Please note that this article now very dated and the infamous BOSCH 044’s has now been discontinued and replaced by the 200 series of fuel pumps.
Bosch have since produced a new design of their box and added security coded seals to all 044’s manufactured from 2017 onwards. See our article here
Purchase a genuine Bosch 044 from our shop here for peace of mind
This article however, still applies to consumers who’ve purchased older stock elsewhere and are having doubts if their 044’s are genuine or not.
Please Be Aware of Counterfeit 0 580 254 044 (BOSCH 044) Fuel Pumps
We’ve made this guide along with some images provided by the online community to help you identify fake 044 fuel pumps. Recently there’s been a large increase in counterfeit Bosch #0 580 254 044 (“Bosch 044”) performance fuel pumps appearing on the market.
We know the products in question are non-genuine items as we’ve purchased some suspect units and put them side by side with the genuine items we stock. Then we produce a report to send to Bosch for inspection.
Please DO NOT BE FOOLED, even by laser etched stamping. The growth of tooling technology has enabled more accurate counterfeit products than ever before.
The quick guide below points out some key areas on how to know which fuel pumps are fake.
Things to look out for:
- The Box / Label
Check the white label on the box for an EXACT match of the genuine 044 label below, if it’s
not exactly the same then again its most likely to be fake. When we say “exact” we mean everything, from the font size, font style, text spacing to even the bar-codes number font size. Note that genuine pre-2016 manufactured pumps may not show the >EAC logo.
Fake Blue Box – This is one of the more recent counterfeited pump boxes, on first glance the box looks exactly the same, however if you look more closely and compare it to the one above and you’ll see what we meant by “check everything!”
Fake Yellow Box – “Far Eastern” style fonts are commonly used on fake products. A while back Bosch changed the design from yellow to blue, so if you have a yellow box it could be old stock filtering through, however it could still possibly be a fake if it looks like the one below. We haven’t had a yellow style “044” box arrive in fresh stock for years, since early 2015 in fact!
2. M18 “>Heli-Coil” Inlet
Check for an M18 threaded “>Heli-coil” type steel insert, a >Heli-coil is basically strong steel threaded insert that’s installed into a softer material, such as aluminium which reduces the risk of stripping the thread when tightening it up. When fuel pumps work at a high pressure, that inlet adapter needs to be tight! They’re also used for repairing damaged threads by drilling a larger hole and using a special >Heli-coil Tap, the coil is then wound into the new thread and under the sprung tension it will never come back out.
3. Inlet Filter
The plastic cross on the filter that you can see looking through the inlet can be a different design.
4. The Pumps Sealed Packaging Bag
Not many people notice this one, Inside the genuine Bosch box you should find the pump sealed in a plastic bag which shouldn’t be vacuum sealed, therefore the plastic should be loose around the pump. The genuine plastic bag also has the Bosch “magneto” logo and some text along the seal join where its been imprinted by a special Bosch press. The fake pumps tend to be vacuum sealed, which means all the air has been sucked out and then sealed to save on packaging size. You should still be aware though as we have also seen them not vacuum sealed.
5. Pump Body
Fake pumps can have a much more dull appearance to a real 044, in the sense that the genuine item is slightly more polished looking.
6. Price!
If the unit price is too good to be >true – It should ring alarm bells. The counterfeit items in our experience
are generally sold in the £50 – £100 range.
7. The Outlet
Another key area, check your pump is exactly the same as the genuine one below, notice how the inside of the outlet is different.
8. Wiring Kit
As a gesture of goodwill, we include a free wiring kit that we produce and also sell with our own DA-31 fuel pump, which is a Bosch 044 alternative. However please
note that BOSCH has never supplied such a similar wiring kit with this pump! They only supply the pump itself.
9. Flow Rate
This is a key area which fake pumps will never be able to hide from, it is difficult to know what is right from wrong unless you have experience with the genuine item.
Summary
Unfortunately, this still goes on today, of course by pointing out the many issues with fake units, it gives the opportunity for counterfeits to be revised, however in the
In upcoming months we’ve been notified that major updates are arriving from Bosch so these pumps cannot be copied anymore.
If in doubt you can always contact us and we will give you an honest opinion, if you want to go all the way we can get the pump fully flow tested for you.
We bring this information to your attention to do our part to try and combat the problem, there’s nothing worse than an engine running lean from a knock-off fuel pump. You have to spend good money on your application; we don’t recommend cutting corners on the fuelling/fuel system.
