Well, I was driving down the road and everything was good and then everything went bad. The engine started to sputter and then it died and the service engine soon light came on. I tried to start it back up and it turned over did one rotation or so and died again. I got out checked that there was oil, that nothing overheated, etc. After it sat for about 10 minutes I started it and it sputtered like hell and I was able to move it about 100ft. and then it died again and I couldn't get it to do much more than that after that. I got my dad to come and check it out for any obvious problems I may have not checked for and he couldn't find anything so we hooked up a tow rope and pulled it home. Then the damn bettery was dead so we jumped it off and now the engine won't even turn over the starter just turns everything. I'm thinking it's the fuel pump. I'm going to check the fuel line tomarrow when I can see something. Other than the fuel pump, does anyone have any other ideas?

 

Put it in diagnostic mode and pull the engine codes
Sounds like either spark or fuel, are you getting spark?

I was going to say that your fuel filter might be clogged, since it did it after you drove it. Listen for the fuel pump prime when you turn the key, and check your fuses to make sure you didnt just pop a fuse.

 

I don't have any kind of equipment I could use for pulling engine codes. I did check all the fuses after I got it back to the house. I thought about listening for the prime last night, so I'll go do that in a few minutes.

 

Didn't get that little whine sound when I turn the key any more.

Is it possible to drop the gas tank without completely taking the rear end out? I really don't want to have to bleed the brakes again.

 

Before you do anything get the codes.

Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC)

 

sure remove the LCA's at the axle and remove the shocks at the axle. then the springs and of course the pan hard bar. My axle dropped far enough to twist the tank out. Only lines i disconected were the fuel and the fuel pump connector.....................used an air wrench so it was quick. 'bout three hours total then the fine tuning.............................Good luck.

 

It doesn't have any stored codes. Just flashes 12.

 

I guess you disconnected them from the gas tank in order to get the tank out? I really don't care if the tank comes all the way out, I just want to drop it enough to swap the pump and filter and put it back together. How much gas was in your tank when you did it? I have half a tank of gas and I don't want to spill any all over the garage since the water heater is out there. I don't have an air wrench either, but I do have a torque wrench (which was a life safer when putting in the rear end).

 

Then stop by the office supply place and pick up some paper clips. That's the "equipment" you need.

Sounds like you're making a rather unwarranted leap of faith here.... battery goes dead, you jump it off, car turns over but doesn't start (unlike the confusing "car doesn't turn over the starter just turns", use words that convey the real meaning ), you're going to change the fuel pump because you don't hear it prime.

Not logical.

"Codes" won't tell you why the engine won't run, generally. They tell you about how the ECM is seeing inputs that it doesn't expect, while the engine is running. Don't expect the car to diagnose itself and print out a little slip of paper or speak in a tinny robotic voice about "replace the so-and-so".

Also not logical. Forget the codes for the time being.

First, if your battery is dead. Charge it or replace it. You can't do anything until that's handled.

Second, the car will either run when you try to start it, or it won't. If when it's working right, it always starts right up when you hit the key, then it'll be no different this time, if all is as it should be. Cranking it until the battery runs down won't make it up and decide to run, if there's something else wrong. Once you figure out what's wrong and fix it, then it will return to cranking right up like it always does, again. Don't add to your other problems by killing the battery like the stupid people do when they run out of gas. You've seen them before I'm sure. They're like, "I'm sitting by the side of the road without any gas; maybe if I turn the starter long enough, it'll manufacture some for me?" Yeah right. Sounds stupid. But, you have no idea (well, maybe you do...) how often it happens. Don't be like THOSE people.

Once you get it to crank normally and reliably, recall that an engine needs 3 things to run: compression, air/fuel in reasonable proportion, and spark at about the right time. The 3 magic ingredients.

Now, you're driving down the road, it's all good, and suddenly something dies. Well, one (operative word here: ONE) of the magic ingredients went away. All you gotta do now, is figure out which one. Pretty simple really. I'll take a no-start problem any day over a runs-like-crap problem, as far as ease of troubleshooting.

