irobertson

Hi all,

A few days ago, as I rounded the final turn onto my street my car sputtered, as I was approaching my driveway it sputtered again an died. I got it going again and it would idle but not take any throttle at all without dying.
It was low on gas, but not hard on "E".
I felt like I ran out of gas, or had clogged up the fuel filter.
I should add that I also heard a whining from the front earlier that day.
My thoughts are leading to a dead fuel pump.
I went to the station and got 15L of fuel and tossed it in the tank in hopes that the problem was my gauge being out of whack.
No such luck.
I will now kick and sputter when cranked, but absolutely refuses to run.

The good thing is the car died right in front of my house, whew :-|

Question is, have any of you guys heard this whining from the fuel pump before?

cheers

rusnak

There should be a high pitched whine like an ultrasonic dental instrument coming from it. I have really sensitive ears, so I can usually hear the 3.2 fuel pump w the engine running. The SC one is a lot louder.

You can jumper the dme relay to make the fuel pump run without the engine. This way you can test the fuel pressure and fuel delivery. If the fuel pressure regulator diaphram breaks, then the engine will also die, but in this case if you don't smell any fuel it sound like it could be a dead fuel pump.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Hi Ian,

You didn't say how many miles are on your car, but this sounds like the fuel pump is going out.

I'm assuming that your fuel filters (external & in-tank) are both new and the DME relay is functioning perfectly.,....

pmason

Yes, this happen to me at the track 2 weeks ago. The track day before this last one I did run it too low, the fuel pump was wining and sputtered a little bit. Like you after letting it set and adding more fuel it seemed to be ok. But on the next track day, 3rd session on one of the corners it was like everything shut down.
Well after narrowing it down the fuel pump I think what happen was when I let it get too low it sloshed around and knocked free some crap from inside the tank. Hence a new tank and fuel pump is coming today.

Phil

irobertson

Hi Steve,
The car has 78K miles on it.

irobertson

Well, I have finally gotten the car back into the driveway after the walkway project. I discovered that I can get the fuel pump running if I manually close the DME relay, but the car will still not start. The first (farthest relay from the connectors) closes when you turn on the key, but the second does not close. If I close it wit my finger, I can hear the pump run.
Ordered 2 DME relays and a fuel filter today.
I tested the relay with a 12 volt power supply later today as well and it seems to work fine.

theiceman

aren't there two parts to the relay , one part powers the pump and the other powers the dme ? .... not sure just musing but like usual I could be full of it ....

irobertson

Yup, the first relay closes when you turn the key, then the second (the one that actually powers the pump) is closed by the DME. The DME sends the signal when there is spark and the when the engine is cranking.
At least that what the Bentley book says.
I guess I have my weekend planned :-|

irobertson

Yay!!
Back on the road again.
After changing the DME relay and installing a new fuel filter..... still no fuel.
New fuel pump did the trick.
Turns out the DME relay was fine after all.
Since I bought two, I now have two spares.
There is still one thing wrong though.
I pulled the fuel level sender out of the tank to inspect the internal filter.
The tank was spotless inside.
Now my fuel gauge reads just above empty with a full tank.
Can't pull it back out now that the tank is full.

Aww shucks, Looks like I'm going to have to go burn off some fuel.

:-)