16v fuel priming problem

[casinoblue]

hey guys,

had my second trip on the back of an AA flatbed yesterday

drove the car for about 40miles without any problem at all. parked it up. came back about 30mins later and neither fuel pump can be heard priming when the ignition is on, although the dash lights up normally. car just turns over and over.

AA guy checked the feed to both pumps, nothing to either of them, only very intermittant flutters of voltage. have ordered a new fuel pump relay, but is there anything else i can check in the meantime? the AA guy mentioned an inertia switch which cuts off fuel supply in the event of an accident, is there such a thing and where abouts is it? I'm a bit confused that the car was fine before i parked it, then nothing. have checked the fuses also.

did try searching but couldn't find the information,
'89 16v by the way,

thanks,
james.

[Ben Lessani]

I doubt the MK2 had an inertia switch. There's a few places to check,

Pop the round cover in the boot and that's where the loom leads for both pumps, I replaced the ground here for both pumps. The wire for the pressure pump then runs down over the tank.

Its pretty easy to check it all out with a multimeter.

Before you go ordering a new relay though, just bridge the two big slots with a suitable sized wire (20-30A) and see if they start priming - that will rule out the relay.

It's also worth looking out for old alarm wiring which might have had an immob on the fuel relay.

[rubjonny]

also a sign the ignition control unit has lost power/earth, its in the scuttle tray. take the plug off and mcheck for corrosion

[mattkh]

I doubt the MK2 had an inertia switch.

Hi
How do these inertia switches work in case of the fuel pump ?

[Diamond Hell]

Car rolls over (or similar), switch pops up, shuts off fuel.

Don't think I've heard of one on a Golf2.

Likely to be the fuel pump relay. 

You can check if it's the ignition module by putting a multimeter on the ECU output. There should be a pulse of voltage when you switch the ignition on.

[casinoblue]

thanks for the replies guys,

there is a box for an old alarm system which i discovered behind the fusebox when i was changing a speedo cable. the alarm system has never worked in the year that i've owned the car. it's not likely to have suddenly come back to life is it?

i'll check the ignition module wiring when i get back to the car. so if the control unit has lost power / earth does it just stop both pumps priming? cos everything else seems normal, ie the car turns over etc.

hope it's just the relay,

cheers all,
james.

[Diamond Hell]

HAHAHAHA - old alarm boxes are like some form of bloody leprosy on older cars.

Get the little fooker out there before it causes any real trouble!

[casinoblue]

Doh!