My car won't start!

[91CA20]

Okay, i ran out of fuel (before i did the car was sort of struggling to pick up fuel from the bottom of the tank and spluttering around a bit). I went to get a small can of fuel and was forced to buy a funnel. I poured it in and the car idled for a while but almost stalled when i gave it a little bit of throttle. Now it simply won't keep idling at all. A was parked on the side of the road near an old dude who used to be a mechanic and says that it's prolly picked up some shit from the bottom of the tank and it needs dislodging, or it could be that theres not enough fuel in it (~$5 worth) to keep it going. So i guess my question is what do i do. I don't want to have to fork out for a new fuel pump but i've been told i can put a shitload of fuel in it and give the fueltank a tap (Because it's an inside fuel pump, can anyone verify this for me please?) or i can pay someone to install a new pump which sounds like it's going to have to happen sooner or later. Any other ideas?

[JIMB0]

There a good chance that the fuel filter is clogged. A good quality ryco filter is only about $10 and takes 10 minutes to change. It would be a good starting point.

[aussie-gli]

if it still idles, I doubt it's ur pump. Prob ur filter or injectors.

When the pump fails, it's usually because it has seized.  If this happens, u just have to rip out the back seats and bang on the fuel pump cover. That in almost 100% cases will get it going again (for a while anyways - i ran my car for about a year before it got to unreliable).

BTW, U should hear the fuel pump run for a few seconds when ur turn ur key to IGN.

[Sticky]

dont be a tightarse and put more than 5 bucks in

[91CA20]

Hehe will do dude.. thats what i'm told to do actually so that that gravity pulls it through, or maybe it was because it needs to get into the injectors or something. Anyway..we'll see

[noss]

http://www.antrx.com/tech/article.php?t=4441&a=noss

[91CA20]

Yep, well as a conclusion to this story, today i tried tapping it to loosen the dirt to no avail however $250 later ($180 for the pump itself and the rest in labour) i've got a new fuel pump and jesus christ what a difference! She goes so much better than before i was shocked when i took off down the road after it was fixed. 
Anyways, yesterday afternoon i just happened to come to a complete stop outside this old blokes place who is a retired mechanic who only does work for himself and maybe one or at the very most two of his mates. He was reluctant to do the job but since my car stayed at his house last night (by his graciousness and maybe a little bit of grovvelling on my part) he fixed it for me because thew car couldnt be taken anywhere and it's way too expensive to have a greedy mechanic do what is essentially not such a hard job.



THREAD REOPENED!!!!!!!!!

Today, after putting the new fuel pump in and driving home (please keep in mind that i have had to have the battery jump-charged twice by the bloke who was helping me with this) i drove out to the redlands to go have some icecream with a friend of mine, when i came back to my car which was parked at his place it started 'almost' straight away after labouring a bit on the battery and seeming maybe just a little sluggish (i've given this battery and probably the starter motor hell over the last 2 days with these other fuel pump problems) but fired up and got maybe 150 metres down the street before the front headlights went, the interior lights went and then the car lost power and stopped altogether. We've tried to push start it but the abttery is so buggered we can't keep it going so i will be getting a new battery tommorow morning. Wheres a good place? Anyways, i'm out in the redlands tonight at my mates house and i was told to go to wynnum battery service, apparently they are good.

Now, i guess my concerns are that if i'm gonna be driving around i want a reliable car so do you guys think i could have damaged the starter motor when starting it so many times and if so how would i check? Am i right in thinking i could just use a multimeter to test if the alt is sending charge to NEW battery tommorow?

Anyways, i'm gonna continue searching on here for similar problems because i'm carless for two nights now but tell me what you think. 

[vector]

yeh you can check it with a multimeter on its correct setting, you should be getting at least 14.4 volts when we did my brothers car it was putting out around 18 volts with the 2nd hand unit init