Car hard to start
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
From: Earth
Car hard to start Has this happened to anyone? My car has been hard to start early in the morning when it is cold. Car tries to turn over but wouln't start. Fuel is not getting to the combustion chamber. I put fuel system cleaner in for a full tank, did not fix the problem. I checked the fuses and all are good. I changed the fuel filter and it did not fix the problem either. I'm feeling stuck. I hope it is not the fuel pump. This morning I rechecked the fuses and decided that it may be my fuel pump relay.
I had issues about a year ago with my AC compressor pump. My AC relay went bad and my AC blew hot. There is no way to check a relay that I know of. I went thru alot to finaly find out that it was just my relay and nothing else wrong with the AC system. I had the refrig. checked done ( bought one) Nothing wrong with refrig level. Air was blowing so, nothing else wrong there, Just was not cold. Took the car to a AC shop, by the way, I'm in germany and all I got was that there was a Compressor, malfunction code. and they did not have the manual to check what that ment. 60 bucks down the drain. My PCM didn't show any codes, so I don't know what they were talking about. I decided to change out the AC compressor relay with the fuel pump relay and what due you know. The car started then shut right off. The AC relay was bad.
Anyway, I decided to buy the relays on line and when they came in, all was well. I got like five extras by mistake I think.
After doing thru a week of trouble shooting with the fuel supply issue, I decided to use one of those extra relays I got. It fixed the problem with not issues. Damn, why couldn't I have just done that first????
Has anyone else had this issue with the relays going bad, and how do you check them? If one goes bad, does that mean all should be changed out?
Hope this my help out anyone else that runs into this issue with car starting. Would suck to find out after a fuel pump change that it was only the relay. I know that the dealer would have told me that the fuel pump was bad and when they were finished charging me with that, they would tell me that you have to change out the relay with a new fuel pump.
I had issues about a year ago with my AC compressor pump. My AC relay went bad and my AC blew hot. There is no way to check a relay that I know of. I went thru alot to finaly find out that it was just my relay and nothing else wrong with the AC system. I had the refrig. checked done ( bought one) Nothing wrong with refrig level. Air was blowing so, nothing else wrong there, Just was not cold. Took the car to a AC shop, by the way, I'm in germany and all I got was that there was a Compressor, malfunction code. and they did not have the manual to check what that ment. 60 bucks down the drain. My PCM didn't show any codes, so I don't know what they were talking about. I decided to change out the AC compressor relay with the fuel pump relay and what due you know. The car started then shut right off. The AC relay was bad.
Anyway, I decided to buy the relays on line and when they came in, all was well. I got like five extras by mistake I think.
After doing thru a week of trouble shooting with the fuel supply issue, I decided to use one of those extra relays I got. It fixed the problem with not issues. Damn, why couldn't I have just done that first????
Has anyone else had this issue with the relays going bad, and how do you check them? If one goes bad, does that mean all should be changed out?
Hope this my help out anyone else that runs into this issue with car starting. Would suck to find out after a fuel pump change that it was only the relay. I know that the dealer would have told me that the fuel pump was bad and when they were finished charging me with that, they would tell me that you have to change out the relay with a new fuel pump.
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 34,647
Likes: 2,574
From: Schiller Park, ILL Member: #317
Originally Posted by Osiris
Has this happened to anyone? My car has been hard to start early in the morning when it is cold. Car tries to turn over but wouln't start. Fuel is not getting to the combustion chamber. I put fuel system cleaner in for a full tank, did not fix the problem. I checked the fuses and all are good. I changed the fuel filter and it did not fix the problem either. I'm feeling stuck. I hope it is not the fuel pump. This morning I rechecked the fuses and decided that it may be my fuel pump relay.
I had issues about a year ago with my AC compressor pump. My AC relay went bad and my AC blew hot. There is no way to check a relay that I know of. I went thru alot to finaly find out that it was just my relay and nothing else wrong with the AC system. I had the refrig. checked done ( bought one) Nothing wrong with refrig level. Air was blowing so, nothing else wrong there, Just was not cold. Took the car to a AC shop, by the way, I'm in germany and all I got was that there was a Compressor, malfunction code. and they did not have the manual to check what that ment. 60 bucks down the drain. My PCM didn't show any codes, so I don't know what they were talking about. I decided to change out the AC compressor relay with the fuel pump relay and what due you know. The car started then shut right off. The AC relay was bad.
Anyway, I decided to buy the relays on line and when they came in, all was well. I got like five extras by mistake I think.
After doing thru a week of trouble shooting with the fuel supply issue, I decided to use one of those extra relays I got. It fixed the problem with not issues. Damn, why couldn't I have just done that first????
Has anyone else had this issue with the relays going bad, and how do you check them? If one goes bad, does that mean all should be changed out?
Hope this my help out anyone else that runs into this issue with car starting. Would suck to find out after a fuel pump change that it was only the relay. I know that the dealer would have told me that the fuel pump was bad and when they were finished charging me with that, they would tell me that you have to change out the relay with a new fuel pump.
I had issues about a year ago with my AC compressor pump. My AC relay went bad and my AC blew hot. There is no way to check a relay that I know of. I went thru alot to finaly find out that it was just my relay and nothing else wrong with the AC system. I had the refrig. checked done ( bought one) Nothing wrong with refrig level. Air was blowing so, nothing else wrong there, Just was not cold. Took the car to a AC shop, by the way, I'm in germany and all I got was that there was a Compressor, malfunction code. and they did not have the manual to check what that ment. 60 bucks down the drain. My PCM didn't show any codes, so I don't know what they were talking about. I decided to change out the AC compressor relay with the fuel pump relay and what due you know. The car started then shut right off. The AC relay was bad.
Anyway, I decided to buy the relays on line and when they came in, all was well. I got like five extras by mistake I think.
After doing thru a week of trouble shooting with the fuel supply issue, I decided to use one of those extra relays I got. It fixed the problem with not issues. Damn, why couldn't I have just done that first????
Has anyone else had this issue with the relays going bad, and how do you check them? If one goes bad, does that mean all should be changed out?
Hope this my help out anyone else that runs into this issue with car starting. Would suck to find out after a fuel pump change that it was only the relay. I know that the dealer would have told me that the fuel pump was bad and when they were finished charging me with that, they would tell me that you have to change out the relay with a new fuel pump.
Also, can you post a GM part number for the FP relay? And as asked above, where is it located on the car?
Thanks.....
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
From: Earth
Here you go.
Part number is A15 15-8571
I got mine from RockAuto since I'm overseas but you can get one from any parts store.
The relays are located in the under hood front fuse box. Pics attached.
Good luck
Part number is A15 15-8571
I got mine from RockAuto since I'm overseas but you can get one from any parts store.
The relays are located in the under hood front fuse box. Pics attached.
Good luck
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
From: Earth
O Yea, I have just over 62 grand on it. and part ran me just over 11 bucks, $11.14 to be exact. Like I said before, when my package arrived from rock auto it had six relays in it. Don't know if they made a mistake (rookie packer) or they hooked me up because I'm miliatary (APO address).
Made my day though and it allowed me to fix my most recent problem
Made my day though and it allowed me to fix my most recent problem
Last edited by Osiris; Feb 6, 2006 at 01:39 PM. Reason: left some info out
