Whilst having an alarm and immobiliser fitted to my Gtie a scary phone call from the workshop stated "we can't start your car". They promised they had not touched any electrical circuits but when turning over the engine there was voltage to/from the coil and the HT leads were sparking but there seemed to be no fuel reaching the injectors.
We therefore agreed that the problem was maybe an intermittent electrical problem with the fuel pump circuit as normally the car starts first time but I have had this problem once, when after turning it over 3 or 4 times it started. Hey presto, they rang back 5 minutes later saying the car had mysteriously started.
Is there a magic cure for this, or where should I start looking to find the problem?
Intermittent fuel problem
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JasonFerry
Re: Intermittent fuel problem
Car has now ground to a halt and refuses to move. Marcos sounds to have a similar electrical gremlin (see Heeeeellllpppppp thread). Could this be an ECU fault?
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JasonFerry
Re: Intermittent fuel problem
Fault now diagnosed and fixed....Loose connection at the coil on the wire that feeds the fuel pump relay and fuse. Thanks for your help Sunday leo.
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Leo Capaldi
Re: Intermittent fuel problem
Great news, but i don't quite understand...
The pump is powered straight from the relay, controlled by the ECU. A wiring fault at the coil would have affected the firing of the injectors and the sparks. I guess that no pulsing from the coil would cause the pump to be stopped (as when the engine stalls) but cranking the engine on the starter should override the control of the pump. (ie the pump is activated when the starter is turning, regardless of whether there are pulses at the coil).
Sorry but have not been to viva-lancia.com for a while.
Leo
The pump is powered straight from the relay, controlled by the ECU. A wiring fault at the coil would have affected the firing of the injectors and the sparks. I guess that no pulsing from the coil would cause the pump to be stopped (as when the engine stalls) but cranking the engine on the starter should override the control of the pump. (ie the pump is activated when the starter is turning, regardless of whether there are pulses at the coil).
Sorry but have not been to viva-lancia.com for a while.
Leo
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JasonFerry
Re: Intermittent fuel problem
Leo,
The problem was that the fuel pump was not operating at all but the car was
turning over all right but there was no petrol for the sparks.
I bypassed the relay by connecting a live to the fuel pump and it worked
OK....so the problem was in the circuit.
On the first ignition click the fuel pump starts working for about 6 or 7
seconds to build pressure for the system. I located the fuse and relay for
the circuit at the offside bulkhead and then traced the positive back to the
battery. The wire that leads directly from the fuse went to a cylindrical
device, which I assumed was the coil, at the rear of the engine block,
midway across the engine. The wire in question is the red one that connects
to the top connection on this if viewed from above the engine bay. When I
firmed up this connection, with the ignition on the first click I heard the
relay start clicking and the fuel pump operating.
Funnily though, if you remove this lead from the coil or whatever it is you
get no response at all when attempting to start, the engine does not turn
over. Unfortunately this is now the case at least once on a return journey
as the connection has loosened considerably again, so I will be borrowing
another connector from my HF Turbo's loom very soon.
Either way I was absolutely delighted by getting the car back on the road so
soon with no fee to pay apart from 3 hours of my labour! The advice from
you and Bob was much appreciated, thanks.
Jason.
The problem was that the fuel pump was not operating at all but the car was
turning over all right but there was no petrol for the sparks.
I bypassed the relay by connecting a live to the fuel pump and it worked
OK....so the problem was in the circuit.
On the first ignition click the fuel pump starts working for about 6 or 7
seconds to build pressure for the system. I located the fuse and relay for
the circuit at the offside bulkhead and then traced the positive back to the
battery. The wire that leads directly from the fuse went to a cylindrical
device, which I assumed was the coil, at the rear of the engine block,
midway across the engine. The wire in question is the red one that connects
to the top connection on this if viewed from above the engine bay. When I
firmed up this connection, with the ignition on the first click I heard the
relay start clicking and the fuel pump operating.
Funnily though, if you remove this lead from the coil or whatever it is you
get no response at all when attempting to start, the engine does not turn
over. Unfortunately this is now the case at least once on a return journey
as the connection has loosened considerably again, so I will be borrowing
another connector from my HF Turbo's loom very soon.
Either way I was absolutely delighted by getting the car back on the road so
soon with no fee to pay apart from 3 hours of my labour! The advice from
you and Bob was much appreciated, thanks.
Jason.
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wayne vinten
Re: Intermittent fuel problem
Hi I have a Lancia Intergrale Evo1 1992 J reg. She has decided not to start on me and i have narrowed it down to the fuel pump not working. If I remove the fuel pump and conect it straight to a battery it works fine.I have replaced the relay and fise but to no avail. The relay does click but the fuel pump stays idle. Im pulling my hair out as cant start the car so cant even drive her to a garage. Any help would be much appreciated.