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Thread: Car cranks, won't start. Suspected fuel pump wiring issue. (SOLVED: ground issue)

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fummins View Post
    Loren nailed it. Checking for voltage at the pump can be tricky. You won't always have voltage when you think you should. Then look at ford logic with variable voltage fuel pumps to regulate fuel pressure.... So it sounds like you have a coil or wiring issue possibly?

    There have been some cars with pinched or broken wires along the wiring harness on the top front of the engine where they're secured with zip ties.

    I've also seen problems with the lowest connector behind the drivers kick panel. I can't say if any of those wires in there run to the front though..

    But the easiest place to start would be checking for codes and if there are multiple ones stored find out which one/s is most recent and go from there. Or plug in a 30amp fuse and follow the smoke trail.
    There's no codes (un?)fortunately, that's actually one of the first things I checked. At some point in the process I checked all the plugs behind the kick panel, and I didn't see any corrosion or weirdness with any of them.

    I'll give the harness a check in a few hours, thanks for the tip with the zip tie points. It's also not impossible it got bent weird when I was changing the engine and now something is rubbing that shouldn't. It ran fine for about 50 miles after I replaced the fuse so it might not be that bad right now, but hopefully I can still catch it before it becomes more of an issue.



  2. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by RavenMirage2015 View Post
    There's no codes (un?)fortunately, that's actually one of the first things I checked. At some point in the process I checked all the plugs behind the kick panel, and I didn't see any corrosion or weirdness with any of them.

    I'll give the harness a check in a few hours, thanks for the tip with the zip tie points. It's also not impossible it got bent weird when I was changing the engine and now something is rubbing that shouldn't. It ran fine for about 50 miles after I replaced the fuse so it might not be that bad right now, but hopefully I can still catch it before it becomes more of an issue.
    I missed the part where you changed your engine. How long ago was that? I'd go over all the connectors and grounds just for sharts. If you haven't already. Or start the car and start wiggling the harness all over the place until the car dies or catches fire.

    I've been chasing and fixing broken wires in my stupid 05 dodge diesel since I bought it about 4 years ago. Previous owner replaced the engine and parts of the harness were twisted and kinked causing the insulation to crack then wire turned to green shmooh. Good times..
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  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by RavenMirage2015 View Post
    I've been switching between regular and pure gasoline, usually from Holiday Oil or Maverik. Currently it's full of pure gas from Holiday Oil.
    Back in spring I got a tank of bad 'pure' gas that caused problems. Ran that out and filled from another station and the problems went away.

    Quote Originally Posted by RavenMirage2015 View Post
    It's also not impossible it got bent weird when I was changing the engine and now something is rubbing that shouldn't.
    Yeah, that's some helpful new information.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 49.6 mpg (US) ... 21.1 km/L ... 4.7 L/100 km ... 59.5 mpg (Imp)


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    The engine swap was around 2 months ago, maybe a bit more. I checked the harness going to the coils, and there was a point where it might have been getting pinched between the air box and a metal bracket. I moved the harness so it wasn't getting pinched, and the fuse is still holding up after another few hundred miles, so I'll update if it blows again.

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    Great, it's blowing again. I start her, she runs for 30 seconds or so, and then dies. If I replace the fuse it'll go for another 30 seconds before it blows it again.

  6. #16
    Mirage videos:

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by Fummins View Post
    Yeah, I've been looking over that this morning. Also to update, the fuse stopped blowing once it warmed up outside. I'm wondering if a coil is shorting when it gets too cold. Both days I've had it blow, it was cold outside and the engine was cold, and I haven't had it blow under any other circumstances despite easily hundreds of starts and thousands of miles. Is the cold affecting a bad coil an unreasonable assumption to make?

  8. #18
    What fuse is blowing. I'm not looking it up for you, what circuits does it feed? I've never had a fuse blow on these things, other than the cig outlet fuse blow when drivers had a ton of crap plugged in it.
    I'm still thinking this has to do with your install, pinched wire, broken wire, connector making poor connection/high resistance. I'd fire it up and go nuts wiggling the harness and connectors first especially at zip tie points or anywhere there is a sharp bend, cut plastic and/or tape from the harness and have a look at any suspect areas. Beats throwing fuses at it all day and getting nowhere. Is the fuse that blows for the coil circuit, last time I thought it was fuel pump?
    Mirage videos:

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by Fummins View Post
    What fuse is blowing. I'm not looking it up for you, what circuits does it feed? I've never had a fuse blow on these things, other than the cig outlet fuse blow when drivers had a ton of crap plugged in it.
    I'm still thinking this has to do with your install, pinched wire, broken wire, connector making poor connection/high resistance. I'd fire it up and go nuts wiggling the harness and connectors first especially at zip tie points or anywhere there is a sharp bend, cut plastic and/or tape from the harness and have a look at any suspect areas. Beats throwing fuses at it all day and getting nowhere. Is the fuse that blows for the coil circuit, last time I thought it was fuel pump?
    Fuse 3 in the driver compartment, it only feeds the coils and nothing else. I thought it was an issue with the fuel pump initially because it wasn't running, but I'm guessing the ECU doesn't run that if the coils aren't present so you don't flood your cylinders. The main problem is somewhere with the coils or the wiring to them.

  10. #20
    Doubtful about the fuel pump, but yeah it looks like that only goes to feed power to the coil. I guess it's possible you have a coil failing, I haven't had one short inside but anything is possible. I assume you don't have spare coils on hand otherwise you'd probably already have swapped out a set. Otherwise I'd look for where the coils ground wire goes, I didn't look hard. The service manual is a pain to find where things are. There are two spots in the harness I'd look at closely (for the third time). One where the coil harness does a 180 into the larger main harness under the drivers side of the air cleaner and again where the main harness passes near the under hood fuse box and the small bundle that branches off to the fuse box also has a not nice bend to it.
    There's maybe what, 2' of wire between the fuse box to the engine. Get out the multimeter and start probing around.


    Mirage videos:

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)


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