Fuel Pump Replacement - easy job? Newbie

[Mathew420]

Ok..head gaskets went..replaced that...fuel pump now...
gonna need axels soon...

ive never did anything with a car in my life but im too smart to be spending all my money on these people to do it to me...where do i start? like most of my friends know how to do stuff with their car from just, doing it..
is this something im not gonna wanna start with tryin to do? i just feel like if i dont start now im never gonna know anything about cars and am gonna be paying these professionals the rest of my life to do anything, when im smart enough to do this stuff on my own with some step by step help from the internet. almost think itd be an investment taking some mechanic classes, dont know how much thatd interest me though i jus wanna save somemoney and learn to do stuff my own on my car..

any suggestions? ideas? comments? anyone?
thanks for readin/

[Bear]

I am not trying to be sarcastic, but please go and spend $12-$14 and buy your self a Haynes manual for your car, it will be the best money you will ever spend on your car. Doing your own work is commendabnle and it also saves money while teaching you a bit about automotive mechanics, I started out like you about 50 years ago, bought a book and took it from there and I now can do almost anything on my cars.

[Mathew420]

where do i start though? like is this too advance for me? what can happen if i do somethin wrong? what can i do wrong?
i dont wanna screw stuff up and end up worse than i started off..mechanically or..money wise

[Bear]

Start by buying a Haynes manual it is loaded with pictures and text and will walk you through almost any repair including the fuel pump testing and replacement for your car.

[denisond3]

After you have replaced the fuel pump, you will think of it as strenous and dirty, but not complex. Go ahead. The hard problems are: Its work you do under the car, so have it safely/securely jacked up or on ramps, then disconnect one of the battery terminals. You will get gasoline on yourself, so wear old clothes. The tank will seem heavy, since its unlikely you will get all of the gas out before you lower it down (there should be a drain on the tank somewhere but I cant guarantee it) - and you dont have good leverage under there. Soak the nuts/bolts holding the tank up with a penetrating oil, have plenty of paper towels and a trash basket handy.
A service manual is important, and will pay for itself in the frustration you avoid. I got the Dodge original Neon Manual Service Manual from ebay, which has much more detail and specific than the Haynes and Chilton manuals.
The manual assumes you will lower the tank slightly, to have more room to reach the things you have to disconnect and unscrew the plastic collar. I have used pieces of 4 by 4 lumber stacked up to support the tank, since I dont own a 'transmission jack' like the manual mentions.
The fuel pump is part of the fuel pickup assembly, which you remove from the tank after unsrewing a large plastic collar. One of the time consuming things will be first getting the hoses off of the tubes on the outside of that fuel pickup assembly. And the electrical connectors take time to figure out - so you get them apart without breaking the locking-tab. The fuel line connector has to be squeezed a certain way for it to come apart (manual helps a Lot here) and you have to work the large tube from the fuel filler off of the tank to get the tank out the rest of the way. (More dirt in the face). Then you can lower the fuel tank to the ground.
You need to be careful in sliding the fuel pickup assembly out of the tank, it may need to be turned back and forth.
Dont hurry the work. Expect to make some errors; thats how the professional mechanics learned to do it. I rub a coating of hand cleaner onto my hands before I start working on dirty stuff - it helps in getting my hands clean later.
The Neon service manual I got cost me $40 and has long since paid for itself. Last weekend I removed the engine from the car - working in the backyard with a homemade hoist - so I could replace the leaking rear main seal. Im a hobbyist, an old retired guy, not a mechanic by profession.
The 4 main ways to learn about fixing cars: 1. Asking questions of someone who has done it. 2. Helping someone else work on theirs. 3. Reading the shop manuals. 4. Doing it yourself - even if you have to do it over to get it right. Then pass on your knowledge to younger men, and girls too if your lucky.

[Bear]

I support everything in the previous post. I use a floor jack with a piece of
plywood on the jack foot (to spread the weight around) and then put pressure on the tank, release the hanger straps and then start to slowly lower the tank until I have working room. If you have a plastic retainer ring on the pump, a strap wrench will work to unscrew the ring, if you have the earlier metal lock ring then a BRASS drift, or I have used a short piece of 1"X1" wood to use as my drift and I tap it with a hammetr, do not, under any circumstances use a steel drift as it may spark and that is not the way you wish to go.

[Mathew420]

i already have something just as good..again though is this somewhere i really wanna start? what can i screw up? i dotn wanna endup spending more money in the long run because i screw somethin up..

the car place only wants 110 to install it, then again the other palces want 180-250

i want to start learnin this crap though so i can fix my own stuff for now..

is this too advance to start with? what could go wrong?

[denisond3]

You will have to be the one to decide. If you pay to have it done, you havent learned anything. If you do it yourself, you may have to redo part of the job, and may have skinned knuckles, but when you are done you will have learned, and will probably get more enjoyment from driving a car that you have put back on the road.
How do you think mechanics learn their trade? By doing it right - eventually.

