JayinOhio

I was driving myself crazy trying to diagnose a "crank, no start" condition.
Was it a crank position sensor? A bad fuel pump? (it had maybe 550 miles on it) A fuse? Fuel pump relay? Ignition relay? A security system problem? Bad key?
I was crazy enough that I cut a trap door to access the fuel pump.

I was getting voltage for about 2 seconds at the fuel pump electrical connector when I turned the key to ON, but when I hooked up the fuel pump it would not work even for the 2 seconds and I wouldn't get any voltage reading either. The pump worked if I applied an external 12v.

There are several relays under the hood for the fuel pump, A/C, horn, fog lights, etc. They are all the same relay.

So I swapped relays and still had the exact same problem. It made no sense!

Ultimately, it turned out I had 2 bad relays: the one for the fuel pump and the one I swapped in from the A/C. Grrr...
The best way to diagnose the whole mess was to test all the relays in the horn socket. Quick and easy. No volt meter needed. No erroneous readings. The horn worked, or it didn't as each relay was swapped in.

So, did we really need that new fuel pump 550 miles ago? We'll never know for sure because of the confounding effects of the electrical issues. It still cost a lot of money, though.
We still like our 2001 WS6, but the electrical issues (bad speakers, ignition relays, fuel pump relay, A/C relay, oh - and window motors) have really detracted from the whole experience.

Maybe this will spare someone else the same frustration.

-J

PS - and the idea that running low on fuel is bad for your fuel pump seems like a load of BS. The pump motor sits in a small reservoir that holds about a quart. It is fully submerged unless you run that last quart of fuel out of your tank.