This will be the first of many (probably) dumb questions asked by me...
My car is a 1989 IROC-Z with a TBI 305. I call her the "Deathmobile".

Here is what is wrong:
A. Fan runs continously even when engine is NOT hot and only shuts off when the key is off? We replaced the relay for this.

B. Fuel Pump shuts off when it feels like it- ie. Drive the car a short 10 minute distance, fuel pump shuts off when key is shut off.

Drive the car for, say, half an hour and the fuel pump moans away, even after the key is off, until you undo the battery? The next day when you re-connect the battery the pump is off and stays off until you start the car. We have replaced the relay, so it is not that in this case either.

C. Start the car up and it idles very high for about 5 minutes (this car will go 30 mph without you even touching the gas if you just start it and drive, lol)

D. Car has a great loss of power. It has the get up and go of a moped. An IROC-Z moped...what a novel idea.

My question is if you have had these types of problems how did you solve them? Are they related? Could it be the ECM?

This car has been an electrical nightmare since I bought it, it has never ONCE had a true mechanical problem, everything that has gone wrong has been electric/electronic. I swear that little rats or moles were living in it chewing away at the wires, because we have replaced so many of them it is not even funny.
Thanks in advance for anyone who is nice enough to reply...:hail:

 

Ive currently got your fan problem on my car. As soon as I turn the key forward both the fans start up and dont shut off until i turn the key to off. The previous owner before me had problems with them not coming on though. Instead of correcting the problem he grounded out the fans so they run all the time. Could this be what is done on your car??

 

B: Not sure abt TBI, but a TPI has a oil press switch that can leave fuel pump running after eng is shut off. It's down by the oil filter. Might try unplugging it while the fuel pump is still running (after eng shut-down) and see if that's it.

C: Clean or replace the IAC. Clean the associated air passages also.


D: That can be a lot of things. Check compression. Check the spark plug condition. They should be a light tan color.
Check fuel press.
Check ign timing.
Check for plugged exhaust.

 

make sure your tune up is good to start with, your lack of power i'd suspect the cat is clogged, but you need to make sure you have a good tune up anyway. the fan may be hard wired to run that way, lot of people do that to improve cooling. might want to chase down the 2 fan wires and see if they splice into a power source with the key on. check the oil preasure switch like already said for the fuel pump.

 

A-K,

Welcome Aboard!

Look at the right cylinder head, between the #6 and #8 spark plug. There may be a temperature sensor installed there that is used as a secondary fan safety switch. If that switch is shorted or the wire is grounded, the fan will operate. You can also inspect the dark green/white wire from the fan relay to the firewall to see if it is grounding anywhere.

Is the "SERVICE ENGINE" light on when any of this is happening? Does it come on when the ignition is on, before the engine is running? Have you scanned for error codes?

 

Thank you for all your replies! I will check out all suggestions because I am at my wits end.
I just replaced the spark plugs about 250 miles ago and it made no difference in power whatsoever, they are gapped correctly too, lol.

As for the fan being hard wired to run the way it runs - No one has done any modifications in the 4 years since I bought it and when I got the car it ran "normal", including the fan, except for the high idle at start, in fact people were marvelling at how well and smooth it did run for a car with 127,000 miles on it.
I noticed I did not mention that it has 145,000 miles on it in my earlier post, if that makes any difference.
The engine light has never come on. And I have no reader for the codes but i understand that you can stick a paperclip somewhere to find a code.

The fan and fuel pump and loss of power are all recent problems -last 6 months- before that no real problems at all - just electrical and it was usually from wires not connecting where they should have been connected dues to wear/chewing/whatever the reasons were that they were hanging.