03 Explorer - Intermittemtly won't start

[collette]

My wife has an '03 explorer that sometimes won't start. The problem seems to be that the fuel pump sometimes will not prime itself or turn on. The problem is intermittent and can happen any time, cold or hot, doesn't matter. If it has sat long enough and the fuel pump happens to not kick on, it won't start at all. If it has ran recently and still has pressure in the lines, it will start but then die out after fuel pressure is gone. Cycling the ignition switch many times until I hear the fuel pump prime itself gets me by but it's annoying and I can't keep sending my wife and kids out in this thing and shooting from the hip on it.

I have replaced the pump assembly because, in the beginning, I was unsure and wanted to do it while I had the tank out (to test the pump) to be safe yet the problem persists. Pump has 65 psi. Fuel pump fuses are good. I also swapped the fuel pump relay in the fuse box with another one just like it from another accesory relay.

Is there another relay I can test somwhere? I recently found the fuel reset switch when having this problem. It started after I pushed it but can't I help to think that this was a coincidence.

Sorry for the long post but wanted to give all details. Any help would be much appreciated!!!

 

[collette]

yup... i'm new

My apologies.... as you can tell I am new and don't know my way around yet. I've reposted this question in the Technician corner.

 

[collette]

Update....

After much time wasted, the intermittent starting has been solved. It finally wouldn't start again but I didn't have time to mess with it so we towed it to the local dealership. When they went to look at it, it started right up. They couldn't duplicate the problem and couldn't find anything wrong. They kept it for three days and started it many times. It never acted up so we took the car back and started driving it again.

After driving it for a few days, it died on my wife again while she was picking my son up at school. I was out of town so, once again we had it towed back to the dealer. Finally, they could duplicate the problem this time.

It ended up being that there was a wire in the wiring harness between the fuel pump and inertia switch that had been folded over and pinched which also caused it to fray and short out. Unfortunatley, it took 45,000 miles to do it so it's not covered by any warranty. AT LEAST ITS FIXED FINALLY!!!!

The dealer said that this is the first time they have ever seen this but hopefully this info will help someone in the future.