I know DSM’s have a lot of weird quirks so I figured I’d ask here. A good friend of mind just purchased said car from another of my friends and we were trying to get it started yesterday with no luck. The car has been sitting a while and the former owner isn’t much of a car guy. Just said he couldn’t get it started and got a new car.
We replaced the battery and got it to crank, but couldn’t get it started. We tried listening to see if the fuel pump was priming but didn’t hear anything… not sure if these just use quiet pumps or not though. We checked all the fuses and tried to find a relay, but couldn’t find it if it has one.
I tried following the fuel rail to the schrader valve to check if there was line pressure, but it was pretty dark out and the engine was all sorts of dirty (lots of leaves/pine needles/rust/ect). Does anyone have a resource for schematics of this engine compartment? Or do you know where to find the valve off hand?
Also wanted to check it for spark, but I didn’t have my tools and didn’t want to break the already old wires on the thing as they were on there pretty good.
Do these things have any known problems relating to this? It seems like the pump is the culprit but would still like to exhaust all other options before shelling out the $$ for a new one.
oh, and I noticed that there are 2 access panels under the rear seat, what is the one in the center for? I assume something relating to the TSi model?
The 2 access panels are for seperate things the passenger side panel is for the pump, the center one is for evap stuff I think I have never needed to get that one open.
This is a 420a motor as it’s an esi.
Check for spark by just pulling a plug wire either away from a plug or the coil pack in the center of the valve cover. If it can’t bridge a 1/2" gap it sure as fuck won’t jump the electrode. Next pull a spark plug and clean it with sand paper and a wire brush. Or get new regular replacement ngk’s. You don’t need 10 electroded unuptanium plugs. When you pull the plugs after you have already tried cranking for spark they should smell of old gas, if not put gas in the car.
To hear for the pump open the fuel door and remove the cap. With your ear by the fuel filler have a buddy turn the key on and try to crank the car, you should hear a whine or hum for the tank.
thanks man :tup:
we swapped in new plugs/wires (needed 'em anyway) and put in a new fuel filter. Tried it again and still nothing.
we double checked all the fuses and everything looked good. So I decided to use a volt meter and check the harness coming off of the fuel pump harness and it was getting power… but the pump harness was not.
We tried looking under the hood for the relay (there are 3 relays right next to each other on the firewall)… we couldn’t figure out which was which as they all were stamped with the same part number. so we just tried swapping them around to see what would happen.
still nothing… so in a last ditch effort, as it was getting late/cold, I decided to cut the harness to the pump and run the wires to a spare battery and sure as shit, the pump turned on.
so now we have to figure out if the problem is in the wiring, or if it’s the relay or a fuse that we might have missed. The car’s been sitting for a year or so… so it’s possible a mouse could of chewed on the harness causing a short or something.
Do you have an electrical schematic for these cars? If worse comes to worse, we may just rewire the pump.
thanks again for the help man
-Steve
Sounds like there’s an alarm on the car. A lot of cars don’t prime when the key is turned on any more… only when cranking and running.
well, in that case
do you know the voltage running to the pump? (5v?) instead of worrying about all this bullshit, we’re probably just gonna go ahead and rewire it.
sick of dicking around with it and going in circles