ongoing stalling saga (quite long post)

Sorry Peter, I am all confused now. That went way over my head. :-(

[Peter D]

Does your Dad understand it. Cut a couple of 6 mm wide or so length of paper off the end of a sheet of A4 normal paper to feed through the contact area then using a sawing action clean the point of cantact whilst someone hold the relay unit and presses the contact lightly together. Call me if you want it's no problem. Regards Peter

Its okay, it was the throttle bit I didn't understand :-)

Can't clean it at the moment but will have a try later. Thanks

[Peter D]

The throttle position sensor is important to test as per the manual as it identifies which LH system you have and we need to establish that if it is a LH 2.4 then the two switches work properly. Your Dad though he could not here a click from the unit. so a simple ohm meter check will tell up if it is a switch unit or a potentiometer bridge device.

Look at the pins protuding out of the bottom of the pump relay have they all got marks on them where the the connector has had a firm grip of the spade. If in doubt fins a piece of hardish material and that fits into one of the socket of the relay base ( i.e. in the car ) and then check they are all equally spaced and one of them is not all loose. Regards Peter

[molening]

Have not read every dtail of this post as it is rather long, but for what it is worth in my experience with an ignition module fault the engine will cut out when under power (experienced this at 80 mph) starts off a bit like a miss then as fault gets worse car will grind to a halt, with the engine re-starting less than a minuite later.

I think we may have found the source of the problem. The car cut out again tonight. My Dad checked the fuel pump relay and it was red hot. He cooled it down and managed to start the car.
Now there was no corrosion inside the relay and I haven't yet checked for cracks in the solder, but to me, the mild discolouration of the wire on the two coils is a bit suspicious. It may only be the loss of lacquer over the years but this may be causing overheating if the wire coils have lost their resistance to heat.
I shall post again tomorrow with an update :-)

[Peter D]

Beckyh. Did you clean the contacts when the relay was apart as this can be the source of the heat. Easy to test to be sure. Power up the relay on the bench as I suggested and leave both coils powered for half an hour to see how how it gets. However if it has been that hot and after spending so much time and money on the problem I would buy a replacement relay. The one set of contacts carries about 8 amps and the other ( Injectors, ICV, etc ) about 2 amps tops. The other possibilty is that too much current is being drawn. Your Dad borrowed a meter so measure the current being drawn by removing fuse 4 clipping in your meter on a DC 10 amp scale and starting the engine. This reading is the total of the fuel pumps (6 amps ) plus the heater for the O2 sensor ( initially 4 reducing to 2.5 amps. ). If this is a much higher figure then disconnect the pump connector under the rear passenger carpet under the seat ( Main pump ) and it should reduce by 4 amps but then the engine will stop but cranking will turn this circuit back on. The lifter pump draws 1.6 amps only. This relay does get warm but HOT hot, it is either a loose spade connection as I mentioned previuosly or probably burnt contacts and they get very hot. I am hear on and off for the rest of the dad then Flying south to organise my Father-In_laws Funeral and lend support but I will check in from his PC in case you are still stuck. Regards Peter

[Peter D]

THe bench test only tests the integrity of the coils not the contacts. To do that you would have to load up pin5 with two headlight bulbs and pin 1 with one headlight bulb ground pins two and 4 and a beefy +12v feed to pin 3 . Having detailed all that you can usually see if the contacts are burnt, either looking at the contact surfaces with a magnifying glass or by the discolourisation of the contact area metal work. Regards Peter

Yesterday I went to get the part, before we were able to fit it I was disappointed to hear that my Dad was able to drive the car home without stalling - that is until I realised he was driving home with a wire between fuses 4-6. So it seemed promising.

Fitted the new fuel pump relay last night. Didn't do a test run. Today no cut outs at all. Looks like we may have found the source of the problem once and for all. Obviously we need to test it for a few more days and up to a week to be absolutely sure but it is looking good.

Thanks everyone for all the help you have given. My only gripe with all this car business is that we had to try so many parts before getting the right one. Its not so bad though, most of those parts needed replacing anyway :-)