f1ian
New member
Hi All.
My Seicento Sporting recently cut out for no reason. Just to spread knowledge on the forum that has helped me so much here is a quick run down of what happened and the fix with unexpected benefits
I was driving home and the car just cut out. After trying the usual things including some fairly industrial strength swearing I had to be recovered home.
I had a suspicion it was the fuel pump just because I realised I didn't hear the usual buzz from under the back seat but my testing went like this:
I plugged in my Multi ECU Scan and ran diagnostics. This software was recommended to me by this forum and it turned out to be very useful. I was wondering if the ECU could have gone pop. (my car has MPI and the micro ECU) The scan showed all was OK. I was able to trigger individual injectors via the software, i could hear all of them click so all OK there. The software allows you to trigger the coils - again, i could hear clicking so hopefully good there too. At this stage i hadn't bothered to start pulling plugs etc, i thought that a bit of testing would save a lot of getting dirty.
I could trigger a fuel pump test. This was interesting, i could hear the relay clicking (under a cover in the engine bay by the ECU) but no sound of the pump. I wondered if the inertia switch may have been triggered. It's under the dash somewhere but such a pain to see it was easier to pull the back seat up, remove the diamond shaped cover to see the pump and gauge sender unit. The plug has 4 wires - two thin ones for the gauge, and two fat ones for the pump. I tested with a meter on continuity setting to see which one of the wires was ground leaving me pretty sure the last wire (the pink one) was my power.
On the software i ran the fuel pump test again and with the meter now on Volts with a probe to the pink wire i could see volts at the pin during the test.
(If you don't have the software you could have turned the key here and checked for the same)
Feeling pretty confident it was the pump i got a new one from Ricambio in Wallington, Surrey (cheaper than ECP even with a discount) My car is MPI so the pump to get is the one that has just 1 outlet and a 4 wire connection. £120 but it is the full unit with a new fuel gauge sender and it has a filter built into the base. Replacing the pump was straightforward. The fuel pipe has a push in clip to remove it from the pump - just watch for dribbles of fuel. A few little nuts and off it comes. The old pump base fell apart getting it out so a bit of fishing needed. What was surprising was the amount of muck in the base of the unit.
The new pump happily buzzed with the ignition key going on, i gave it a few primes (key on then off) then cranked it. The car started and ran like a dream. The pump is a bit louder than the old one if i'm honest but since the old one doesn't work and this one does I can still claim a win!!
Interestingly i fixed other problems at the same time i wasn't expecting to sort out. The car was always a bit hesitant from cold until warmed up and the idle was always a bit slow - slow enough that the oil pressure light would flicker on sometimes. Now - it pulls fine from cold, idles much more smoothly and noticably happier to rev higher and the car definately feels more responsive.
I'm thinking that the pressure was low and getting worse until it stopped altogether.
I hope that this little summary of how i identified the issue and the unexpected free fixes it gave while sorting out the main problem may be helpful.
Thanks to all on here for helping me out in the past.
Cheers
Ian
My Seicento Sporting recently cut out for no reason. Just to spread knowledge on the forum that has helped me so much here is a quick run down of what happened and the fix with unexpected benefits
I was driving home and the car just cut out. After trying the usual things including some fairly industrial strength swearing I had to be recovered home.
I had a suspicion it was the fuel pump just because I realised I didn't hear the usual buzz from under the back seat but my testing went like this:
I plugged in my Multi ECU Scan and ran diagnostics. This software was recommended to me by this forum and it turned out to be very useful. I was wondering if the ECU could have gone pop. (my car has MPI and the micro ECU) The scan showed all was OK. I was able to trigger individual injectors via the software, i could hear all of them click so all OK there. The software allows you to trigger the coils - again, i could hear clicking so hopefully good there too. At this stage i hadn't bothered to start pulling plugs etc, i thought that a bit of testing would save a lot of getting dirty.
I could trigger a fuel pump test. This was interesting, i could hear the relay clicking (under a cover in the engine bay by the ECU) but no sound of the pump. I wondered if the inertia switch may have been triggered. It's under the dash somewhere but such a pain to see it was easier to pull the back seat up, remove the diamond shaped cover to see the pump and gauge sender unit. The plug has 4 wires - two thin ones for the gauge, and two fat ones for the pump. I tested with a meter on continuity setting to see which one of the wires was ground leaving me pretty sure the last wire (the pink one) was my power.
On the software i ran the fuel pump test again and with the meter now on Volts with a probe to the pink wire i could see volts at the pin during the test.
(If you don't have the software you could have turned the key here and checked for the same)
Feeling pretty confident it was the pump i got a new one from Ricambio in Wallington, Surrey (cheaper than ECP even with a discount) My car is MPI so the pump to get is the one that has just 1 outlet and a 4 wire connection. £120 but it is the full unit with a new fuel gauge sender and it has a filter built into the base. Replacing the pump was straightforward. The fuel pipe has a push in clip to remove it from the pump - just watch for dribbles of fuel. A few little nuts and off it comes. The old pump base fell apart getting it out so a bit of fishing needed. What was surprising was the amount of muck in the base of the unit.
The new pump happily buzzed with the ignition key going on, i gave it a few primes (key on then off) then cranked it. The car started and ran like a dream. The pump is a bit louder than the old one if i'm honest but since the old one doesn't work and this one does I can still claim a win!!
Interestingly i fixed other problems at the same time i wasn't expecting to sort out. The car was always a bit hesitant from cold until warmed up and the idle was always a bit slow - slow enough that the oil pressure light would flicker on sometimes. Now - it pulls fine from cold, idles much more smoothly and noticably happier to rev higher and the car definately feels more responsive.
I'm thinking that the pressure was low and getting worse until it stopped altogether.
I hope that this little summary of how i identified the issue and the unexpected free fixes it gave while sorting out the main problem may be helpful.
Thanks to all on here for helping me out in the past.
Cheers
Ian
