Fuel Pump Relay question

[Chris Hall]

Ok... went back out and started playing with the Relay / Fuse box tray
some more.  I'm almost certain the problem is in the wiring (which
SUCKS) under the tray.  You know... EVERY SINGLE WIRE in the car runs
through there.  Yeah... that's gonna be easy to diagnose.

Almost every time I shook the tray as I had it unclipped from the
mount, the engine would die.  Then, as the car was cranking and
cranking, I'd shake the tray and VROOM.  I'd say 85% of the time,
shaking the tray stalled the engine.

BUT OF COURSE one time when the engine was running, I tugged on EACH
wire / group of wires that connected to the bottom of the tray, and
the enging ran perfect the whole time.   At one point, I reached down
to the wires that are all taped together in bundles, and I swear when
I touched one bundle with the part number "813 971 315" the car
stalled immediatly.  I think I got it started again and then tugged on
this harness and NOTHING happened.  Then the car died, I couldn't get
it re-started, and a huge storm rolled in so I had to come in here for
shelter...

I even poped the other fuel pump relay I had in, and it ran for a
minute and then died as if I turned the key to "off".

It just feels like it's the ECU shutting the car down or something. 
Which I guess it will do if the right wire is broken (god knows HOW
that would have happened) under the fuse tray.

This is the kind of thing that would make someone sell a Lamborghini
for $5000.... lol

Anyone ever heard of the wiring in this area causing problems?  I'm
almost positive that's what it is, since I can shake the tray and
seemingly stall the car at will...  Nothing seems to be burned out
under the tray... but it's hard to tell because there's not much slack
at all in the wires.

Oh, and FUNNY thing.  When I yank the "spare fuse" out of the slot,
the engine just kinda slows down and runs crappy... but it doesn't
die.




On 6/4/05, Chris Hall <badcomrade at gmail.com> wrote:
> UPDATE!
> 
> Installed the new plug wires.  Even though the car was running FINE at
> idle last night in my parking spot (after stalling 2 times on the 20
> min drive home), it wouldn't start.  Then it started, ran for 2
> seconds, then shut off (as if I had turned the key to "off").
> 
> Eventually I took the cover off of the relay / fuse panel under the
> hood.  I put my hand on the fuel pump relay as I turned the key.
> EVERY time I turned the key, I felt the relay activate.  Oddly enough,
> BEFORE I got the new cap and rotor (which it REALLY did need) I
> installed the relay WITHOUT the cover, and watched the electromagnetic
> switch.  It DIDN'T switch every time I turned the key.  NOW it is.
> I'm thinking it's SUPPOSED to do it every time... so there's something
> weird happening in that department.  Today I felt it clicking on and
> off AS the engine was cranking...
> 
> So I hold the key and let the engine crank for like 20 seconds and
> then it finally fires right up and runs perfectly.  I then go and
> touch the fuel pump relay (or the tray), and it dies.  I get it
> started again and do nothing, and it dies a min later.  Then I get it
> started again and for the hell of it I push down on the WIPER relay,
> and the engine DIES.
> 
> *SO*  I think that YES, the fuel pump relay (although I can't spot ANY
> cracks in the solder) might not be "holding up", OR maybe (god I hope
> not) the TRAY in which all the relays sit has some kind of bad inner
> connection (ESPECIALLY if it's constructed like the REAR TAIL LIGHT
> bulb "trays" are, with the cheap metal held in place by melted
> plastic!!!).  I'm also guessing that maybe the relay (if it has cracks
> I can't FIND) might have been in the socket in just the -right- way to
> where the blades were torqued in a way that any intermittent
> connection was being held tight, and that's why it lasted ALL week
> until I was aggressively driving last night...
> 
> ONE MORE question.  Should the fuel pump relay be getting hot?  Mine
> is.  The car ran for 5 minutes and I pulled it, and it was hot.  Maybe
> it's getting SO hot that the magnetic field breaks down and the switch
> releases, shutting off the fuel and occasionally cutting back IN
> causing my BACKFIRE problem?  (A friend of mine use to shut the engine
> off in his truck as we were rolling down the street in gear, and then
> when he'd put the key back to "on" the thing would backfire and scare
> the hell out of people on the street.... maybe my fuel pump relay is
> essentially doing the SAME THING and causing the occasional backfire
> when the car is stalling???)
> 
> By the way, I did lift the relay / fuse tray up and look at all the
> connectors on the bottom of it... they were all connected well and the
> wires look good.
> 
> Anyone had a bad "tray" ever?  Or should I be looking at BOTH of my
> relays (current and spare) being bad?  The back of the circuit board
> on the "spare" is all white and corroded so yeah not a good "spare" I
> guess.  But it used to work  lol.
> 
> Oh and one of the reasons I THOUGHT I eliminated the possibility of
> the fuel pump relay being the "culprit" was because I jumped the relay
> socket and heard the fuel pump run, but I STILL couldn't get the
> engine to run.  Is this because the car CAN'T run this way, because
> the other blades on the fuel pump relay have to be connected to "talk"
> to the ignition control module, coil, etc for the rev limiter function
> that's built in?  I always see people saying they carry a jumper in
> the car, but has anyone jumped just to two slots the wide blades go in
> and DRIVEN the car?  Seems IMPOSSIBLE.  I could NEVER get my car to
> start with a paper clip in there, even though I could hear the fuel
> pump activate...
> 
> Maybe I should just go and pay the $125 or whatever for a NEW fuel
> pump relay.  If I could even FIND one in a junkyard, who knows how
> much better it'd be...
> 
> --
> Chris Hall
> badcomrade at gmail.com
> "making girls cry since 1974"
> 


-- 
Chris Hall
badcomrade at gmail.com
"making girls cry since 1974"