pest55

My commuter car is a 1989 SE 5 speed with 263,000 miles. Monday morning it would not start. Turned over fine, but no start. The fuel pump would not cycle on and off with the key. I jumped in the truck and went to work.

Tuesday evening I get in max and turn the key on to hear the fuel pump come on. Car cranked right up. Turned it off and repeated 2 or 3 times and started right up every time.

This morning I get in max and it cranks right up. I still drive the truck to work since I don't know what the problem was.

My experience with high pressure electric fuel pumps has been that when they die they die, so I'm thinking it was the relay. I've never had a fuel pump relay go bad, but I have had other relays work intermittently.

Realistically, with a 17 year old fuel pump with 263,000 miles, it wouldn't hurt to just go ahead and replace it and the relay and likely be done with the problem, but I really don't want to take the time to do the pump right now if that is "most likely not" the problem.

Right now I'm leaning toward replacing the relay and driving until (or even if) it does it again. If it dies at work, I'll call AAA and have it taken to the house where I'll begin diagnosing the problem. It's just hard to diagnose a problem like this when it happens intermittently.

Where is the fuel pump relay located? Any other suggestions?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Greeny

iTrader: (43)

I have replace my fuel pump twice in my maxima, both times it stopped working intermitently...When it would quit all i had to do to get it running again was pop the trunk and smack the area around where the fp harness comes out of the cover with my fist,and bingo! away it would go again for a while...

The fp relay is located behind the back trim cover where the trunk latches...