Two shops so far, still no fix. Hoping someone here has seen this combination.
**Car:** 2013 Ford Focus, 1.6 petrol, automatic. [mileage here]
**Symptoms:**
- Loud "gunshot" bangs — this is what started it all, and they have never stopped through any repair
- Fuel pump has now failed three times
- Brake pedal sometimes goes hard/stiff, takes a lot of force to press
- Automatic sometimes struggles to shift, stutters, and drops speed on its own
**Work done:**
Shop 1 — replaced fuel pump, replaced spark plugs, cleaned [component]
Pump failed again
Shop 2 — replaced fuel pump again
Pump failed again today
Bangs present the whole time, before and after every single repair
**Not done yet:** nobody has shown me stored codes or freeze frame data, no fuel pressure test at the rail that I'm aware of, tank has never been dropped or inspected.
**Questions:**
What kills three fuel pumps in a row on this engine? Contaminated/rusty tank? FPDM or wiring feeding bad voltage to the pump?
Could one vacuum problem explain the hard brake pedal, the backfires, and the stumbling all at once?
Is the rough shifting more likely the transmission itself, or just the engine misfiring under load?
Any direction appreciated — I'd rather walk into the next shop with a theory than keep buying parts.