[V8] Fuel Pump Failure Modes

[Kneale Brownson]

Similar experience in my 200q20v:  Drove to the bank, came back out, no start.  Called for ride.  Took a while.  When ride got there, tried starting again and car ran fine.  Same incident a while later (same bank flat parking lot), car did not restart then or later.  Replaced fuel pump relay, car ran fine.  Three weeks later, car wouldn't start again after a half-hour drive.  Replaced fuel pump relay with a second new one (bought two), still no go.  Flatbedded home, extracted fuel pump, hooked fuel pump to a battery: Dead.  I think a dying fuel pump maybe stressed by use the first couple times, took out the first relay and then died totally with an internal short.

urq <urq at pacbell.net> wrote:
  Driving home from an errand yesterday afternoon and #2 completely lost power. Fortunately we were close to home *and* at a higher elevation relative to the house. Coasted home while trying to "push" start the engine a bit along the way. When the engine was being turned by the motion of the car the tach was working, so I'm pretty sure the flywheel sensors are OK. I was thinking the fuel pump had died, but last night I went to move the car a bit and tried starting it just for the heck of it ... and it started just fine. This is making me wonder if the problem was the fuel pump or not.

Has anyone seen fuel pumps work again after failing? My other experience with fuel pumps is that they tend not to start working again ... I can't remember that happening even once.