Yesterday while driving home after work my car started to to chug while going up the last few hills and finally died after a couple miles and would not start. It would start briefly and die, a shot of starting fluid into the throttle body and it would run fine for a few seconds and die again. So I got it towed home and into the garage. Hoping that is was a plugged fuel filter, I last changed it about 3 years ago and I had one on hand, I changed the filter this morning and that wasn't it.

So I ordered a new fuel pump and it should be at O'Reillys in the morning, I hope that recent shipping problems don't delay it. I am going to do the trap door method and am prepared with all the tools. But if that isn't it, what else could it be?

Turning the key on in the car should activate the fuel pump right? I can hear nothing, I have crawled under the car by the gas tank with the key on and can hear and feel nothing from the fuel tank. I have whacked on the tank with my hands, still nothing. There seems to be no activity in the tank. Is my diagnosis of a non-working fuel pump correct? The fuel pump fuse is good. There seems to be no fuel pressure. Opening the Schrader valve nothing comes out. The car has a half tank of gas.

So if it is NOT the fuel pump what else could it be? I am convinced that the issue is fuel related but if the fuel pump doesn't fix the problem, where do I go next? This is a daily driver so I can't just leave it in the shop, it needs to drive. 147,000 miles on a very clean and usually trouble free engine. Any input would be appreciated. Although changing the fuel pump is something I have not yet done, I have been maintaining this car for the last 20 years, so I am not new to the issues.

 

Jumper the fuel pump relay first. Thats more common than the pump.
Or just swap a relay with the same part number temporarily to see if the pump runs.

 

have you replaced the in line fuel filter? if clogged it could possibly cause the problem you are having. JMHO

 

The day started off well, the new pump was at O'Reilly's at 7:30am, picked up a cut-off tool from my son, started working on it about 9am. Took my time.

The car runs great now! New fuel pump install went well. About 3 hours start to finish including cutting the trap door. Started right up and runs great, probably going to perform better than it has in awhile. I saw no water or other debris inside the tank.

The retainer ring was a bitch to get off and back on. I cut a couple wires on one of the plugs into the tank while making the trap door, they must have been right up against the metal because I was careful not to cut deeper than needed. Turns out that plug needed to be cut off anyway and replaced with a new 4 prong plug that was supplied with the new pump, how lucky. Cut my thumb a couple times on the jagged edges from the trap door.

Still need to seal up the trap door.

 

Thanks for the follow-up. Nice going, despite the thumb.

 

My OEM fuel pump in my 98Z began to act-up in 2004. I did the trap-door and replaced it with a Granatelli GM722-2 from Summit.
2 years later that pump failed. I'm in Ohio up by the lake and that failure occurred while travelling in Florida. Previous to that trip and since I had the trap-door I carried a spare pump (same Granatelli model). Took about 15 minutes to swap out the pump and I was back to travelling. Got back to the motel and ordered another pump shipped to the motel. Always have a spare pump with me. The pump I put in in 2006 is still running fine 15 years later.