poor fuel quality. Any opinions here on that one?

a number of things kill them.....running low on fuel ,picking up dirt in the tank,and not changing filters [earlier cars],bad design

Sounds dubious to me. I've been using exclusively Shell V-Max, a 99 octane fuel largely considered to be the best (in Europe anyway) for high performance cars. I've never run the car very low on fuel. The failure occured prior to the volcanic ash cloud, and there's no other reason to think that the filter needed to replaced on my (then) one year-old car. A design issue seems to me to be the only cause, and it's attested to by the fact that, as I was told by my dealiership, the original design has now been updated twice.

I have a 2009 Cayman S with 7700 miles at the high flow pump failed. Never droved it hard. Used Chevron high octane which has fuel cleaning additives all the time. Initially had difficulty starting car then the "reduced engine power" light went on and inability to accelerate. Hope this is not a recurring problem after the replacement.

The Fuel Pump in the tank is different than the one that bumps up the pressure for DFI etc right? Is the HPFP in the Porsche 's the same Bosch part that BMW uses?

There is a lower pressure pump to get the fuel out of the tank and feed the higher pressure pump which feeds the motor. I just sold my 135i Bimmer and had been following their HPFP issue (didn't have any issues myself) - just looked again and it looks like BMW has issued a recall but it's still not clear as to what the failure cause is. Not sure if the BMW / Porsche pumps are the same, and if they are, whether Porsche will suffer the same issues.

Just barely got home in limped mode after receiving the Reduced Engine Power Warning... 2009 Boxster S with 14,000mi on it. Going to see if I can get a dealer to pick it up tomorrow. Hope it is not anything more major than the HPFP... I was just starting to feel really confident about the car. I have a 1800 mi trip planned and was looking forward to taking it this summer in the pcar, now I am not sure about it. Darn. -Callahan-

Just got the call from the Dealer.... HPFP it is... none in stock. It will take 4 days to get the car back on the road. No loaner. Originally the dealer tried to say it was the battery . Oh well at least it is under warranty. Thanks OP and Dori for this thread and Planet-9 for all the great info. Great Board. -Callahan-

Dont let it stop you doing your trip, just one of those things!

Fyi.... Just made it back from my East Coast Trip down to Atlantic City and back (Multiple stops along the way, Philly, Grove City, Etc.). The car had 3x 10hour days of driving with no issues. Stopped in Newark Delaware to get some new read tires from Costco and all is good. Escort Redline Radar Detector made the drive even more fun.... -Callahan-

ehhh... I think I might have a bad fuel pump too based on the symptoms in this thead. Got off work, went to start the car in the parking garage. Took 7 or 8 cranks to start the car in the parking garage, and idle was very odd sounding and uneven. Drove really easy out of the garage and the idle settled to the normal ~800rpm by the time i came out of the garage so i figured I'd keep going. Drove about 20 mins down the freeway everything was fine and all of a sudden and got the "Engine Reduced Power" message, and CEL came on. Car became very sluggish and unable to accelerate, so limped it off and parked in a gas station. Porsche Roadside assist called a tow truck. When the tow truck got there, he had me turn the car around so he could pull it nose up on to the flat bed to avoid scratching the nose on the pavement. So i restarted the car, same thing, 7 or 8 cranks before it started. Going to dealer tomorrow, hope its nothing worse than just a bad HPfuel pump or oxygen/mass air flow sensor. 2010 987.2 , with ~7300 miles on it. She drank Chevron 91 all ~7300 miles. Let's hope i get a loaner, since I had to take it into the dealer last week for a failing clutch interlock sensor, and they didn't have a loaner then either .... errrrr

Just an update: Got my car back today. It was indeed the High Pressure Fuel Pump . They had to remove some coolant lines to get to the HPFP. So the work included reinstalling the coolant lines and bleeding the coolant system. I asked the service adviser, he said it would have been roughly $1500 if it wasn't under warranty. For reference, they replaced it with the same model fuel pump . Part # 9A1-110-315-06 He said he had seen a few 997.2s with this problem, but mine was the first 987 to come through their dealer with the bad HPFP. (McKenna in Socal) Let's see how long this HPFP lasts ...

When I first bought my 987 Box, I had my fuel pump go out. Probably from sitting too long? Who knows. Glad it was the fuel pump and not something worst, is what I was thinking at the time. Just for the record.