The pump should have a fuse in the fusebox, but is probably labled something like ‘injection system’.

The pump relay is located under the bonnet, on the inner wing, next to the right hydraulic sphere. (under your chassis number)

The easiest way to check the pump when you’re alone is, as you’ve suggested, send 12V to the pump manually. You can find the wire for the pump under the passenger seat, (remove the lower part of the seat) under the carpet next to the ECU. It is a yellow wire, and has a white connector there. You can undo the connector and connect the pump end to a 12v source. You should hear the pump running.

The pump should work when you put the ignition key in the accessory position. You should hear the pump (buzzing softly for a second or 2, and then you should hear a very soft “tick”, the pump will remain running, pumping fuel through the hoses, even when the engine is not running. The injector allows fuel to enter the engine. Sometimes the injector gets clogged. On my BX Chic the injector is located under the airhose, the hose which connects the airfilter with the engine.

Thanks VERY much for the information guys

Good news - it ran! And then died again.

One of my colleagues volunteered to help. I pulled up the passenger seat and carpet, found the yellow wire with white connector. Measured about 9-10 volts whilst cranking - great, fuel pump wire is working.

To the back of the car and I get the meter on the wires to the pump there. Crank it - great, still good voltage. But I can’t really hear it running so I give the wires a bit of a fiddle while he cranks it. Then I hear something, very quiet though and she splutters into life! Joy!

She carried on running for a good few minutes until I disconnected the wire under the passenger seat (morbid curiosity). She spluttered and died and wouldn’t restart after connecting the wire again. My assistant had left by that point so I couldn’t repeat the same as earlier.

One of the two connectors on the pump is VERY rusted and messy. While the engine was running I could hear and feel the pump running but it was NOT constant. Seemed to be randomly going on and off - more off than on.

Next step - new pump…

p.s. there seems some different opinions on this but my pump only gets voltage whilst cranking the starter and engine running.  Otherwise it is 0v.

Maybe you could try cleaning the contacts on the pump and on the wire.. Maybe changing the pump works, but keep in mind that the connector on the wiringloom probably is just as rusted as the connector on the pump.

I hope all your problems are over now!

Dank u Deur

How likely do we think that a BX fuel pump will fail? The car is 22 years old now and has done 279,000 km.

If we say “yeah, by that age and milage, it is likely” then I replace the pump.
If we say “hmm, I doubt it” then… see above
If we say “naaahhh it needs 30 years and 400,000km then I will leave it!

This is not a great clue but here’s a (bad) photo of the pump I took earlier today. You can see the corrosion on the pump connectors and I wonder how much that corrosion has gone inside the pump and is stopping correct electric flow.

The very helpful dude at the car parts shop near my office (Brezan Automaterialen) quoted about €160 for a NEW pump.  I would be happy with a tweedehands pump for €50 or so.

I’ve had SPAM fail at around 250.000km, so i think it’s reasonable…

160 euro for a new pump is a good price I think, that is if it’s a real Bosch (or similar) pump, and no cheap no-brand pump. (they should be about 80-100 euro)

Buying a secondhand pump will always be a gamble, when will that one fail? Depending on how long you want to keep your BX, I would go for a new one…

But maybe the pump will work again after you’ve cleaned the contacts!

don’t want to make any advertisement, but this company has fast delivery and is quite a bit cheaper:
http://www.mister-auto.nl/fl/brandstofpomp/citroen-bx-xb-19-gti-120pk_v2190_g458.html

you can also check:
http://www.winparts.nl/home
http://www.mijnautoonderdelen.nl/
http://www.autoonderdelenonline.nl/

e.t.c., Google is your friend

good luck fixing your car!

Thanks guys

I ordered a new pump from Mister Auto.  It’s a much better price than from Brezan.  Let’s hope the car will be OK after this!

I always thought the fuel pump is in the right compartment of the boot? between the metal bracket, near the wheelwrench…

Anyway, it’s always good to have spare parts, like a fuel pump, hydraulic pump, etc. You’ll never know when you need them. If you’re lucky, you don’t need them at all, but sometimes it can be really useful to have them lying around.

Don’t forget to clean the contacts when swapping the fuelpump!

All other fuel injected cars I have owned have had the fuel pump inside the tank. I was surprised to see the BX has it outside but I suppose because the car was originally designed with a carburettor engine, it didn’t need the pump in the tank. So when they put the Injection engine, it was easier just to add the pump in this place.

Deur if you look behind your right rear wheel, you will see a rubber block kinda thing.  That block has two large holes, the top one holds the fuel filter and the bottom one holds the pump.

You’re really right about having spare parts. I used to own Rovers for quite a long time when I lived in UK and my parent’s garage was full of Rover peices! When I left, everything had to go, including the car  

Don’t worry I will make sure to clean the contacts, but thanks for the reminder! 

The new pump arrived on Tuesday and I fitted it yesterday evening after work.  Thankfully the weather is not as cold as it was, but it’s still very windy here (I think across all Netherlands) so getting petrol on your hands in that cold wind is NOT good!

One of the contacts was almost totally destroyed. Very very rusted and the nut was stuck.  I kept turning and it broke the connector on the end of the wire off. Thankfully I had a spare and a crimping set so was easily able to repair it.

Once the new pump was on the engine started and ran perfectly I let it warm up and very very carefully drove up the road. No misfire, no strange behaviour.  All good!

The car now feels even better than before. I think the pump must have been bad for some time, gradually getting worse.  There seems to be more power and all the tiny misfires I sometimes had are gone.  Perfect!

Thanks to everyone for your help and advice, it was all very helpful

thumbs up! nice that you were able to fix it yourself (with a little help of the forum friends )

enjoy your km’s (we don’t do miles here in case you haven’t noticed yet LOL)

greetzzzzzzzzzzz

Rusty

I had noticed - I lived 4.5 years in Germany before so KM’s are pretty normal for me now

Yes it’s great to fix things yourself. I think my colleagues think I’m a bit weird fixing the car in the office car park but when I tell them it cost €100 instead of €300? €500? at a garage then they don’t think I’m so weird

Nice job! I’m glad the problem is solved. Hopefully no more problems for your GTi