They are electric motors. Either on or off. Possible I suppose but not in my experience like the old days when you’d gradually lose speed until you limped home. Told it before but had my car towed out of the ramp once home 50 miles. Car started right up at the shop. Fuel pump. A little jostling, bang on the tank, etc. Like a stuck motor. Just a possibility is all.
Heard that man, something to consider here. I may have someone else take a look at my car for a second opinion, I find it bizzare it didn’t turn on for me at 2:05am twice then twice again at 12pm the following day but came on for my mechanic after a tow shrugs
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Most modern wet injection designs use an electric motor driving a gerotor style pump. The motor can wear out- specifically the bushings/bearings causing drag and less than optimum speed, the pumps are susceptible to debris, fuel starvation (cavitation) and wear. Like everything in life, they tend to degrade with use. Fortunately, they have a lot of extra capacity when new and are regulated down to a working range that has a lot of margin built into the design. So the effects of aging are not apparent until much later in their lifespan. Then they tend to cross the line and effects become very noticeable or they die a sudden death. I’ve had a number of pumps take the slow path and the first indications are starvation under load. Traveling at high speed with the accompanying load from wind resistance or going up longer inclines where engine loading is high.
I’m happy that’s been your experience but my 59 Pontiac was the last car that had a noticeable degradation. I shudder to think back on my pump failures and would have loved to have had a degradation. Man, at the dump, in the bank drive-up with a loaded trailer, parking ramp 50 miles away, etc. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, just not to discount the pump because there has been no degradation. Personally, I’d like to see double pumps in case one fails.
Yes, I have been fortunate with my cars. I did have a fuel pump on my motorcycle die while riding. I didn’t even know it had one! 
Seem to know your fair share about fuel pumps, and Bing always helps me too, I just hadn’t run this by him yet…he used to have my car (Oldsmobile Aurora, has the V8 Cadillac Northstar motor). When my key is in the ignition and in the on position, I hear the fuel pump engage of course, but 1) It’s much louder than it used to be, not a bad sound like bearings giving out, just much “louder” and #2) It doesn’t shut off when the key is on, in the past I would hear the pump engage for a few seconds and then it quiets down, the pump is loud for as long as the ignition is in the on-position, is this some sort of failure or did I just not notice before? I think the motor is just meant to prime the pump and then go idle, not to make that loud motor noise the whole time…feel free to join in on this Bing, thanks
Hey Bing, did anyone consider the starter solenoid? I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere and that would have been top 3 in a no-start if his model has a starter solenoid. The times I’ve had cars in a no-start or intermittent, several times it was the solenoid that failed, easy repair, and not a costly one either, I also thought about ignition coils but they usually throw an error code on an OBDII telling you which cylinder is misfiring, when 2 failed I could barely keep it running (I have 4 coils)
I can actually help your wife’s situation here as I haven’t had an accurate gas gauge in years (it bounces all over from the right place to showing I was empty when it’s full.
At each fill up, have your wife reset her trip meter, when her car gets to say 250 miles (or whatever miles she usually gets on a tank), have her fill the car up and reset the trip odometer.
For instance, I have an 18 gal tank and I refill when I hit 180 miles, of course I know I get about 250 miles on a full tank, but this way I never run empty
Gas gauge is OK - the low fuel warning light doesn’t work. If she would look at gas gauge, she wouldn’t have to look at the trip odometer. Now if I could work up a warning light to the trip odometer…
Oh, I see, my 96 Aurora has a manual odometer, not a digital
So does this 99 Civic. Still gotta look at 'em, either kind.
At least you were smart enough to buy a Civic, I’m here almost daily trying to keep an Olds Aurora running LOL. Monday morning it’s a new water pump, I lose half a gallon a day WHILE IT’S PARKED! but almost not a drop when driving it WTF?
Why ? …………….
Are you sure it’s the fuel pump that you’re hearing?
Based on your description of the symptoms it sounds more likely to be the vehicle’s ride self-levelling system.
Ordinarily when the key is turned to “on” the air pump runs just long enough to inflate the shocks and then shuts off. With a leaky (age related rotted out) rubber “boot” or “air bag” on a shock the pump cannot level the ride and will keep trying by running the pump.
I can hear the shocks pump up on my Bonneville, always have, and they cycle a short time when first turning the key, but I don’t hear the fuel pump running at all. It’s super quiet.
CSA
Quite simple really, and why many of us come here, finances… If we all could afford it, we’d have dealerships charge us double what a tuneup place does, and triple what a mom & pop place does for the same repair. I got hit by a Postal Truck on my motorcycle which disabled me permanently, (income half what it was) and we’re 1 month from paying off our only car loan, I’ll be damned if I add another 6 yrs $300 debt to our “nut”. I’m also stubborn and don’t like quitting
Cool, I never even heard of that, which is why I come here…learn new stuff every day. Thanks
My memory is fading fast. Can’t remember if the Olds had rear air shocks or not. My Rivieras had them. At any rate the compressor is in the front so if the noise is in the front it could be the compressor but not much else in the back. I dunno if the pump is just a little more noisy if that spells impending doom or not. My 86 Park Avenue got a noisy fuel pump at 20,000 miles but never had any problem with it when I sold it at 120,000. Spark and a fuel pressure gauge are needed but of course it has to be happening when tested, so intermittents are a problem.
You were 100% correct, my mechanic pal had it on a rack and showed me the sound was coming from the suspension, the struts (or air shocks whatever they are) were shot, so this pump runs as long as the key is in the on position trying to fill the air that wont hold, thank you.
Hey Bing, might be a tough call without seeing my car…my leak was in fact 100% blown water pump, I havent lost a drop since he replaced it…but the “low coolant” error still shows up on my control center…bad sending unit or relay? Part 2, I no longer get fault codes when an OBDII scan is run, it just shows me 4 by 4 which I know is wrong. I scanned it a month ago and got 2 bad O2 sensors, one up and one downstream, can your car even run with a faulty ECM? Thanks as always