How to Troubleshoot a Fuel Pump Relay

Sometimes although your engine gets spark to the cylinder, it seems that your engine is not getting enough fuel to giver proper response. This might be due to a defective fuel pump relay. You can fix the problem on your own with little effort. You need to start with locating the relay in your car. You usually find it plugged into a standard automotive five pin relay socket. Its position varies with car model. Make a test setup of wires and alligator clips to check whether it is working fine or not. You also need to know how to use multimeter.

Directions

• Take the relay away from the five pin relay socket.

• Next step is to turn the dial of your multimeter to ohm to get the reading in ohm.

• Now touch the two leads of the meter together and make sure the meter shows zero reading.

• Connect the ohmmeter leads at the same time to the common terminal of your relay that is marker ‘C’ or Pin 30 and the normally open terminal marked ‘NO’ or Pin 87. The reading on meter will read as open or infinite, as there is no connection with relay.

• Relay contains coil connections as well. Attach one end of each of the two leads to the two coils terminals labeled as ‘COIL’ or Pin 85 and Pin 86.

• Now connect the lead from Pin 85 to car’s chassis ground or negative terminal of the battery.

• Take the lead from the Pin 86 of the relay coil and connect it to the positive terminal of the battery. You will hear a click sound as your relay will activate.

• After connecting leads properly, now touch the leads again to the common terminal marked as ‘C’ or Pin 30 and the normally open terminal marked as ‘NO’ or Pin 87. You will get the zero reading on the meter, which ensures that the contacts are connected. If at any point you don’t get zero ohm reading, this means that your relay is bad and need replacement.