Fuel Pump Stopped and Fuse Keeps Blowing
Discussion
If you're still struggling i had the same sypmtons last year with my Chim. I got stranded after TiTT5.
It turned out to be a frayed wire on my engine wiring loom that was shorting and blowing the fuse.
It had worn throught after 10yrs of rubbing on a bolt head. It was a fairly easy fix once i found where the frayed wire was, but a right bugger to get to it. It had worn through just before the arrow an the photo.
Dave from BHP Blackpool sorted it for me as my mechanical skills are somewhat lacking.
It turned out to be a frayed wire on my engine wiring loom that was shorting and blowing the fuse.
It had worn throught after 10yrs of rubbing on a bolt head. It was a fairly easy fix once i found where the frayed wire was, but a right bugger to get to it. It had worn through just before the arrow an the photo.
Dave from BHP Blackpool sorted it for me as my mechanical skills are somewhat lacking.
Cheers Guys,
I'm going to drain the tank and see what emerges - after 16 years there could be all sorts of crud living/dying in there that could stop the pump so I figure it's a reasonable starting point.
While it's drained I'll whip the pump off and run it on the bench, trying to run it backwards first to blow any crud back out of the inlet perhaps to see if that's the problem.
The inertia switch hadn't occured to me, but it could be down to that - I had just been round a tight roundabout in a spirited fashion when everything cut out, so that could have caused the problem I suppose, but it's unlikely to have blown the fuse, so it still sounds like a problem either with the pump, or with the alarm/immobiliser that shares the same fuse.
Still, that's a few starting points to get going on?!
The frayed wire idea is just scary...how long could that take to find if the fraying occured in the foootwell or in the transmission tunnel...eeek!
Cheers
Giles
I'm going to drain the tank and see what emerges - after 16 years there could be all sorts of crud living/dying in there that could stop the pump so I figure it's a reasonable starting point.
While it's drained I'll whip the pump off and run it on the bench, trying to run it backwards first to blow any crud back out of the inlet perhaps to see if that's the problem.
The inertia switch hadn't occured to me, but it could be down to that - I had just been round a tight roundabout in a spirited fashion when everything cut out, so that could have caused the problem I suppose, but it's unlikely to have blown the fuse, so it still sounds like a problem either with the pump, or with the alarm/immobiliser that shares the same fuse.
Still, that's a few starting points to get going on?!
The frayed wire idea is just scary...how long could that take to find if the fraying occured in the foootwell or in the transmission tunnel...eeek!
Cheers
Giles
Edited by Clippy on Monday 11th April 10:36
Evening Giles,
The wire appears to only wear in that 1 place (on my chim anyway).
Although not very scientific, try lifting or waggling the loom with someone else starting the engine. You need to be looking there whilst the engine turns over. In my case the engine started but i saw a few sparks when 'waggled'.
Hopefully in your case it'll be the inertia switch or something less scary, or some one-more technical will come along
.
Paul
The wire appears to only wear in that 1 place (on my chim anyway).
Although not very scientific, try lifting or waggling the loom with someone else starting the engine. You need to be looking there whilst the engine turns over. In my case the engine started but i saw a few sparks when 'waggled'.
Hopefully in your case it'll be the inertia switch or something less scary, or some one-more technical will come along
.Paul
Had a similar problem last year that left me stranded in Hampshire.
Called the AA man (wife insisted), while waiting for the very nice man I found that the fuel pump fuse had blown.
Took the N/S wheel off, removed the live feed to the pump & back to the footwell fitted a new fuse in the fuse board.
Investigated the short.
Found that the feed wire (yellow one) to the fuel pump was shorting on the fuel pump mounting bracket bolts.
The two FP mounting bolts almost come together to make what looks like a perfect bracket to trap & secure the FP wires, its not!
THE BOLTS WILL CHAFE THE WIRE & YOU WILL GET A SHORT!
Made good the wire, routed it away from the FP bolts and re-connected all wires to the pump.
Started first turn of the key
, AA man turned up just as I was putting my tools back in the boot.
Good luck & let us all know how you get on.
Called the AA man (wife insisted), while waiting for the very nice man I found that the fuel pump fuse had blown.
Took the N/S wheel off, removed the live feed to the pump & back to the footwell fitted a new fuse in the fuse board.
Investigated the short.
Found that the feed wire (yellow one) to the fuel pump was shorting on the fuel pump mounting bracket bolts.
The two FP mounting bolts almost come together to make what looks like a perfect bracket to trap & secure the FP wires, its not!
THE BOLTS WILL CHAFE THE WIRE & YOU WILL GET A SHORT!
Made good the wire, routed it away from the FP bolts and re-connected all wires to the pump.
Started first turn of the key
, AA man turned up just as I was putting my tools back in the boot.Good luck & let us all know how you get on.
Well...after too much work and house stuff getting in the way I finally got to looking at the problem.
The pump had seized solid due to a 3-4mm cube of 'crud' (technical term) that was lodged in the inlet side of the impeller...
...but...when trying to run the pump backwards to blow out any crud (while still attached to the car) I got a little electrical crackling from the area around the stepper motor, just where One Chop said his wire had chaffed through. As soon as the pump freed up the crackling stopped!
Have taken out the tank and flushed it through with clean fuel and now, as well as reassembing everything, I'll have a look at the wiring loom running in the offside of the valley to see if I've got bare wires shorting too...happy days!
Thanks for the steer guys - I'll let ou know the final outcome shortly.
Giles
The pump had seized solid due to a 3-4mm cube of 'crud' (technical term) that was lodged in the inlet side of the impeller...
...but...when trying to run the pump backwards to blow out any crud (while still attached to the car) I got a little electrical crackling from the area around the stepper motor, just where One Chop said his wire had chaffed through. As soon as the pump freed up the crackling stopped!
Have taken out the tank and flushed it through with clean fuel and now, as well as reassembing everything, I'll have a look at the wiring loom running in the offside of the valley to see if I've got bare wires shorting too...happy days!
Thanks for the steer guys - I'll let ou know the final outcome shortly.
Giles
The tank does have a strainer fitted to the outlet.
The problem with a pre-pump filter would be space - there's only a short pipe run (with a kink in it to avoid the rear wishbone) between the tank and the pump - no more than 6 inches and the kink is right in the middle - so putting a filter in before the pump without moving the pump would be tricky...
The tank is now well flushed though, and I'll run some more fuel backwards through the pump to make sure all the rubbish has gone, and I'll replace the post-pump filter too to make sure nothing washes backwards into the pump at standstill as the filter is mounted above the pump.
G
The problem with a pre-pump filter would be space - there's only a short pipe run (with a kink in it to avoid the rear wishbone) between the tank and the pump - no more than 6 inches and the kink is right in the middle - so putting a filter in before the pump without moving the pump would be tricky...
The tank is now well flushed though, and I'll run some more fuel backwards through the pump to make sure all the rubbish has gone, and I'll replace the post-pump filter too to make sure nothing washes backwards into the pump at standstill as the filter is mounted above the pump.
G
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