95 J30 Starting problems

[vehornr]

Hi all. Well, the dreaded day has come at last. My beautiful J30 will not start, and now sits in the driveway like a lame thoroughbred. It turns over great and tries to start, but it just won't run. If it does manage to start running, the idle is rough and quickly decays until the engine quits. This happened once a couple of days ago, but the engine started immediately afterward and has run fine since. I took the kids to school this morning and then parked the car for almost 2 hours before trying to start it again. After cranking and trying to start the car for several minutes I still cannot smell any gas fumes (yes, the tank is nearly full) so I am going to start troubleshooting a fuel supply problem and see where that takes me. Does anyone have any tips for the typical 'shade tree' mechanic, who doesn't have a lot of special tools? I have a copy of the FSM. I have had an intermittant CEL so I guess I should start by checking for error codes.

Thanks in advance!

[driverdriver]

Check your MAF, these sensors commonly go with time before you start troubleshooting for fuel delivery problems.

[vehornr]

Checked MAF, looked ok. Cleaned with brake cleaner, knocked some dirt out of the air filter, and reassembled. No change in symptoms. Diag codes not much help. First I got a 32 (EGR Function), then it went to 55 (no problemo).

Seems to me that I should hear the fuel pump for a couple of seconds when I turn on the ignition, but I don't.

[DAEDALUS]

That's the problem then. The pump is probably out, but check the fuse first. Hopefully the controller is fine.

[vehornr]

Thanks for the assist. Once I got the correct documentation (thanks Wes!) I was able to pinpoint the problem with a couple of steps. First, there is 12VDC present at the fuel pump connector for about 5 seconds when the key is turned ON. Second, a resistance check of the fuel pump motor reads infiniti (sorry, that just kinda slipped out). So it looks like everything is working except the pump. Guess I'll be calling the fine folks at everythinginfiniti.com soon...
Modified by vehornr at 8:05 PM 5/3/2005