fuel pressure accumulator

[drew at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca]

> It's my understanding that the accumulator's purpose is to supply fuel at
> an appropriate pressure the moment you begin the starting procedure.
> Without it,  you have to crank the engine/operate the fuel pump long
> enough
> for it to repressurize the system so there's adequate fuel at proper
> pressure.

The accumulator does two things - smooths out the pulses of the main fuel
pump, and along with the check valve in the fuel pump helps maintain
system pressure when the pump is not running (ie car is off.)

If the accumulator is bad (leaking) then the car will be diffifcult to
start/run badly due to loss of pressure in the fuel system.  If the
accumulator is missing (ie bypassed) then the car will still start and
run, but it will be a little more cranking to get started.

I had a friend who ran his VW Jetta (straight CIS) without an accumulator
without serious issues.

Drew

>
> At 07:08 PM 7/28/2004 -0400, jos1 at cornell.edu wrote:
>>This is probably a dumb question, but here goes anyway:
>>
>>Is the fuel-pressure accumulator ('89 100Q) really a necessary item in
>>the fuel supply system? I presume the car will run without it if you can
>>get it started; if so, how hard is it to get it to fire?
>>
>>Any BTDT?