No one can argue that fuel is the most important element in internal combustion petrol or diesel engines. Fuel serves as the very blood of vehicles, without which, petrol or diesel powertrains would fail to work. Sufficient supply of fuel is therefore needed and so automakers have designed their vehicles to have fuel tanks able to manage a storage capacity of up to 50 liters. But of course, cars with much bigger engines will require a much bigger storage space for their fuel tanks. However, these fuel tanks only serve as storage compartments and for the fuel to be injected to the combustion chamber, a fuel pump is necessary.
The function of the fuel pump is to force the gasoline out of the fuel tank and pump it to the engine by producing positive pressure in and within the car's fuel lines. This is also activated when the ignition switch is on but it is not the ignition switch that powers up the fuel pump. It only triggers the relay handling the current that will end up powering the for it to operate. The vehicle's fuel pump has two types - the electric fuel pump or the mechanical pump. The mechanical pump was the one used in cars before but since the invention of electric pumps, automakers started making use of electric pumps. The mechanical fuel pump was traditionally driven by a lobe on the camshaft of the engine. This was connected to the frame rail located between the tank and the engine. On the other hand, the electric fuel pump is, at present, powered up by the car's battery. This is what most vehicles pack along nowadays.
With the pressure of pumping the fuel out of the tank, the fuel pump may sooner or later break down. Its armature bushings, commutator, and brushes will eventually wear out in time and possibly lose one of its electrical connections. This will definitely leave the fuel pump in a quandary, resulting to inevitable operational failure that's bound to leave one's vehicle with insufficient fuel to burn or at the worst, none at all. So, before this occurs, be sure to have it regularly checked and get a replacement fuel pump when it becomes necessary.
