• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Fuel pressure question??

N

NMC

New CEG'er
Joined
Aug 22, 2000
Messages
5
Location
Winnipeg MB CANADA
I've had many issues lately but I think I've narrowed it down to a fuel pressure problem. The gauge says 26 psi at idle with the vacuum line hooked or unhooked from the regulator. Revving the engine drops it to about 22 psi. Obviously this is wrong, but is it the regulator being stuck or the pump dying? Any ideas or experience here?
 
what exactly are the issues? any CELs? if you're sure its fuel issues, then it isn't so bad. you should be in the 40s range. fuel pressure psi that is. regulators are about 30bucks from ford. replace that first. its cheaper than a pump.
 
I've had CELs on and off for about 6 months now. The dreaded p0171 and p0174 codes individually and together. Driveability slowely got worse and worse so I finally did all the intake and injector gaskets 2 months ago. It was easy to see where the upper intake gasket had failed. I also changed the O2 sensors to be safe. The result was better driveability but still the odd code (171/174). The other thing is that the car is a little low on power below 4000 rpm, and really low on power above 4000. In 3rd gear it will not pull above 5000 rpm ( yes the secondaries are openning). If I baby the car it may not throw a code for a week or more. If I drive hard I get the lean codes almost immediately, and the odd missfire code (changed plugs too). This led me to suspect fuel pressure. The fuel presssure is always the same, vacuum or no. It's 27psi and dropping when I rev the engine.
Correct me if I'm wrong but if the regulator was good and the pump was putting out a lower pressure, it should still increase when I remove the vacuum from the regulator? If the regulator is bad, fuel pressure will not change, no matter what the pump is putting out, right?
Sucks that here in Canada the best price I can find for a regulator is $75. Hate to see the pump price. BTW, the car has 225k kms on it.
 
whats your fuel pressure at about 2k RPM? with it being both banks it could be fuel related but it could also be an air leak in the intake tract before it splits to each plenum. carefully check the hoses for the valve cover vents and the couplers on the accordian tube. it could also be that the MAF is reading incorrectly and so the PCM thinks there is less air then is actually entering the engine.

i would suspect the fuel pump or filter before the regulator. most regulators (on return style systems) are mechanically and very rarely fail. if they do its usually the diafram and then you start pulling fuel into the manifold through the vacuum line. (obviously would give you a rich code)

edit: if the regulator does fail it fails "closed" and so the fuel pressure should actually be slightly higher than normal. low fuel pressure is generally a pump or filter issue. the fuel pump is easy to do on the pre98 since ford cut the hole under the back seat large enough to fit the whole fuel sending unit through.
 
Last edited:
Fixed I hope?

Fixed I hope?

I replaced the regulator and fuel filter with no change. Still 27psi max pressure. Replaced the pump and Yee Haa, 31psi with vacuum, 40 psi without. Went for a short drive to the gas station and it runs like a totally different car. Lots of power. Now I'll just cross my fingers that this is the end of my CEL's.
 
a question about the pump.

My friend is having the same exact issue with his car....

How hard is it to change it? Any pointers?

- amyn
 
There is a well written how-to under the Duratec Maintenance forum (or even the M&M How to forum, I think) outlining the entire procedure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top