Car Vacuum Pumps Explained

►Car vacuum pumps are one of the more important, yet overlooked systems on a modern engine. With modern cars coming with turbocharged and supercharged engines from the factory, instead of creating vacuum, they create boost, and thus the need for a vacuum pump in your car's vacuum system.
We often get asked, "What does a vacuum pump do?" And the simple answer is that it supplies vacuum to systems such as your brake servo and your wastegate actuators. The vacuum created is used to either boost power in instances like the brake servo, making it much easier to operate your brakes, or to actuate systems like your wastegate to purge excess boost.
You will find two types of vacuum pumps on modern engines-especially on European and German cars. Those are the mechanical vacuum pump as and the electric vacuum pump.
Mechanical vacuum pumps are driven by your engine, regularly directly off of the camshaft. These are becoming less common due to the fact that they can seize up over time and cause catastrophic failure to your engine by locking up components of the timing system. Another reason is serviceability. These are often located in hard to reach places and require more maintenance than their electric counterparts.
Unlike mechanical vacuum pumps, electric vacuum pumps require almost no maintenance and are typically much easier to reach when they require replacement. They are not driven by the engine itself, rather an electric motor that simply bolts somewhere inside the engine bay. These are becoming much more common for this very reason.
So if you have a modern car, you should ensure that your engine vacuum pump is functioning properly and replace it at the first signs of failure.
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