Experience maybe?

You can jumper the fuel pump fuse to a constant power source.  The
fuel pump should run.  Have an assistant crawl under to listen while
you do this.

It may be the sound of the pump he was judging it by.  dying/tired
electric motors tend to have a sound to them.  A fuel filter will not
usually cause a car to die though so I think it might not be that.
checking the connection is a good though.  I personally would consider
taking a look at ignition components might be a good idea.  Easiest
way to start (my opinion) buy a spark tester and have one person under
the car to listen to the pump and one to watch the spark tester and
see witch you loose first.

Hope this helps!

chazg32

"Ben" <benjymartin@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message:

JoshIII writes:
Clogged filter?

Ask your friend if he ever let his tank run dry
(run empty) while driving.    If he did, even once, then yes its
time to replace the pump and filter.

You can damage a fuel pump in less than a minute
if the tank runs dry.  A a fuel pump
needs fuel for lubricant.

I don't know if BMW still makes a practice of this,
but in my 1980 model BMW electric fuel pump,
both the pump motor and pump are immersed
in fuel in their hermetically sealed alumimun housing.

I would think the spark from the
motor's brushes would ignite the fuel, but
apparently not.  Hopefully there  is
no oxygen in the fuel line.

JoshIII
upstate south carolina
josh3i at hotmail . com

Assuming there is fuel in the tank and no obvious blockages then this sounds
like fuel starvation caused by a faulty fuel pump.

Fuel pumps and filters (replace at the same time) is a fairly easy DIY, but
be careful having fuel and possible sparks around at the same time.