Fuel Pump Relay Woes

My fuel pump relay went out last week, but the process to figure it out took most of the weekend. On my way home on Thursday the car kept on dying. It was typically when I was coasting, so I tried to keep the RPMs up and got it home. On Friday I was able to get to work with only a few issues. When I went to leave the car would not run for more than a minute at a time. I popped the hod and made sure everything was connected and no vacuum elbows were blown. I finally gave up and asked Tim for a ride home. He decided that we should at least try and figure out what was wrong.

We went to Harbor Freight and picked up a cheap fuel pressure gauge. I hooked it up to the port on the end of the fuel rail and started the car up. After a quick run to Home Depot for some Teflon tape after spilling some fuel we got everything hooked up. I got 40 psi at the rail and then it would just drop to nothing until the engine died, then it would jump back up to 40 again. We decided to put the gauge at the pump to see if we could figure out what was going on. After a quick from the store for some fuel line and host clamps we were ready to test. Now at this point we should have realized that the pump was shutting off when the pressure dropped, but we couldn't see the forest for the trees. We fumbled around some more and finally had to call it a night when it got too dark.

I hit it again on Saturday morning. I had to buy a jack, more stands & a creeper so I could try and figure out what was wrong. I went to pick up some more fuel line so that I could get the gauge in an easier place to read since I was alone now. The guy at the counter thought it might be a vacuum issue. I messed around some more and then decided to replace the fuel pressure regulator. I was lucky in that there was one in the area. I got it replaced, but in the process of pulling the fuel rail I lost a couple of the injector seals. I was lucky that the parts department at Superior Volvo was still open. I picked up some new seals at $5.oo a piece. FCP Groton has MSRP listed as $2.31 and sells them for $1.49 a piece. I am getting tired of being bent over by Superior. I hope that I don't have to buy many more parts from them.

I got everything back together and it still didn't work. I was getting more desperate and was actually considering having it towed to Vern's for him to fix. I tried bypassing the fuel filter. This time I noticed that the fuel pump was shutting off. I didn't have the service manuals with me as I didn't bring my laptop with me. I finally headed home and hit the computer to try and find a solution. I found a troubleshooting step that talked about checking the fuel pump relay. I made a posting on Matthew's Volvo Site about what I had done and what I thought was the possible fix. Ozark Lee posted that I was probably right about the issue and an easy way to test it. I used a paper clip to make a jumper and the car started right up and kept on running. Lee was gracious enough to offer to meet me Sunday night and give me a working relay. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lee for helping me out. I was afraid I was going to have to either buy one at who knows how much of a markup or pay for outrageous shipping to get the part quickly.

I now have a car that runs once again. I can now focus my time back on the paint and making this car shine.