[Mathew420]

oh crap i completely missed the whole strenuous post, and the one after that. wth? *reads it now

[Mathew420]

you guys are great.
i first need to rule out its the fuel pump though and not bad wiring or something like that..
i wrote down a bunch of peoples suggestions from researching the problem on the internet (google)

apparently fuel fitler may just be clogged..

once i get the car up is this only a one minute thing? disconnecting the "fuel pump connector near the gas tank"? i read to

"*put fuse in and run car without driving
*Disconnect the fuel pump connector near the gas tank and re-install the fuse
-If the fuse still blows, you have a pinched and shorted wire between the relay and the connector you disconnected. If it doesn't blow the fuse and you now re-connect the fuel pump connector and the fuse blows - you have a shorted fuel pump and it must be replaced."

i just dont want to repalce the fuel pump and end up that that wasnt the problem.

someone also said

"*the wires run through the inside of the car next to the door sin and then into the back seat...the main wire for the fuel pump is green with orange...what you should start doing is tracing the wire back from the floor by the kick panel to the gromet where it goes out to the pump..this problem happened a while ago to one of my neons and i found that the wire was broken righ by the trunk release...then a few weeks ago it happened to my other car and i traced the wire back, but there was no problem. then i started unplugging sensors and found out that it was blowing the fuse because two wires on the downstream o2 sensor were touching eachother..there are alot of sensors that run from the same fuse so that might have sumthing to do with it... "
wonder if that was someone with a NEON like me...

also
*Check the oxygen sensor wire to make sure it is not against a hot pipe and has insulation burned off causing a short . the oxy sensor is on the same fuse.

do all of these sound like good suggestions? sucks i probably cant do 90% of these suggestions myself.


and last of all

*check the wires running from the distribution box (fuses under hood) over to the corner of the valve cover, down towards the upstream O2 sensor, then in the direction of the oil pressure sending unit (back of the block), across transaxle to uderside of passenger firewall/floor (below the radiator fill tank on firewall), and then down to the downstream O2 sensor. Look for any place the wires may contact the car. Look for worn or torn wires. Straigten and tape off any section of wire that hits the engine block, exhaust manifold or the transaxle,( the heat wears down the wire and will ground out over time.) After you have done all of this, and you still have a problem with blown fuses, check the wiring for each injector and then replace the fuel pump relay with any other relay with corresponding part numbers. A/C clutch relay will do. Still have a problem? Now you may want to resort to the fuel pump itself, both O2 sensors and the ECU.

*you probably have a short start by checking aroung the wires that are under the air intake hoe that runs across the driver side of the motor water sensor wires are close to heater plumbing and would short other systems also look for wires were o2 sensor connect to other wires.check your forward (near the motor) oxygen sensor wire routing and attachments




do these all sound like good suggestions? any of them non likely? what should be tried first? thank you all so much.

[denisond3]

I would go along with those suggestions. I like the first one, about disconnecting the connector to the fuel pump right at the fuel tank, and putting the fuel pump fuse in, and seeing if the fuse blows. (This would involve turning the ignition key on to send 12 volts to the pump circuit briefly.
My approach would be a little different. Do you know for sure if the pump is running at all? The quick way to check for fuel pressure is to unscrew the cap on the schrader valve located on the fuel rail at the front of the engine, between the 2 and 3rd intake pipes. If you push in on the stem inside the schrader valve with a pen or a nail, fuel should squirt out - if the engine had been started within the last day or two.
You can listen for the pump running, by having a length of 1/4 inch wooden dowel rod. One end you put against the bottom of the fuel tank, the other end you press against the bone behind your earlobe - the mastoid bone. Then have an assistant turn the ignition key just till the dash lights come on - but not to the start position. You should hear the pump hum for a second. If you do, then 12 volts is getting to the fuel pump. If not - my next step would be to undo the pump electrical connector right at the tank - and connect a 12 volt bulb to the contacts inside that connector - one connection at a time. The other wire from your 'test' bulb would be grounded. If the assistant turns the ign on, the light should come one for at least a second. At least it should when you have gotten the correct wire. I presume the other contacts in that connector would be for the fuel level sender and the ground wire.
The advice about looking for wires that might be damaged and grounding to the engine block is good advice, But its Really Difficult to examine the wiring harness that runs behind the engine. Its not so bad if you remove the wide inlet plenum atop the motor, the inlet tube that runs from the box the air filter is in up to the throttle body, and the box that the air filter is in. That air filter housing is time consuming and tiring to remove - but then you have a better chance of seeing if there are melted wires back there. Its hard to see looking up from underneath too. Good Luck....
You said you were going to need axles soon. I consider them easier to work on than the fuel pump or the wiring harness behind the engine.
(By the way - I have my engine out, and am working to repair some melted wires in that wiring harness. They are green with a yellow stripe! The problem was the car would shut off when making a right turn from a stop sign). At least the wiring harness is easy to reach with the engine sitting on the workbench.