The causes of snowmobile fuel pump failure could be avoided most of the times if snowmobile users are more maintenance conscious.
Having a bad fuel pump in your snowmobile can really frustrate your driving experience.
Some of the things that cause a snowmobile fuel pump to fail are bad fuel pump fuse, contaminated fuel, fuel pump electrical issues, etc.
When you are faced with any of these, the fuel pump in your snowmobile will not function well.
In this guide you will learn of the various issues that can cause your snowmobile fuel pump to fail.
Causes Of Snowmobile Fuel Pump Failure
1) Contaminated Fuel
Most people like buying snowmobile fuel in pump stations that are not too reputable.
When you are involved in such, there are chances that you may be buying a bad fuel.
This will affect your snowmobile performance negatively.
Apart from affecting the snowmobile performance, it will really affect some mechanical parts too.
Some of the mechanical parts a contaminated fuel will affect in a snowmobile is the fuel pump.
When a fuel is bad, it contains things that are harmful to the mechanical parts of your snowmobile.
Some of the impurities a bad fuel contains is dissolved particles.
When such a fuel is used, it will cause harm to the fuel pump of your snowmobile.
This is because the dissolved impurities will gradually cause a blockage in the fuel pump.
This will cause a strain on the snowmobile fuel pump when it is trying to release fuel at the volume and pressure the engine needs.
This continuous strain in the fuel pump will result in the damage of the fuel pump.
2) Wrong Fuel Pump Capacity
One of the best practice to always use is to be conscious of the capacity of all the mechanical parts in your snowmobile.
Make sure that you always use the right capacity of devices to avoid issues in your snowmobile.
The fuel pump in your snowmobile is one of the parts you should always go with the right capacity.
Any mistake of using the wrong capacity will result in damaging the snowmobile fuel pump.
This is because every engine fuel consumption level varies depending on the capacity of the engine.
If the engine of the snowmobile is a heavy duty one, the fuel pump will carry a high capacity.
But if the engine is a small one, the fuel pump capacity will not be as large as that of an heavy duty snowmobile engine.
A larger engine will consume more fuel which will be optimally provided for by the fuel pump in the snowmobile.
If you now use the fuel pump of a small snowmobile in the big engine snowmobile, the fuel pump will die early.
This is because its capacity cannot feed the large engine with enough fuel to function well.
As a result of that, the small engine fuel pump will be forcing itself to supply the fuel.
This causes heat to develop in the fuel pump which leads to the damage of the electrical components.
As a result of that, the fuel pump begins to die.
This is one of the causes of snowmobile fuel pump failure which must not be overlooked.
3) Fuel Pump Electrical Issues
As the usage period of a snowmobile increases, some of the parts in the snowmobile will start deteriorating.
This is also seen in the fuel pump of the snowmobile.
At this point, some electrical parts in the snowmobile fuel pump will start developing issues.
This will reduce the efficiency of the fuel pump.
The pressure at which the fuel from the tank is released into the engine is controlled by the electrical parts.
This pressure begins to fluctuate when some of the electrical parts begin to develop a fault.
That is why it is not good to stress the fuel pump in a snowmobile by using it in an engine with a higher capacity.
This will cause heat in the fuel pump which will cause the electrical components in the fuel pump to fail.
4) Low Fuel In Tank
Another way a snowmobile fuel pump is stressed is when the volume of fuel in the tank is low.
At such instance, the fuel pump will have to work harder in order to supply fuel at the needed capacity to the engine.
This will stress the fuel pump in the process.
This also makes the fuel pump to develop heat which will gradually damage some electrical components in the fuel pump of the snowmobile.
Apart from that, the fuel pump will really be exposed to a higher amount of impurities in the fuel tank.
This is because the impurities in a bad fuel settles at the bottom of a snowmobile fuel tank.
When the volume of fuel gets less, these bad fuel begins to flow into the fuel pump.
So always make sure that you do not run your snowmobile fuel tank too low.
5) Blocked Fuel Pump Filter
For a snowmobile to efficiently perform, the fuel mixes with air before it burns in the cylinder.
But the thing is that the air that is mixed with the fuel has to be a clean and good air that is free from contamination.
To achieve this, an air filter is used in the snowmobile to filter the air before it mixes with the fuel.
This helps in keeping contaminants in the air from entering the engine.
But as time goes on, the trapped contaminants will start blocking the optimum free flow of air to mix with fuel.
This will affect the snowmobile functionality negatively.
This could be grease soaked in the air filter or particles of dust.
That is why it is important to always change the air filter when it is dirty.
If it is not in a bad shape, you can just wash it thoroughly and then dry it well before putting it back into your snowmobile.
6) Hot Fuel Pump
A hot fuel pump is one of the causes of snowmobile fuel pump failure.
Heat in a snowmobile fuel pump is generated when the engine capacity is too large for the fuel pump.
Due to this, the fuel pump will be very stressed as it tries to deliver fuel to the engine to run well.
Due to this, the fuel pump will start to develop heat in the process.
As this goes on, the fuel pump will fail to function properly.
7) Bad Fuel Pump Fuse
One of the most important component in a snowmobile fuel pump is the fuse.
This controls the working condition of the electrical components of a fuel pump.
If the fuse gets bad, then the fuel pump in the snowmobile will not perform well too.
This is because fuel will not be supplied to the engine at the right pressure.
Conclusion
A fuel pump is very important for a snowmobile to function well.
Knowing the causes of snowmobile fuel pump failure will help prolong the lifespan of your snowmobile fuel pump.
But you must make sure that you always use your snowmobile cautiously to avoid damaging it.
Further Reading
Ways To Protect Fuel Pump In Snowmobile From Damage