In the recent past, I've been forced to park, nose up, on a steep hill. A few minutes later, when I attempted to restart the vehicle, it refused. It cranks fine, but is appears that fuel simply isn't reaching the injectors. In order to convince the thing to start, I was forced to back down to level ground, where there was no problem. Of course, when the engine isn't running, the steering is a muscle operation, and of course, the power brakes don't function properly either. This makes recovery a little more exciting. The problem doesn't occur when parked nose down on a steep hill. If the safety doofuses had not required an interlock to prevent starting the vehicle with the clutch out (since I'm driving a CL-S 6 spd.), it would be possible to put the car in first gear, and crank the starter to move the thing to level ground. Has anybody else encountered this starting difficulty? I'd suspect that, on a steep hill, the fuel might have moved to the rear of the tank, leaving the pickup dry; but the tank was half full. HELP!

 

Maybe the fuel pump is going bad and you're not getting up to full psi?

 

is it only when u r low on fuel or just anytime. if its all the time u might hv a bad fuel pump as ^^ stated.

 

Thanks for the tip, Sundance.

I haven't experienced the starvation problem with the tank full (yet), but have encountered the problem with the tank half full. I don't know what the output pressure of our pumps is supposed to be, but I'd guess the "nose up" condition might require the fuel pump to raise the fuel an additional few inches, and would think a small fraction of a psi line pressure would accomplish this. I have made a couple of high speed runs in 5th gear, which should, but didn't, seem to stress the pump into a starvation condition, if it were weakened.

I know that modern fuel tanks have complex shapes, mostly to take advantage of available space, and that our tanks might be tapered . If so, the fuel gauge would indicate the fuel level, but not necessarily the fraction of a full tank remaining. And I guess it's also possible that the fuel pickup is located forward in the tank, which might explain what I'm experiencing. QUESTION: Has anybody actually experienced a fuel pump failure in a CL-S?

 

its not fuel starvation, the pump ran dry, the fuel went to the back of the tank and the pickup tube was exposed to air. it happens sometimes, but the main thing is don't do it too often because it damages the pump remember that the gas is used to cool the pump and to lubricate it, just running one time out of gas or running it dry like you did will cause bearing damage.

 

"Has anybody actually experienced a fuel pump failure in a CL-S?"
i havnt heard of any yet but then again being i a new owner myself havnt been arnd that long but from what i heard its a bitch to replace the f.p. try using a fuel system cleaner. thats just my 2 cents though. peace.

 

the fuel pump is the easiest to remove, there is an access plat in the trunk, you don't even have to drop the tank. then its just pull it out and replace. not hard at all.

 

ohh my bad civicking. as i said earlier i am a nub . it was a bitch to change on my 300zx though.

 

Thanks everybody. I know more now than I did when this thread started.