Fuel Pump Hiccup

[foxy600]

Spent 20 minutes on Sunday trying to start the S2, it was turning over but not firing. I realised that I could not hear the fual pump whirring when first switching the ignition on. After several minutes of turning the key on and off I suddenly heard the fuel pump kick in, and the car started straight away.
Should I treat this as a hiccup, as it hasn't done it since, or should I replace the fuel pump?
Any thoughts?

[59fan]

Mine failed, I cleaned the connecters to the pump and it all leapt into life, and has been fine for the last 4000 miles. Of course, before I thought about cleaning the connections I bought a new pump, and only noticed the dirty contact as I was about to fit the new pump. Alwasy nice to have a spare

Ian

[Le TVR]

Commonest reason Ive found for intermittent pump problems has been the fuel pump relay. Usually just dirty connection or broken solder connections between the relay and PCB inside the unit.

The fuel pump wont run until the engine is cranking as it need to see ignition pulses.

Have modified mine now so that it gives a 2 second run to 'precharge' the system before starting.

[RAS]

I had a similar problem with my V8s, the pump failed about 6 miles from home on Easter Saturday, so I had to be recovered on a trailer. The following day the pump was dead, but the next day it burst into life. I asked the local garage to give it the once over, they cleaned the terminals on the fuel pump, they also noticed the fuel pump relay felt warm so they swapped it out. Since then fingers crossed all is OK

[Peter m]

My S2 would not start, took me 2 hours to find out that the fuel pump relay was sticking (Yellow one under dash). I removed it and checked it over, and it works fine now. In the process I found out that the fuel pump connector in the lead about 6 inches from the pump was badly corroded, it fell apart in my hands !! A terminal block soon fixed that.

Check all the obvious things before splashing out on a new pump

[foxy600]

Thanks for the help, I have just checked the relay and connectors, they look fine. Infact I remember hearing the relay clicking on Sunday but not the pump. Looks like I will be crawling under the car at the weekend to clean things up!
Is it best to jack the drivers side of the car at the rear? I am not 100% where the pump is located?

[Le TVR]

If you pull the relay you need also to remove the plastic cover and check where the internal relay is soldered to the printed circuit board. In the majority of cases this soldering has cracked from vibration. Its not unusual to hear the relay click and no volts coming out.....

[Kentish]

Relay is a common failure on the S but so is the pump!

I found a cheaper more reliable Bosch pump to fit when I did mine and I put the details on the alternative S parts list - anyone have a link to the list?