Stalls after fixed time - second go 'round

Not I.

Good work with the starting fluid! That's troubleshooting!

Ah! Looks like I forgot to ask 'what happened just before the symptom
appeared?'. Sounds like you have some gunk in the fuel line that expands
with temperature, cutting off fuel.

Or something.

How's your fuel filter look, hmmm?

--Winston

 

I'm beginning to wonder about a potentially flaky injector.

 

The fuel pump and filter were replaced for $605, and a week later the Hall
effect sensor for $180.

My mechanic offered to put the old Hall effect switch back in and refund
that, but I'm worried that the old pump might have been good too. He
determined the pump was bad because it had voltage at its terminals but
there was no fuel pressure. An injector didn't cause that, but is it
possible there could be a blockage that is temperature sensitive?

 

Quoting you 6/5 at 9:03 PM:

Gas filter was *checked?* How?
A flow test outside the car?
Did your mechanic *replace* the filter after checking it?

Or not?

Could be.
The most logical place for that to happen is the fuel filter, no?

--Winston

 

He did replace the filter. I forgot that until I referred back to the
invoice. So it's not the filter either. Can the intake in the tank get
clogged, or the line before the filter?

 

Replacement parts can be bad too.

-Bruce

 

From where I sit, you are being rather grossly overcharged.

Same here. It sounds as if he is using the "shotgun" approach rather than
properly diagnosing the fault.

I'm still wondering about a potentially flaky injector, but as with all
the other responses you've gotten, this is just conjecture. The only sure
way to find and fix the fault is to get the car to a competent
diagnostician.

 

Here are the items before tax.

$268.90 fuel pump
$32.70 filter
$210 labor (drop the tank, etc)
$45 tow


$78.90 Hall effect sensor:
$75 labor

Before the new pump, he said there was no fuel pressure.

 

H'mm...nothing too terribly grossly out of line here, I don't suppose. I
might quibble with $210 worth of labor, but I don't have a flat-rate book
in front of me and I don't know your guy's labor rate, either.

TILT. That is a $30 to $40 part that takes all of 10 minutes to install.
Let's assume he's really slow and give him 30 minutes. That makes his
labor rate about $157/hr. Bzzt.

Exactly my point. There are lots of reasons why there might be no fuel
pressure. It points to a problem with the fuel pump *or its extensive
control circuit which includes several relays, a great deal of wire, a
control computer and several switches and sensors* or the fuel pressure
regulator.

 

Tom Del Rosso wrote:
(...)

And after the new pump, we have no fuel *flow*.
Pretty much the same thing.

Is that a throttle body or carburated engine?
Or does it have per-cylinder injectors?

I would be greatly tempted to disconnect the gas line at both ends
and blow some air through it with a compressor (set for 5-10 psi)
just to see if it is clear. I think I would have a cloth bag
loosely tied to one end to catch 'foreign matter' thus emitted.


--Winston

 

It's a 1992 Acclaim 4-cylinder, as the guy originally posted. That means
it's a TBI engine. (Carbureted? In 1992? C'mon.)

 

$70 or $75 is the norm around New York City.

I don't know about the part, but he will refund the $210 since it wasn't the
problem. The time (1 hour apparently) was spent road testing and searching
for an intermittent problem. There is probably a minimum 1 hour charge too.

The thing is, though, he measured 12 volts at the pump, and no pressure (not
sure where it was measured). Doesn't that rule out most things? I still
wonder if the pick-up or the line could be blocked.

 

Nope. A faulty connection, faulty relay, faulty wire or faulty ground
could allow 12v at the tiny current needed to cause "12.0" to appear on a
voltmeter's display, while being sufficiently resistive to block the much
higher current needed to start and run the pump reliably.

 

Not likely. In order to show 12V across the pump, you'd have to be
supplying enough current to create that kind of drop. So you're
looking at the pump, the connection at the pump, or the pickup, or
something like that.

 

But we don't know whether the tech checked for 12v across the pump, or
just across the (removed) pump feed wire.

 

Well, he said 12V at the pump, so I was assuming the pump was in the
circuit. If not, your comments above are correct.

 

I doubt he would try to measure it disconnected, but I'll ask him.