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St Helens, OR
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jeffro503
12/16/2015 2:23pm
12/16/2015 2:23pm
Edited Date/Time
12/17/2015 1:54pm
Hey guys....I have a 99' Chevy , extended 1 ton cargo van as my motovan. I've been having an issue with the " fuel relay fuse / switch ". It the little 1" X 1" black fuse and for some reason keeps losing connectivity. It just randomly dies on me every once in a while. Sometimes I can start it right back up , and other times I have to pop the hood , wiggle the relay switch ( which is super tight ) and it'll fire back up again.
It's been an on-going issue that I haven't had any luck in getting it fixed. My mechanic has been an authorized Chevy mechanic with just about every certificate known to man and I trust him. And he can't get any info at all when he plugs in the little computer box thing to see what it's doing.
The old relay switch I pulled out , had the plastic slightly melted around one of the pins. Which tells me that , that specific pin is losing connectivity. The new one I put in there has no melted areas , but is still losing connectivity.
About the only thing I can think of doing next is replacing the entire fuse panel. BUT.....what if that isn't what it is? What if one of the wires leading to the fuse box , shorting out or something like that?
FWIW....I'm going from memory here , but I think I got the fuel pump replaced about a month or so before I started having this issue. Could the fuel pump be causing a short some where?
Just wo9ndering if this is something I could get some advice on , or maybe brain storm some possible reason's as to why it's happening. When that big cargo van loses power....it doesn't want to stop or steer worth a shit. And I'm worried about wrecking it or hurting someone else.
It's been an on-going issue that I haven't had any luck in getting it fixed. My mechanic has been an authorized Chevy mechanic with just about every certificate known to man and I trust him. And he can't get any info at all when he plugs in the little computer box thing to see what it's doing.
The old relay switch I pulled out , had the plastic slightly melted around one of the pins. Which tells me that , that specific pin is losing connectivity. The new one I put in there has no melted areas , but is still losing connectivity.
About the only thing I can think of doing next is replacing the entire fuse panel. BUT.....what if that isn't what it is? What if one of the wires leading to the fuse box , shorting out or something like that?
FWIW....I'm going from memory here , but I think I got the fuel pump replaced about a month or so before I started having this issue. Could the fuel pump be causing a short some where?
Just wo9ndering if this is something I could get some advice on , or maybe brain storm some possible reason's as to why it's happening. When that big cargo van loses power....it doesn't want to stop or steer worth a shit. And I'm worried about wrecking it or hurting someone else.
The Shop
Your mechanic couldn't figure this out without a puter? or is that all he does, fix things that the puter pulls up? Just asking man no harm here. did he ask the Old timers their at his shop? bet they have come across this situation before.
If the relay that is having the problem is directly in current with the fuel pump and you never had a problem till you recently put a new one in then I would start with that.
Look up the new pump #'s already installed and see if the Local chevy dealer uses the same or if there is a compatibility issue.
Had a similar relay problem on a 08' Mustang it turned out to be the temp plug in the block not the relay
But your's may be a different animal in regards to the new pump.. I would think that the fuse under the dash would blow before the relay going bad but who know if the relay wasn't going bad before the relay was anyway?
Had a 98' Chevy where if you had anything in the cigarette lighter it would blow the fuses and that same fuse was in current with the fuel pump... look for any BS in the cig lighter too.
Which by all your posts it's probably some sort of joint holding metal... just kiddin man!
Hope you get it figured out
I heard....when the fuel level gets below the working part of the pump, the pump loses the gases cooling effect and gets hot and stops working. You stop, get out and pop the hood, wiggle some shit and in the mean time the pump cools down and then when you hop back in the rig it fires up. You think it was because you wiggled the relay but it was actually the time the pump had to cool down.
Solution: never let your chevy get below half a tank full. All anecdotal second hand info of course.
Thanks for your input so far guys. OH....and I'll check out the cigarette lighter as well. I've never used it , so I'm not even sure it works.
And I usually keep that thing pretty full. very rarely I let it get below 1/2 tank because of all the driving to the tracks is usually at least 45min to 2hrs away. It should NOT be doing that though. No reason for a rig to die unless she's pretty low on fuel. And I've treated the hell out of the fuel with some of the Lucas oil stuff.
Hey Jeffro, couldn't you put an amp meter on the pump circuit and see if it's drawing the normal amps?
Could be intermittent too I guess. Hard to diagnose that.
If I had to speculate, I'd say the positive wire might have insulation wore off somewhere and is grounding out a bit.
That's a tough one, goodluck bud
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