Afternoon.

Wife called me and said the car stalled out on her in the while she was sitting at the light. So i went over there and was able to move the car safely. Couple of things i noticed is that she had not yet filled the car up. fuel gauge was right on top of the line before the red section,the battery was almost dead.probably because you kept trying to start it back up.first thing i did was check all the fuses.then i tried to give her a jump.that did not work. the car kept turning over but no start.i noticed that there was fuel dripping from the line right before the FPR.IS the fpr the source of the problem.What other areas to check? I want to use all my options before i have the car towed to the mechanics.I got tools,Bentley and Hayes Manuals.

Thank you for the help!

The dripping fuel points to the fuel pressure regulatory rather than a pump delivery problem. It may have flooded at the stoplight. If that is the case, the car will probably start tomorrow. Pull the plugs and see if they are damp. Dry them off, replace the regulator as needed, and change your oil as it is now likely contaminated with fuel and not lubricating very well.

If the fuel pressure regulator smells like gas or leaking gas at the vacuum hose it is bad. I'm not sure that would cause a no start, so check relay. Put a jumper on the fuse box between the main pump and intank pump fuses, this will force both pumps to operate. If it starts the relay is bad, if not check to see if the pumps are working. Dan

I think Scott is confusing the Fuel Pressure Regulator with the Fuel Pump Relay. A bad fuel pressure regulator, like you describe, could be causing your problems. Pull the hose from the FPR to the intake manifold - does it smell gassy or does gas come out? If so, that indicates that the FPR needs to be replaced.

Good luck,
Zach Zaletel

I had that happen to my 88 240 (the wife's car) and after buying a new fuel pump @ $145.00 I installed it and that didn't work, then I read the bb and found that I needed to checked the fuel relay under the passinger side glove box first, and you can check by running a jumper wire from the 4th fuse to the 6 fuse, then try and start the car, if it starts then replace the fuel relay. That solved it for me. Go figure $145.00 for un-need fuel pump and $9.00 for fuel relay. (much easer to replace only takes 5 min) versus headache crawling under car gas in face ect.

best of luck and I hope this helps

Scott C
(86 240 auto, 87 240 auto, 88 240 5 spd, 94 850 auto, 94 940 auto)