Fuel pump relay Tticking??

davis911s · davis911s's Garage

Today when I was working on my car, I was in the trunk while the car was idling. I noticed the fuel pump relay was ticking. I have never noticed this before, is this normal and I never noticed it before, or worst? BTW the car was idling for about 5 minutes and the temps were at 210ish.

The car ran fine when I drove away from my garage to go home (2 blocks)

Shawn

Superman · 06-08-2002, 06:16 AM

My belief is that there is no good reason for that relay to tick. I suspect it is either bad or it is getting an intermittent signal. You should have/keep a spare in your car anyway.

alan911 · 06-08-2002, 06:29 AM

Swap it with the horn relay and see if you still get the ticking. If not, it's the relay. If it still ticks, it's something else. Any relay in pinch will work. The only difference in the RED one, is a small internal resistor for noise suppression.

davis911s · davis911s's Garage

Thanks Doug and Alan, I will do the swap and check, I agree Doug we should carry spares, I will do that!

Shawn

davis911s · davis911s's Garage

I swapped the relays and they all tick, but ONLY at idle. If I give it a little gas the ticking stops???

Shawn

alan911 · 06-15-2002, 04:31 AM

Well...at least you know it's not the relay(s). The next easy check is the 14 pin connector on the left side of engine compartment. Unplug it and clean off the male and female pins. Sometimes just wiggling it or pluging and unpluging it a few times will clean it off.

S-MAN seems to be right. Sounds like an intermittant signal in the fuel pump/relay circuit/ air meter contact. You're going to need a electrical diagram to trace it. What ever it is, it isn't right and will probably result in a total failure at the most inopertune time.

When you're above idle, it seems to be getting more current thru the relay's holding contacts. So look for a bad ground or some bad connection on that circuit.

RJ Gilliam · 06-16-2002, 01:05 AM

Davis, when you find it let me knnow, mine does the same thing.. frustrating as all hell..

davis911s · davis911s's Garage

For those following my other thread about my problems. Timing, idle messed up. HELP! Longish I tried to "jump" the relay as Warren suggested. But the relay wouldn't tick. I thought "OK it only does it when the engine is Hot" So I cleaned all the connections on the relay and on the 14 pin connector. Then I let the engine warm up to 210 and NO TICKING. So either it is only when the engine is hotter than 210 (it was 230 when I noticed the problem)

RJ what is your engine temp when your's is ticking? Does it doi the same? Try cleaning the coonections like mentioned.

I either fixed mine by cleaning or my engine wasn't hot enough. I am going to drive mine today to the father's day barbeque and we shall see.

I'll post results.

Thanks again everyone
Shawn

davis911s · davis911s's Garage

Took it for a drive today for an hour. Temps got to 230

Anyways NO TICKING, so I am assuming that the cleaning of the contacts fixed that.

Shawn

UPDATE- WRONG the ticking wa back when I went to drive the car 30 minutes after turning it off. It must be on a warm restart or something??? Damn!

Kurt B · 06-16-2002, 08:37 PM

Davis, I have a non-valve ticking I think. I STILL DON"T KNOW..but it's the injectors or the fuel lines or something. You're suggesting you hear it from the fi pump relay?

I should check it out.
I thought I fixed it, but it comes and bloody goes. Sometimes it's not there, other times it's loud as bloody hell.
Ugh. At my wits end. Somedays I think it's valves, then others I don't...weird.
Only ticks at idle too.

davis911s · davis911s's Garage

Kurt this is definetly the relay in the trunk. I can actually feel it with my hand.

Yours sounds to be in the engine compartment, it could also be an exhaust leak?? Does yours backfire on decel too?

Shawn