OK, so I picked up a 1997 Chevy 1500 4x4 truck yesterday. Thing runs like a champ, until last night, after cleaning it out a bit at the car wash (it was 11pm, and they had lighted bays), it wouldn't start. Jiggle the fuel pump relay, and she starts right up.

My roommate is an ASE-certified mechanic, and works on GM products at the dealership he works for. He said I may have a bad fuse panel, caused by a fuel pump which is drawing way too much juice since it's on its way out.

Here are the symptoms:

1. Truck won't start until you jiggle the fuel pump relay.
2. Roommate says the fuel pump relay was hot to the touch.
3. Roommate noticed that there seemed to be some "melting" on the fuse panel. I looked at it this morning, looks like it *could* be, but it could also be just the way the panel was molded. Not really sure, and I don't have any pictures of it, unfortunately.

I drove the truck yesterday from DC to Bethesda to Rockville, MD. Trip: about 30 miles, give or take. I put about 8 gallons of gas in it while still in DC, since it only had a couple gallons in it and didn't want to run it too low, in case the gas gauge was off. I filled up right before I got home. She started up just fine after both additions of gasoline, and then once more when I drove her to the car wash.

Any ideas?

My current plan is to go get a couple of spare relays and some contact cleaner after work, and see if putting a new relay in, with better connections (ie, bend the posts or something) makes her start up reliably, and also to see if the relay still gets hot. I know from electronics that bad connections, even if they work, can make things get hot quickly.

Also, the other reasoning for this is that the darned thing ran FINE for about 2 hours of driving yesterday, with no problems - why in the world would it have trouble now?

-John

 

I didn't read all that... BUT on many of our cars we would spray the engine down, water would get into the ignition coil packs or whatever, causing the engine to miss, make sure EVERYTHING is dry in there, i'm guessing this is your issue.





EDIT: Read your post, disreguard what i said.

 

Yeah, I literally haven't touched the engine bay, and when I *do* wash down the engine bay, I always make sure the engine is running at the time.

In this case, the fuel pump relay is heating up enough to melt the fuse panel where the terminals connect. I replaced the fuel filter and fuel pump relay yesterday, to no avail. The truck runs better, but the relay still heats up and melts the fuse panel.

-John