I've been having a problem with my 93 Passat GLX starting. About a month and a half ago I would hear this clicking noise from under my dash. Finally, a couple days later on my way to work, the car just died. The shop I brought it to said they drove it off the tow truck. They said my fuel pump relay was bad. Makes sense. The clicking was the relay. They replaced it with a generic relay of 10 Amps. This car has a 15 Amp circuit for the pump. I drove it for about 3 weeks, each time starting fine. I stopped into a store and came out and it wouldn't start. The engine cranks and everything. Sounds just like it would when it starts but never catches. So I walked down to a NAPA to get another relay. I don't know much about electric `circuit so I was questioning the 10 Amp fuse instead of the 15 Amp. They didn't have one. I get back to my car and put the relay back in. Tried it again. Boom. Started. I drove it for about two weeks and the same thing happened. Tried reseating relay. No luck. This time I went about three or four days without the car. I jumped into it one night just for the hell of it. Boom. Started. Drove it for a couple days, then it wouldn't start. I thought that perhaps I was not getting power to the primary circuit in the relay. I got a multi meter out, removed the relay and tested the primary (I believe pin 85 and 86). It looks like I have voltage there. I don't recall if it was 12 volts or not. I thought that I might have a ground problem, so (in the parking lot of Home Depot. It decided to get me there but didn't want to leave) I spliced into the ground wire (brown) on the fuel pump and fastened it to a screw that holds the lid on. Boom. Started. It got me out of that problem but again, a few days later wouldn't start again. It doesn't seem to have anthing to do with temperature or humidity. It hasn't started on Hot dry days or cool rainy ones. Seems everytime I climb into the trunk with the multimeter and have a friend try cranking it, it starts. I'm trying to figure out if the pump is getting current. I set the multimeter on Ohms with the audible setting. Puting one probe in the hot wire and one in the negative, it sqwaked. I think that means the ground is good. Is there anything else that you can think of that could be this intermittent.
I tell ya, when the car starts. It runs great. It's just starting.
Anyway. Thanks in advance. I know. Tough to look at electrical problems without looking at the car.
Later.
Mike.