Thread: My car broke down on me

So last night I was driving in the city of boston when my car just died on me. Not instantly off. But it slowly died down. While I was waiting for my tow I was running little tests to try to get a better idea of what was happening. I pulled the cables one by one to see if I was getting power, and was. Then I just started checking fuses and relays. Every fuse in the bay was fine. Then I checked the inside fuse area. And found out that my 15 amp fuse for the fuel pump was blown. So I changed it. Then attempted to turn it over and didn't go. Checked the fuse and it was blown. I don't know if its anything with the gas tank or something; but somethings grounding out my fuel pump. I think. Well tommorow's another day;I am going to start with checking the fuel pump itself. Everything under my backseat, wiring and everything. If anybody has any idea or can help me out to tackle this. That would be great than

Well IDK bout the B14, but the B13 has an access hole in the top of the the tank for the fuel pump from the trunk area. The wire harness plugs directly into that access hole as well as the fuel lines. The wire harness may have rubbed against the surrounding body metal from vibrations, etc. and got cut. I'd check that next to see if it's grounding out there. If that's not it you will have to trace the harness all the way back to find the short.

sounds like the fuel pump went out. I have never seen the the fuel pump harness short out. fuel pumps go out due to running them low on fuel since it cools the pump. the only other thing that will cause the pump fuse to blow is if the fuel pump relay is shorted out. Also a clogged fuel pump filter can cause the pump to fail.

Anything causing excessive draw will cause the fuse to blow. I concur with Cortrim on this one. Fuel pump probably bit the dust.

Quickest test is unplug the pump connector at the tank and power it up, if it pops, you've got a wiring problem, if it doesn't pop, the pump is gone. Don't know which one i'd want more. I hate changing fuel pumps, but i also hate chasing electrical problems.

Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to do what cozzmo suggested with unplugging the pump from the tank. And see if the fuse still blows.

@ contrim; I checked all the relays but didn't see a fuel pump one. Do all b14 se-r's have it or you think I just missed it.

I disconnected the fuel pump, and change the fuse. And still blew when I turned the key. Something electrical I guess. I inspected the fuel pump wires all the way to the door where it goes to the rest of the harness and it doesn't look like anythings wrong. But I didn't follow it all the way to the ecu so who knows.i

Not sure about LHD cars, but on the RHD ones the fuel pump relay is down near the accelerator pedal behind the plstic kick panel, so on LHD car (assuming its mirrored) that would be the plastic panel next to the clutch pedal. The ECU sends a signal to the relay to trigger, so its unlikely to be an issue between the relay and the ECU.

I actually found what was grounding out the fuel pump circuit. There was a broken clip with the pronges hanging behind the manifold. One of the two clips I'm not using because of my swap. When the pronges touch the body, it grounds out so I taped them seperately and now the car starts without any fuse blowing =D

Interesting. Would be good to know what that was that is also on the fuel pump fuse.