My OEM fuel pump finally quit last week. Symptoms were rough idle, stall after start, finally the pump failed to prime. I had an Airtex pump as a spare that I bought a couple years ago from a member so I wired in the flat-4 connector (98 connector is the square 4), installed it and ran it for about 3 days. On the third day, the symptoms returned. Usually after sitting for a couple hours, the car won't start. I started digging into the fuel system a little more:
- disconnected the feed line at the rail. No pressure or flow when priming, but the pump was running.
- disconnected at the fuel filter. Same, no flow out of the pump. (While I was under there I replaced the fuel filter)
- Checked voltage at the connector, was good. Checked ground continuity, no problem.
- checked relays, and switched them. still no flow even though the pump was running during prime.
I pulled this used pump, inspected the inside of the tank (nice and clean, no rust or scale at all), went and got a new Airtex pump. Installed it, primes and runs great. Next morning I went to the gym, came out and no start again. After priming about 6 or 7 times I heard a click from the pump during the prime and car started. A-ha! stuck check valve. Went home and after shutting off the car and letting it sit while I had breakfast, I came out and tried to start. No pressure at the rail again. I hot wired the pump relay and could hear the pump running but nothing coming out of the rail. I pulled the pump, put it in a bucket of gas and hot wired it to the battery, it ran and ran then after about 30 seconds there was the "click" again and fuel pumped out. I packed it up and took it back to advance auto and got a replacement. While I had it apart, I blew out all the lines front to back, new filter again, and wired in a new connector. then I installed the second new pump and it seemed fine.
Drove to work yesterday, and on the way to work the pump started making noise. Shut the car off and a couple hours later came out, no start. Primed it two or three times, then heard the click of the check valve again. It started and ran, the pump was screeching like a banshee. F*ck.
Checked the auto store, they didn't have any replacement pumps in stock. Called a couple other places and located a Delphi OEM pump for the same price as the Airtex. Manager threw me a discount "because you shouldn't have to replace the fuel pump three times"). Installed it last night. Had to wire in a square 4 connector again, no big deal. This pump *seems* to be better. It's virtually noiseless, and the car runs very smoothly at idle, not surging like it's lacking fuel which was happening with the aftermarket pump.
Did some additional reading onto web. Seems like Airtex pumps generally get 2 out of 5 stars, and have a pretty high return rate.
thank goodness we can change the pump through the access panel, if we had to drop the tank I'd have slit my wrists or set the F-er on fire first.