Probably not compression. All your piston rings didn't just suddenly go bad and all your valve seats burn. So that one's probably OK. Now you're down to 2 magic ingredients.

Think about it. All you have to do to make the car run, is to replace the missing ingredient. If you can substitute one of them, and the car runs, then you know that was the missing one. If it doesn't, then it's the other one. Eh?

Shoot some starting fluid into the intake. Crank the car. Does it run for a second or 2 until the starting fluid is gone? then fuel is the missing ingredient. Does it still not run? then spark is absent.

Go figure out what's really wrong with your car, don't just start swapping out expensive and very difficult-to-replace parts. First figure out if you have a fuel problem or a spark problem, and come back and we'll move to the next step.

 

First of all, I've never had any problems with this car so I've never had to pull codes off of it so I didn't know it was as simple as a ****ing paper clip until blue posted that link. Second of all, the battery died because I had the flashers on for about an hour and the interior light on for about 20 minutes and the hood light on for the rest and then on the way home I had to turn on the headlights (power sucking H4s) so I didn't rear end my dad's truck. I didn't kill the battery trying to start it because I thought it just decided to cut off for no reason. I'm not an idiot.

I went ahead and got some of the starting fluid since it was only $2 and sprayed it in and it started for a second until the battery ran low again, so it's on a real charger now.

 

Well I am ; so just bear with me while going through the simple and logical steps of isolating the problem.

I'm not saying that your problem ISN'T the fuel pump, only that it's not the only thing that could cause it, and maybe not even the most likely thing. It would be alot more sensible to calmly and logically diagnose it, without jumping to conclusions, and thereby proceed directly to the problem with certainty, and avoid wasting time and money on stuff that you don't already know for sure is broke.

If you go to the front page of this site, you'll find a page devoted to just such things as pulling the codes. Even has a listing of what they mean. For that matter, you could do that while the batt is charging, if you want; doesn't take much power or anything. But I seriously doubt you'll find out very much that way of any value. If the light wasn't lit while the motor was running before it died, you'll get a code 12, and nothing else; which means, the motor isn't running now. Well duhhh.... not terribly informative. And of course, if the battery went dead enough to reset the computer, which it probably did, then whatever codes it had before it died, are all cleared now anyway; so the car can't confess what it used to be mad about any more.

You'll have to take a more direct approach. So:

If it starts with starting fluid, then you know you have a fuel problem. Hold that thought until the batt is ready again.

Next thing to check will be the fuel pump relay. It would truly totally tubularly suck if you went to all the expense and trouble of changing the pump, and it still didn't work; and turned out to be a $12 relay that you can stand there and unplug and re-plug.

If it's the filter, there's no need in dropping the tank. It's quite a bit more accessible than that. But a filter won't generally cause a sudden stranding by the side of the road; more often you get a prolonged, steadily worsening run-like-crap situation leading up to it. So that's probably not it.

 

That's not what I was saying I wasn't an idiot about, that was about the trying to keep starting the car when it obviously won't.

Where is the fuel pump relay at? I can't find anything about it in my repair manual?

 

Well, you've got a 6-cyl, and I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER about those, except .... that they have 6 cyls.

But, a V8 one is on the firewall right near the brake booster, between that and the fender. Hopefully yours is similar. Should be a small black box with a plug with 2 relatively thick wires and about 3 relatively thin ones. I don't recall the colors.

 

I searched after I posted and found that it was under the hood, and when the key is turned one of them that has a lot of wires coming out of it clicks so I'm guessing that's the one for the fuel pump and it's seems to be ok. Before I go buy a new pump tomarrow I'm gonig to get under there and test the wires that go from behind the back seat to the tank are getting power.

 

It LIVES!!!! My dad and I got the new fuel pump in today and everything works fine again. I'm surprised that pump didn't die sooner, it had AC stamped on it so I'm pretty sure it was the one that came from the factory. The parts on this car seems to last a long time, the alternator I replaced earlier this year was the one the came with the car too.

Good news is that it looks like someone did get the notice for the fuel tank recall and took it in because there was what looked like lead around the weld for the filler neck on the tank.