Recently purchased a 99 Regal GS with 3800 Super Charged. 74K miles. Problem is that the car will start, run 3-5 seconds and die. If I hold accelerator pedal down and feather it when started, engine will run a bit longer, but as soon as I let off the gas it dies. Hooked up fuel pressure guage, when ignition is turned on pressure goes up to 48lbs. As soon as car starts pressure drops to zero and car dies. After car dies, pressure goes back up to 48 lbs.

If I pump the pedal when running I can see the pressure jump accordingly but still will not stay running. Fuel filter was changed about 600 miles ago. I suspect bad fuel pump. Suggestions ? Thanks, really want to get this going, only driven 2x since purchased.

Make sure the pressure regulator is not bad, pinch off the return line an see what happens.

I believe that the return line is a metal line ? If I remove the vacuum line on top the engine dies, good vacuum, no fuel coming out of the regulator.

The '99 Regal GS has a two speed fuel pump. Your issue could be a bad fuel pump resistor that controls the fuel pump hi-speed relay. You can run a bypass procedure to rule it out. Let me know if you need a tech procedure or just do a search of the forum.

Pinched the hose off the pressure regulator, no change. Also did the work around for the fuel pump resistor by bending the pin out and still no change. Suggestions on next step ? thx

Listen to BNaylor. My 98 had the exact same symptoms and I took it to a guy who worked at the local dealer and had a shop at his house. He had me replace the fuel pump first, but the resistor ended up being the culprit.


Dave

Pinched the hose off the pressure regulator, no change. Also did the work around for the fuel pump resistor by bending the pin out and still no change. Suggestions on next step ? thx

Just to be certain, did you modify the correct relay? There are 2 separate fuel pump relays, one for low speed and one for high speed operation. If you bent the pin on the wrong one, it would still act the same. You have the textbook symptoms of a bad resistor, but it's possible the fuel pump is going bad and will initially prime, but can't produce enough pressure even with the resistor bypassed to keep the engine running.

Thanks for all of the assistance. It was a bad fuel pump resisitor, I was initally bending the pin on the wrong resisitor. Double checked the diagram, bent pin and wala back up running. Picked up the new part from the dealer and installed over the weekend. Updated resisitor is suggested to bbe re-located on firewall behind alternator. In hindsight I would have left the old one in place and just disconnected it. No reason to remove the old one and would have saved some wrenching time. The bolt to remove the old is a bit tough to get at.