Fuel Pump Relay question

Mon Jun 6 14:50:55 EDT 2005

I had the same deposits on my cable and I mostly ignored it.  Maybe I
caused the problem by washing the area with a lot of water once.  That
may have carried the corrosion down into the harness.  It would really
depend on which wires it came into contact with once in the harness. 
The guy who fixed mine was upside down in the passenger footwell for
the better part of a day.  The $400 was almost entirely labor...
probably less than $10 in parts.

Ed

On 6/6/05, Chris Hall <badcomrade at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a spare ECU that I've swapped in on more that one occasion when
> the car was acting up, and it didn't resolve anything.  No water in
> that area, etc.
> 
> I did notice that the negative battery cable in my car has a -light-
> coating of "statue of liberty blue" corrosion on it.  That's the wire
> that runs from the negative terminal to the side of the battery tray,
> and then on down to it's final ground on top of the transmission.  I'm
> wondering if I should get a new one.  I have shaken that wire to try
> and see if the grounds were bad, and never got the car to stall.
> 
> Plus, I imagine if that wire was bad I'd lose all electrical power...
> lights, tach, everything.
> 
> With the backfiring problem, I have to assume that something is
> telling the ECU stop spark.
> 
> Maybe I should just go ahead and replace the hall sender.  It's like
> $70 or something... and it'd be nice to know in the future that I have
> a "new" dependable one under the hood.  Isn't it VERY rare for the
> sender itself (not the wiring) to fail though?
> 
> 
> 
> On 6/6/05, Tom Love <theloves at localaccess.com> wrote:
> > Water (coolant from the core too) can also get into the ecu and cause the
> > same problems.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ed Kellock" <ekellock at gmail.com>
> > To: <quattro at audifans.com>
> > Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 10:08 AM
> > Subject: Re: Fuel Pump Relay question
> >
> >
> > Coupe GT?  How about this... may be a long shot.  On my 87 several
> > years ago I had a borken post on the battery and over time battery
> > acid leaked down into the main wiring harness which routes downward
> > through the firewall behind and under the battery tray.  I had similar
> > bizarre cutting out behavior, accompanied by backfiring.  Finally gave
> > up and took it to a dealer (before I knew of the "quattro list", this
> > was 1993 or so).  Anyway, they happened to be fiddling with or near
> > the ecu and it stalled.  They found that the battery acid had gotten
> > down into the wiring harness and was eating away at the wires.  $400
> > later they had it fixed and I haven't had any issues since.  My one an
> > only happy and very thankful dealer service experience.  THAT guy did
> > a helluva job, one I would not have wanted to do.
> >
> > Ed
> >
> > On 6/6/05, Chris Hall <badcomrade at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Jim Jordan wrote:
> > >
> > > "the backfire is raw fuel that got to the cat and/or muffler.  When we
> > > were kids, we used to blow the guts out of mufflers by turning off the
> > > ignition briefly letting the raw fuel pass through the engine, then,
> > > while still rolling in gear, turn on the ignition with a big bang."
> > >
> > > That doesn't make any sense to me.
> > >
> > > I always thought that if a car backfired, that it meant un-ignited
> > > fuel hanging around in a cylinder was being detonated at the wrong
> > > time by a mis-fired spark plug when the exhaust port was open in that
> > > cylinder.  You seem to be saying it only happens when too much fuel
> > > goes in to the engine, passes wall in to the exhaust system, and the
> > > heat within the exhaust ignites the fuel and goes out the muffler.
> > >
> > > How the hell would gas -in the cat or muffler- as you say, POSSIBLY be
> > > ignited when the ignition is switched back on?  It'd HAVE to be near a
> > > spark plug to do that... and I sure as hell don't have a spark plug in
> > > my exhaust system that would ignite fuel in the cat / muffer when I
> > > switch the ignition on.
> > >
> > > Would it be a safe assumption then that my ECU is cutting power to the
> > > coil, the fuel pump keeps pumping gas for a second or two in to the
> > > engine (I've witnessed this while observing the fuel pump relay with
> > > it's cover off after the engine dies), and when the ECU cuts back IN
> > > (for what ever reason) sometimes, that it's igniting gas in cylinders
> > > who's exhaust ports are open?  As I said, I sure as hell don't have
> > > any spark plugs in my cat or muffler that would ignite un-spent gas
> > > when the ECU switches the ignition back on the same way you did as a
> > > kid to cause a backfire... and I'm sure you cars didn't either.
> > >
> > > My friend used to do the same thing in his old Chevy truck.  Turn off
> > > the key, keep it in gear so the wheels spin the trans which spins the
> > > engine and the mechanical fuel pump, feeding gas to all cylinders,
> > > then switch the key back on, and BAM.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 6/6/05, Jim Jordan <superba at comcast.net> wrote:
> > > > Hi Chris,
> > > >
> > > > Well, as I said before, the backfire is raw fuel that got to the cat
> > > > and/or
> > > > muffler.  When we were kids, we used to blow the guts out of mufflers by
> > > > turning off the ignition briefly letting the raw fuel pass through the
> > > > engine, then, while still rolling in gear, turn on the ignition with a
> > > > big
> > > > bang.
> > > >
> > > > Something is dumping huge(relatively) amounts of fuel in the engine at
> > > > times.  The waiting period, ~10 minutes as I understand it, is
> > > > consistent
> > > > with letting a flooded engine clear out.  The next time it does it,
> > > > remove
> > > > the coil wire and clear it by 4 or 5 15 sec on and 15 sec off start
> > > > tries
> > > > with the starter.
> > > >
> > > > HTH.
> > > >
> > > > Cheers!
> > > >
> > > > Jim Jordan
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >  By the way... there can only be -so- many things that will
> > > > >  cause the car to BACKFIRE like it sometimes does when it's
> > > > >  stalling, right?
> > > > >  Anyone know what those things are?  I imagine that'd help us
> > > > >  narrow it down...
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Chris Hall
> > > badcomrade at gmail.com
> > > "making girls cry since 1974"
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> 
> 
> --
> Chris Hall
> badcomrade at gmail.com
> "making girls cry since 1974"
>