Random no start problem

[91_festy_Gl]

not sure what you are talking about.....never have had an issue with the 5 I have/had.

The 2 that i have owned have had this problem. My brothers dont for some odd reason. I assume a bad ground somewhere?

[GenevaDirt]

Festys are bad about corrosion. I clean my terminals almost every time I pop the hood.

not sure what you are talking about.....never have had an issue with the 5 I have/had.

[91_festy_Gl]

Festys are bad about corrosion. I clean my terminals almost every time I pop the hood.

[woodyvw16v]

aha! that is good to know. i found several issues with mine that led to it working:

the positive battery cable was loose and corroded- replaced connector at the battery, cut the cables back, stripped, cleaned and reattatched them.

messed with the fuse link panel some more- achieved a better connection there (especially at the main link) the whole block is pretty badly corroded tho and i believe will need replacement in the near future.

also found the fuel and main relays- wiggled all the wiring around them in the process.

...somewhere in all that wiggling testing and fixing i achieved a better/good connection at the offending connector and now the car consistently starts.

[muddevil01]

Thanks and if anyone wants to know there is a tan plug with two wires right next to to the wiper motor with a red and a yellow wire the red wire is the "self test" wire I finally found it tucked behind the wiper motor and when I put 12 volts to it the pump started working and that led me to look harder for the relay

[GenevaDirt]

thanks for the update.....good work on figuring it out.

[muddevil01]

O.k. I fixed it. It was a loose connection on the fuel pump relay I found the relay and the plug was not plugged in all the way I plugged it in and the car fired up I am sure i fixed it thanks for all he help it got me pointed in the right dierection

[muddevil01]

O.k. I have an update but still no fix to the problem the pump is good I hard wired the pump and the car started so I unhooked my jumper wire and started checking wiring went to start the car and it started again so I drove it home shut it off no start I couldn't find "self test" wire on the firewall I hooked 12 volts to every empty plug on the firewall and the pump wouldn't run anyone have any thoughts? maybe a bad wire? any help would be great I only found 1 relay under the dash on the drivers side swapped it with the one off of my 91 so I have run out of ideas

[woodyvw16v]

just had a very similar problem. haynes says to check the fuel pump self test connector but didnt show what it looks like or where it is.

does someone have a pic of the bypass wire? is it the single gn/red wire with the connector end on it?


for reference- my main fuse link went out not too long ago, i curently have a randome guage length of fuse link crammed in there with battery voltage on both sides. i pulled the car around to the shop from the back lot, went to leave 10 minutes later and it would not start. im not hearing the fuel pump run, the starter solenoid works and the starter spins but the bendix isnt engaging it seems. when i turn the key it just clicks. nothing else.

after seeing the bit in the haynes about the self-test conector i looked for it- only to find about four or five random connectors on the drivers side of the engine compartment and one under the dash below the fuse box

[Pu241]

^^^
Good idea with the jumper!

Don't think the cut off switch would reset itself though, as we are seeing here.

[Occhty]

Also check the fuel cutoff switch. I had some that would pop off on their own, and one that wouldn't be off but tap it with a screw driver and it would shut off the car and still
Show good.

[Occhty]

I think the fuel relay is drivers side under the dash.
Also on the fire wall under the hood around the coil/wiper motor there is a relay bypass wire, hook up a jumper to the positive terminal on battery, this will make the pump run with a bad relay, pending the pump is good.

Best to look at a wire diagram. I don't remember exactly
which wire it is, when I need to do this I just trial and error. but my methods more risky

[muddevil01]

I thought it was odd that it would be intermittent as well I didn't know about the micro switch in the vaf I will check and I am just getting ready to hard wire the pump to see

[Pu241]

Just seems odd that the fuel pump would work intermittently.
Did you check your VAF connection, as there is a microswitch in it that permits the fuel pump to run.
Have you tried applying 12 volts direct to the pump to see if it truly has failed?

[muddevil01]

well with out fuel pressure the car won't start I finally was able to do further testing to find out that I had spark so the next step was to check for fuel pressure and I found that the pump wasn't working ok so the aspire pump will work if I put it into the festiva sending unit is there a way to test the fuel pump relay?