Quick! Run out to your driveway, weave between all the Anadols and Citroëns and classic Camaros and DAFs and Hanomags and LaForzas until you get to the M’s, then go past the Morgans and Morrises and Matras until you find where you parked your Maseratis. From there, find a Quattroporte. Now, pull off the soiled tarp, open the door, get in, and look at the dash. You should see a button on the dash, labeled in a strangely alarming combination of all caps and strange abbreviations.
EMERG PUMP. What does that actually do?
I feel like this is a valid question; that button sure feels important, and if we make some very reasonable assumptions about what that means, it’s probably an EMERGENCY PUMP. But what kind of pump? And why is it reserved for emergencies?
Cars are full of pumps – fuel, oil, windshield washer fluid, and in the case of something amphibious like an Amphicar, even bilge pumps – but what would be the context for a pump that is only to be activated in emergencies, and even then via a button on the dash, instead of any sort of automatic failsafe system?
So what the hell is this? Don’t worry, I’m not cruel, I’m going to tell you. It’s for a fuel pump. A second fuel pump.
Now, I know some cars have an in-tank pump and another fuel pump closer to the engine and these act together, but that’s not what this is. This is a secondary, parallel, backup fuel pump, to be used in case the first fuel pump, you know, soils the bed.
Here’s someone in a Maserati forum describing it:
“The Quattroporte came with 2 fuel pumps. They are mounted side by side under the car, attached to the cross member frame. When one failed, you could push the “Emer Pump” button and it would activate the secondary fuel pump.
Some days I would run my car with the “Emer Pump” button pushed, just to keep it in working order, so it wouldn’t seize up.”
… and here’s another person asking an expert about the fuel pumps:
“Ernie in the USA writes:
“Enrico, Maybe you or your readers can save me some time. 1980 Quattroporte III runs great as long as the Fuel Pump switch (pompa elettrica di emergenza) is on. When it is switched off the car soon “runs out of fuel”. Where is the normal fuel pump located?
Mille Grazia, Ernie.”
Reply from Andrea:
Re: Quattroporte III
“Regarding the Quattroporte III fuel pumps:
There are two fuel pumps mounted in the transmission tunnel area of the car (so accessible from underneath the car). They are Bendix pumps that cross reference to a Facet Red Top, which is still available. There is no problem running on the emergency pump though as it is not like a reserve tank – just another pump. – Andrea.”
I tried to find a picture of this strange dual pump setup, and I couldn’t, but I did find a nice cutaway that shows something else nice and weird about the fuel tank of a Quattroporte:
Why the hell is the external filler on one side of the car, and the fuel tank opening on the other? Look at that long pipe they had to run all the way across the width of the car! Why, Maserati, why?
Anyway, back to these twin pumps. I can’t think of another car that had a backup fuel pump, in place and ready to go, on demand, in case the first one failed. I mean, this was a car that cost the equivalent of like $200 grand when it came out!
On one hand, you could look at this as a mark of luxury and quality, providing a backup fuel pump so you don’t get stranded. On the other hand, the greasier one, you could be realistic about the reliability of a Maserati and realize that perhaps this is just a somewhat desperate attempt to make the car a bit less unreliable, because deep down those engineers know that fuel pump is going to fail and leave you stranded somewhere.
So, instead of going through all the hassle and tedium of trying to figure out why, they can just include a whole second pump! Problem solved!
Is this a positive or a negative? I’m honestly not sure. Yeah, it seems kind of like a half-assed band-aid to a problem, but it also seems like a pretty decent solution to that problem? I mean, at least if you’re good about replacing the pumps when they (seemingly inevitably) fail. Which I suspect I would be bad about doing.
Are there any other cars anyone can think of that have driver-selectable backup systems? I know there are aircraft that have such things, but mass-market cars? Should we count something like Citroën 2CVs always came with a crank to start the car if the starter failed? Like this:
Maybe that sort of counts. But if anyone can think of another example of this, I’d love to know!
Back in college, a guy suffered a broken switch on the brake pedal, so his brake lights didn’t come on when he hit the pedal.
He nursed it home in daylight with one hand on the headlight switch, turning on the lights whenever he hit the brake pedal (at least most of the time, supposedly) and farmer dad repaired it over the weekend.
So while he used the vehicle’s existing hardware to compensate for an equipment failure, his solution only worked when the sun was up.
Yeah, I’m not going to claim this qualifies.
Maybe a Nissan with two CVTs, in case, somehow, even though it’s very unlikely to happen, one of them fails.
My dad once had a vehicle with two fuel tanks. Can’t remember what it was, perhaps a large SUV. It didn’t have multiple fuel pumps though, just a selector that could be used to access the second tank if needed.
Plenty of Ford trucks had two tanks back in 80s and 90s.
Yep, and the previous operator always left the second tank dry. OBS Ford.
I would think at this price point, even in the early eighties, switching between the 2 fuel pumps could have been automated so if one fails the other automatically kicks in.
It would have likely been an analog (circuitry) solution rather than a computerized one.
Even better would be a system that alternates to the backup every so often to keep it from completely drying out and dying of loneliness. The heavy lifting would still be done on the primary to keep from burning both out at the same time.
A lot of Monday morning quarterbacking on my part going on here though.
Mabey it turned out that it was cheaper and more profitable to give the well-heeled a button where they felt like they were in control of their destiny and masters of their domain.
Or perhaps the system was designed with automated fault tolerance and the button was in place in case that failed. Then indeed the “emergency” designation on the button would be completely justified.