After nearly a year of chasing my tail trying to find this damn fuel pump issue, and foolishly throwing money at it (I know brian I should know better), it is finally solved. It turned out to be a relay in the front fender. Apparently the relay that controls the power to the computer was giving it a strong enough zap. I don't know why it would be enough to give power to everything but the pump but it was. So a $25.00 relay and she now runs again. God I can't wait for spring so I can enjoy her. I think I will use the winter to get that paint job done and be ready for Maxus next year.

Too bad for all of you guys that didn't purchase it when I was fed up and trying to sell cheap. It would have only cost you $25 to fix it. Oh well everything happens for a reason. I wouldn't have been happy selling her anyway.

 

Glad to hear it's back up and running!

 

Glad you found it. stuff like that is a royal PITA.

... Which is part of why I hard-wired my fuel pump using a quality aftermarket relay.. it runs the whole time the ignition is on- not ECU-fed like the factory setup.
(Look at most race cars, and they have a separate switch on the dash for the fuel pump..)

 

Interesting, and good to know for the future in case of trouble.

Did you just do a relay, or a switch as well?

I was thinking of making a hidden switch for it somewhere, to prevent anyone getting too far (if anywhere) in case of theft. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

 

i know the perfect place to hide it on an automatic. pull up the cowl around the shifter, and wire the switch down in there. when you want to cut off the pump, pull up that cowl, and turn the switch to "off". then replace cowl, and it's fully hidden.

 

I just replaced the relay, nothing more. I had considered hard wiring it with a switch, and I may still. The other good part of a switch is that you can depressurize the system as well, just turn off the pump and run the lines dry.

 

Yo congrats!...but I havent followed your problem, would you mind giving me a quick summary of what exactly was going on?

 

The problem was that when turning the key the car would turn over but not start. It would get spark but no fuel. I would not hear the pump kick in (and you can hear a Walbro). If you kept turning the key on and off, you would sometimes hear the pump run, when it did the car would run. Sometimes you would have to cycle the key 20 or more times.

It hinted at relay but Maximas have four relays on the pump. One for voltage, one for emergency cut-off, and two for ignition. After replacing all four, the pump was still intermitent. So I swapped ECU's...same problem. So I looked at sensors. I swapped distributors (crank angle) and still no luck. Luckily I had ECU and distributor. Finally I started looking at other relays.

No one I talked to has had this problem. The parts guy at the local dealer suggested ignition and not pump. He said that he has heard of a similar problem when the iginition switch goes bad, but it is rare. I had a tech work with me and it took him over two hours to find it.

 

Wow, that sounds insane. Well props on getting the problem solved

 

congrats Jon (non-Colombian).
I think fuel pump relays should be added to the list of preventative maintenance items on these cars. you are the second one that had a relay issue with the fuel pump. other one was the relay in the trunk though.
Meh, just replace them every 10 years and drive happy