Fuel Pump?

[hospitalbuilder]

OK, so in a long line of "My car has 180K miles, WTF Now?" I had initially had problems with my 99Q stalling out when it was cold, like within a minute or two of cranking. It always re-started and ran fine once going. That issue seems to have gone away on its own, but now, I have a starting problem. It occurs when the car has not been cranked for over 9 or 10 hours. It takes forever to crank, with the starter just turning and turning. So far it has always cranked, but I fear that one day it will not. It has happened to me twice in the morning and once after a three day stay in the airport parking lot. I have gone out and cranked it for a few seconds just before I go to bed and it cranks fine, so the 8 or 9 hour mark seems to be the limit. I have even turned the key to the on position and let it sit for ten seconds or so, thinking that this would allow the pump to pressurize the system, but that did not help. It just randomly catches eventually. Again, it runs perfectly fine once it is cranked and going.

I am thinking fuel pump, original one in the Q as far as I know. Is that a reasonable DYI. I found the pump at the store for $170. Any other thoughts on what it might be?

[W O T]

No check engine light?

[WINNIPEGS_MOST_WANTED]

In most vehicles the pump only pressurizes for a short duration (~3 seconds); You can usually hear it. Try turning the key multiple times before cranking and see if it makes a difference.

[hospitalbuilder]

The light was on and I had it read just this morning, an oxygen sensor and a knock sensor. I have had those before, with no real problems. I do not think that either of those would cause this.

Also as an update. It's now officially dead. Drove to lunch and now it will not crank, just turns and turns. I had to get a ride home, now I have to figure out what to do with it. Timely post I guess.

[02pathy]

how old is ur battery? 1, when u say its cranking fine, is it a normal strong crank or a slow maybe so type of crank, i cant see the relation between the fuel pump and a time limit, battery and distributor i can but distributor is normally when hot

[hospitalbuilder]

Battery is strong. The engine is turning just like when it normally cranks just does not "fire." In fact, I am somewhat surprised at how long it turns without the battery slowing down. Seems like it is not getting any fuel to burn, so no start up.

Also, I am well over due for new spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor, but as I said earlier it runs well when it gets going, just having a start up problem.

[02pathy]

i think u should be able to hear the gas pump pressurizing, it could also be a spark issue maybe not strong enough to start it, i dunno i would start with all those u mention that need changing ne how and if then no, look at pump and filter, injector might be clogged too

what kind of gas where u running, i would also check to see if the knock sensor is actually bad as it might be related to ur problem which could of probably cause the o2 to go bad as well, i know they don't like passing gas that is not burned

ps as a quick test see what happens when u try to start it and give a lil gas at the same time, don't go crazy as not to flood it

[hospitalbuilder]

For an update, I finally got it cranked yesterday. I did not do anything different, it just fired up after a while. So, this morning I had my wife turn the key while I listened for the fuel pump. Heard it, then it cranked right up?

I wondered about the plugs, injectors and other items, but why would it run perfectly fine once cranked if those were issues? I am at a loss on this one. I am going to take it in for a look, but I am concerned that it could turn into an expensive goose chase.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[hospitalbuilder]

OK, so I just got the news from the shop. Long list of items. Fortunately, most of them were actually on my radar and are things I am going to do myself in the next several months.

The primary culprit is the ECM relay going bad. I had them fix that. They also recommended that I replace the knock sensor, but I am going to defer that to see how things work with that relay replaced. Additionally they recommended that I replace the spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor. I knew that was coming and plan to do that myself, but they recommended that everything be re-timed once the work is done. Do I really need to do that when I replace the cap and rotor, I thought that was only for older cars or when the entire distributor is replaced.

To space out the spending I was thinking about doing the spark plugs first, then followed by the wires, then the cap and rotor. Probably separated by a month or so for each project. Any problem with that?

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this does the trick.