Hi everyone,
Lately my car has had trouble starting (1990 Acura Integra GS). I thought it was the fuel pump because I could not hear it engaging when I turned the key. What’s funny is that it has been an intermittent problem. I pigtailed a voltmeter on the fuel pump electrical line and voltage was getting to the pump. Until today, that is.
It died again and this time I saw that there was no electricity going to the fuel pump. I then removed the PGM-FI main relay and tested it according to the service manual. The relay checked out fine so then I checked the wiring harness that plugs into the relay. It failed one test and the service manual said to check the #24 fuse and indeed it was blown (See highlighted part of attachment).
The manual says there is a short somewhere in the black/yellow line. My current problem is that the Haynes manual shows that this wire goes to a number of other systems. Being new at finding shorts, anyone had this problem before or have any advice? Also, if the problem has been intermittent, why now would the fuse blow? Does that sound right?
Sorry for the lengthy email, it has been an ongoing problem for me.
Cheers
I wanted to follow-up and tell you that since replacing the fuse, it hasn’t blown again. My startup problems have also gone away.
I should be happy but I am still concerned since the problem was erratic before and didn’t blow the fuse every time (it just happened that once). Now I can’t even search the yellow/black wire electronically since there is no short there anymore.
I’m pretty much stuck waiting it out until something happens again unless someone else has an idea as to how I can do more testing. Thanks for letting me rant.
Cheers
There seem to be a fair amount of views so I will keep this thread updated until the issue is fixed.
So it looks like the problem happened again, this time while at the gas station. Fortunately I had my handy voltmeter with me and was able to run the same electrical tests as I did in the first post.
This time the fuse was NOT blown and all tests passed. I also noticed that every 20 or so tries (of turning they key to accessory) I would see some voltage go to the fuel pump. Eventually it started so I drive it home.
Once there, I decided to bench everything again multiple times since the problem is intermittent. Turns out that the #8 prong on the PGM-FI main relay only benched correctly 4 or 5 times then it started failing. I figure perhaps my problem all along has been a simi-faulty relay.
I decided to order a brand new one and will post the results when it arrives.
broo i think you have a loose ground… or your main fuel relay is faulty get a new one common problem with our generation
Yep…after popping in that new relay it is working like a charm. Looks like a semi-faulty fuel relay. Hopefully this thread will help someone else if they have this problem.
bad solder joints inside the relay, no doubt. resoldering is an easy fix
