Not my fuel pump! No!!!

[crysalis]

Hey guys

I just wanted to run a question by to see if anyone has any other ideas. My car (06 GT w/ 125k miles) runs great and performs like a champ, however... gettin 'er to start sometimes seems to piss her off and she just doesn't want to without a little help from the gas pedal. It's very intermittent though. I do use my factory remote start pretty often. Some days she starts up no problem at all as if brand new. Other days, it can take me quite a few turns of the key and some help from the gas pedal. Once started, everything is fine. If I use my remote, sometimes it wont even try to start, others it will attempt and fail, and then even more, it will start right up.

I haven't checked fuel pressure yet because I'm (really) hoping its not the fuel pump and I dont have the gauge to test it. I will go buy/rent one if need be though. Last I remember, I dont have the access panel in the trunk, and having never dropped a tank before, I'm not exactly excited to change a pump if I need to. No fuel filter to change since its returnless... no pressure regulator...

I don't have any codes. The MAF looks to be clean. Like I said, runs great all the time. Just gives me attitude starting sometimes.

Any other things I can check before I troubleshoot fuel pump?

[MoarkatsINmuhtrailer]

uhhh you know pumping the gas pedal does nothing right?

Go get your battery checked guy.

[crysalis]

I realize. I'm not pumping the gas... Just revving it once it tries to start. If i don't, it does out within 1-2 seconds. I'm not a complete idiot

[SlowNA06]

If it's running fine, why would you think the fuel pump is bad?
My vote's on dying battery... somehow. The factory battery should have died a year or two ago, so the battery you have should be fairly new.
Pull your spark plugs and check them... or replace them if you didn't do it at 100k.
Also, unless you put on your jeweler's goggles, I doubt you can see if the maf is anything short of f*cked. Just spend the $5 on spray and clean it. And clean your throttlebody while you're at it.

[crysalis]

Thanks Slow.

Changed the plugs and wires about 20k ago. Cleaned the MAF last week. I'm not saying I know it's the pump, just figured it might be losing pressure which I've always known to lead to pump problems.

The battery is factory believe it or not, so the battery may very well be it.

[FordMan77]

Being an 06 I'd definetly remove and clean the TB as suggested and go from there. The TB's get gunked up over time and have been known to cause all sorts of strange issues, much like these.

[SlowNA06]

Oh wow... I think you might have the oldest factory battery I've heard of.

[BillBoost37]

Typically the symptoms you have would lead us to the FPR, of course you have a returnless non FPR system. I would do the same as you are thinking, try to test fuel pressure and maybe do the pump unit.

[crysalis]

Noticed today that around 5k rpm in second gear, the car bogs down very slowly. I fear my fuel pump.

This is a dumb question, but... my rear o2 is currently unplugged (until Saturday morning). Would the bogging down be related? I figured the overkill tune would negate any sort of issues with it, but thought I should throw that in there.

Gonna be cleaning the TB this weekend, putting in the o2 extension, and hopefully some of these issues go away. I hate the CEL, but sometimes I wish it would just turn on so I know what's goin on.

[crysalis]

Oh wow... I think you might have the oldest factory battery I've heard of.

Yep. Pretty much waiting until the thing craps out on me when I'm out of town or something. Need to change it, but it always gets pushed back from some other repair (Like my wife's Terrain's A/C condenser...)