Fuel Pump Relay question

[Chris Hall]

On 6/8/05, Huw Powell <audi at humanspeakers.com> wrote:
> 
> >>Don't assume anything.  There must be fifty ways to get an engine to
> >>backfire.
> >
> > Really?  I thought pretty much the only two reasons for a backfire
> > were poor timing (ECU stopping and starting spark randomly falls under
> > this) and too rich of a mixture.
> 
> Well, without getting into a debate over this, aren't there fifty ways
> that timing can be off, or the mixture too rich?

Oh, I'm not trying to debate anything.  Sorry if it seemed that way. 
I just don't know all that much about the cause of a backfire...

> >>I would say, test items to see what to replace, rather than randomly
> >>trying to "think" of what it might be.
> >
> > I don't think in this case it's gonna be that simple.  The car runs
> > 99% of the time, so whatever is causing the problem is WORKING (and
> > going to test as so) 99% of the time also.  That's the biggest problem
> > with this type of problem.
> 
> Agreed - that's why I suggested things like a test light to tell what's
> up at the fuel pump power wire.  Because it's such an intermittent
> problem, it's going to be slow going diagnosing it.

I wanna catch this problem in the act so bad that I'm ready to go bust
out that string of Christmas lights in my crawl space and build a
"command center" out of cardboard and tinfoil to duct tape to my
dashboard.  50 bulbs might just be enough lol

Oh how I wish my car's ECU had fault codes...

> >>By the way, methodically cleaning up all the electrical connections
> >> under your hood might accidentally fix the problem.
> >
> > What should I try cleaning up other than the battery terminals (no
> > corrosion on them at all), the battery ground wire (and all wires
> > associated with it on the side of the battery tray...), and the ECU
> > wires (they've been done in the last year), etc?  Am I forgetting
> > something?

> All of them.  So what if you clean the washer pump or radiator fan
> contacts, they'll probably like it anyway.  But there are all the sender
> connectors, coil connections, etc.
> 
> Good luck!

Maybe that'll get my rear washer pump going again.  Dunno -why- that
stopped working.  Then again, my rear tail lights were so dim, I had
to hook up a new ground wire to make them bright again... maybe the
pump back there finally needs the same thing.

Stupid German wires!

Tomorrow (hopefully) should be another day of testing, etc.  I'll keep
ya posted :)

Thanks Huw

> --
> Huw Powell
> 
> http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi
> 
> http://www.humanthoughts.org/
> 


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