fuel pump fails in current production

[a110au]

edit: alpine finally initiated a pump recall campaign and this is progressing through all older VINs the last pages of this topic deal with news and experience with this recall

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so for those not following fb group there have been two 2022 model fuel pump failures I think in the last week! screwing UK owners who were on long eu road trips, and no parts available.

As an owners community there should be more fury. there is no excuse for this. The company has had years to get ahead of this issue and stop it happening on existing cars and new production instead they keep playing car cosplay with limited editions at silly prices.

it totally screws ones confidence in the car, it did for me, and now hearing current production probably has the same issue I no longer feel safe with my replacement oem pump..

Edited by a110au on Wednesday 20th March 21:50

[a110au]

a fuel pump (it is the in-tank one, not the engine) fail is - or should be - as serious as a suspension arm breaking or a transmission locking up it is extremely dangerous if it happens at a place where the car can be stranded, immobile, and hit from behind. The only reason Alpine have got away with just mopping up fails as they happen is because they are a niche brand that rely on owners not kicking up a fuss. But behind the brand is Renault, and they absolutely should understand this is not acceptable.

[a110au]

the new one.
6 hours ago

[a110au]

the toyota problem was a huge pump supplier that used plastic that swelled in certain fuels for a long production batch and Toyota dealt with it
because it is a safety issue.

Alpine have some other issue and it isnt clear what it is and they are not revealing what they know and what they do say does not add up. And it has been dragging on since 2018..

[a110au]

Olivera said:

Pure speculation, but could the A110 application of the fuel pump be the issue? E.g. the mid engined position causes the pump/tank to run hotter effecting premature failure? This would tally with several revisions of the pump not fixing the issue.

In Japan there is a circulating theory that the design of the tank plus fuel heating from circulation of fuel through engine bay and the temperature in the frunk in general (the radiator is there) causes tank thermal expansion which in turn causes eventual pump failure from pressure on the body of bottom of the pump. How tank expansion can cause rubbing is not explained.

[a110au]

as another data point and I have mentioned this before..

when my original 2018 pump failed it was replaced with a pump in stock
then a month later I was told to bring the car back to get the one they put in, taken out again, and replaced with another new one.

Why?
because during the replacement, photos were taken of the NEW pump and sent to Alpine. What they saw in the photos triggered a notice to replace it again.

so my conclusion is they know some or all of what is going on but they do not disclose this to owners. But They also do not know exactly what pumps by production date or part number are more likely to fail and should not be used, (otherwise they would not need pictures). Finally, whatever is going on is at least partly visible on a picture of the pump itself..

[a110au]

it is well overdue that someone starts a public google sheet with a simple entry method that can be linked here, and in facebook groups and in the French forums for as many owners as possible to record their recollection of their fuel pump fails.

Only that kind of documentation will motivate more action by Renault (the threat of interest from motoring journalists). I would do it but I think it should be someone in the UK.

Realizing this may be regarded by some owners as impacting their car value but I think not doing it and having this drip drip of bad news poorly handled is doing more damage.

[a110au]

yet another on facebook died
orange/red a110
The fb group thinks this is SIX reported there In a week or so.

Heat + longer trips seem to be provoking the failures.

[a110au]

xondat said:

My car failed 3 times, I've reported it to the DVSA.

are you serious?
is that 3 fails and one replaced pump or
more than one replaced pump?

[a110au]

I know we are all sick and tired of hearing about fuel pump issues
but that fact is of no interest to all the fuel pumps out there ready to sh!t themselves.

Another one.

[a110au]

fuzzy-si said:

Looks like M-P Rezeau have also had a failure. Don't know if they are running the standard pump or their upgrade, but overheating electronics does sound like whats been happening here.

they definitely run their own pump upgrade and perhaps on track it draws more power..

[a110au]

another

[a110au]

bcr5784 said:

My impression (but please correct me if I'm wrong) is that it didn't occur in the first couple of years of production. That could, of course, mean it is ethanol related - but it may mean that cars produced in that timeframe had fuel pumps with a different spec/part number.

a whole bunch of premier editions failed some before there was any pro active replacements by Alpine and some afterwards that did not get individually recalled.

[a110au]

“ Alpine A110: Half of initial Oz allocation sold
12 Oct 2018 — Alpine has sold 32 of the 60 initial A110 'Premiere Edition' cars it's been assigned for 2018, and has five pre-orders for its 2019”

[a110au]

since all failures documented required fuel PUMP replacement not controller replacement I have no idea how this helps.

[a110au]

Colin P said:

I think that the inference may be overheating causing damage into the fuel pump itself, presumably as a result of an electrical surge or something. I agree it doesn’t sound the most plausible explanation but this sort of thing isn’t unheard of.

For example, and it’s not uncommon, in my daughters Fiat 500 a failed coil pack sent a power spike back into the ECU causing damage to the ECU necessitating a rebuild of that too.

I suppose if the controller overheated it could malfunction and over drive the pump but that sounds like something Alpine could have figured out years ago. I wonder if MP-R are stating this is the probable cause or just a different failure point.

[a110au]

Miserablegit said:

I don’t think any of the Australian models were from the original PE run-

Yeah the key there is LHD.
The first UK RHD Premier editions were at the same time, approx, as the australia production batch. I can probably find the month/year build date of mine to narrow it down.

[a110au]

Colin P said:

Personally I doubt that they will see it as a particular safety issue and they will not expect liability for an accident following the failure to fall on them.

Anything that causes the engine to cut out suddenly will have the same impact, coil packs, ECU, wiring, battery etc. Blame for any accident will attach to the car that hits the decelerating Alpine following the same principle as any other incident where a car is hit from behind. In case of failure during an overtake manoeuvre blame will fall on the driver for not allowing sufficient time should something fail on the car.

Now if it were brakes, or something that causes a wheel to come off etc....

sudden loss of power has been a trigger for many a recall. Just google recall sudden loss of power.

[a110au]

facebook report of another possible fail. It was 38c heat
and the car had 5k miles and is within warranty. It ran rough and failed on the freeway. He said it restarted to get onto the flat bed. It sounds a lot like the fuel pump but is not confirmed.

[a110au]

Another reported a few hours ago.
longer trips in hot weather seem to trigger the pump fails