So my 03’ Altima finally stopped running. Im told its probably the fuel pump. My question to all of you is should I buy a factory Nissan fuel pump or aftermarket?
Nissan doesn’t make fuel pumps.
Nissan buys them from a supplier for their vehicles.
So, an aftermarket fuel pump may be from the same supplier that supplies Nissan.
Tester
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No offense intended . . .
But I suggest you get a more definitive diagnosis than "probably the fuel pump
That’s a lot of money for a guess
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Is there a way for me to test it myself?
Take a rubber mallet and bang on the bottom of the gas tank a few times.
If the engine starts, you know for sure it’s the fuel pump.
Tester
Sure. You use a fuel pressure gauge to see how much fuel pressure, if any, the system holds at rest, and how much fuel pressure is produced when trying to start the engine. On this vehicle, there is no test port, so you’ll have to buy a fuel pressure testing kit which includes the necessary tee fitting.
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It may be or may not be. It’s often not evident which parts on the aftermarket, if any, are from the OEM supplier and equivalent to the parts they sell to the carmaker.
Sometimes you can inspect the aftermarket parts and compare them to the part from your car. I did this for a water pump for my 1999 Voyager. My local O’Reilley’s had at least two that were listed as fitting. One had a casting that was identical to the water pump I had removed. Its o-ring fit securely into its channel. Another had a much simpler shape of casting. Its o-ring tended to pop out.
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Bosch is OEM supplier of fuel pumps to Nissan.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=978055&cc=1431957&jsn=390&jsn=390
Tester
not too surprizing,seeing as the most costly pumps ive looked seen so far have all been bosch. lol
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As long as it is not one of those weird named Chinese pumps off of eBay you should be fine with with any pump from a local parts house or a name brand one from eBay, etc.
With some ingenuity it’s possible to made do with whatever. About 10 years ago the pump in my daughter’s Mitsubishi went out. The average price from the parts houses was going on 300 bucks.
A 59 dollar pump for a Ford Taurus worked just fine and was never an issue afterwards.
That being said, I think you are on thin ice with the diagnosis. “Told it’s probably the pump” is nothing more than a wild guess. What if you replace the pump and it still does not run? Verify what’s missing first; fuel pressure or ignition spark. Or both.
Is there a way to test for spark on a car like this without a fancy computer?
So I removed the back seat & inspection plate. Then had a friend turn it over while I tapped it a few times with a rubber mallet, yje car stated.
The car needs a new fuel pump.
Tester
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So its kinda like the gm starters from way back,give a tap with a hammer usually starts? I’ve never dealt with an electricfuel pump.
Starter motors and electric fuel pumps of any brand will sometimes wake up after the vibrations from a blow with a mallet or 2X4. I once woke up a fuel injector on my 1999 Civic by tapping it with a screwdriver handle - a trick I learned from a customer at an AutoZone when I was inquiring about prices of new injectors. It’s the only FI problem on that car in 21 years and 195,000 miles.
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Or have a friend with a mallet in the backseat 
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Or move to OK where the roads themselves are a mallet…
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PA too…
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you might still need that mallet as a jump-start tool 
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