1998 town & Country will not start

[whaning]

I have a 1998 Town & Country 3.8,
it runs just fine till you shut it off, then it will not start, no fuel pressure reading at the test log,
The engine turns over just fine.
some times it will fire and attemp to run but soon dies,
if you let it st for a few hours, maybe over night, it will fire up and run perfect for days or months, then do it again.

And all gauges and everything else works, so it's not the instrument pannal as listed in the earlier post

Anyone have any ideal,
I hate to think it's a fuel pump, cause most of the time it runs just fine.

Please help.

e-mail me if you know for sure the answer.

[GTP Dad]

There are three possibilities, bad fuel pump relay, bad fuel pressure regulator or bad fuel pump. Any one of these can cause this problem so I would replace the relay first, followed by fpr and then the fuel pump if one of the other possibilities don't work.

[KManiac]

I would bet money that your fuel pick-up filter screen has deteriorated and the fuel pump is contaminated with dirt and ready to fail. I had a similar inconsistent starting problem in my 1986 Volvo. The problem, I discovered, was a combination of the in-tank fuel pick-up filter screen deteriorating, allowing dirt to enter and foul the fuel pumps. The next time the van fails to start, rap on the gas tank in the vicinity of the fuel pump with some type of blunt object. Be careful not to dent the tank. If the car starts after that, the fuel pump is the issue.