Where has all his oil Gone and randomly cuts out

[Peter.N.]

The two thicker wires should be the pump feed and yes, I was about to suggest you run a lead to the front and connect it to a multimeter set to 'volts' but a lamp should do equally as well.

Peter

[CitroJim]

The bulb as a visual indication of the pump running is an excellent idea

This is similar to the problem I have with the dead 207 sitting on my drive. I will do same to exclude the pump on that...

[Paul-R]

Some suggestions on net say run a wire to live feed with a bulb on it - if bulb dies before engine dies then power to pump is being cut. If bulb stays lit then its the pump itself.

That's exactly what you should try to do. I don't have the colour codes for the wires to hand I'm afraid - one pair will be for the pump and the other pair will be for the fuel level sender. The pump wires should be thicker to help identify them although if you have a spare unit to hand you can tell from that which wire is which.

So, you run a wire from the live feed to the pump to the front of the car, through a low wattage bulb and then the other side to earth, This will tell you whether the electrical supply is at fault. If you have a multimeter you could also monitor what voltage is being supplied in case it significantly reduces after a few miles.

Another suggestion which a lot of Berlingo owners seem to favour is to run a permanent live feed from ignition through a fuse to the pump.
...

Any advice , criticism or new ideas greatly appreciated.

See my post immediately before yours!

[CitroJim]

Apart from doing it for test purposes, running a direct live feed to the pump is potentially dangerous; it is so designed that in the case of a crash or if the engine is stopped for any reason, the fuel pump is automatically and immediately stopped...

It's something the Inertia Switch does indirectly in case of a large impact that might happen in an accident - the last thing you want under such circumstances is fuel spraying everywhere...

So, a good and valid test but it should never be made permanent!

[Paul-R]

You've jogged my memory of when I was sorting out the Xsara Jim. As part of the trial and error process I suspected the inertia switch and so unplugged it and bypassed it on the plug. (I also took it to pieces to see what made it tick - a big ball bearing balanced in an inherently unstable state but just inside a ring of stability in case you're wondering).

This didn't fix it of course but it's then relatively easy to wire in the inertia switch into the new switched, fused, relayed live feed to the pump. I'd love to tell you that I actually did it, and I really did intend to, but never got round to it.

If a separate feed to pump sorts your problem out I would strongly urge you to wire the inertia switch in circuit. The pump will still run at all times when the ignition is on but that would be a small price to pay.

[xsaras4ever]

Hello to all , we are in the process of wiring the bulb.

Hi Jim , saw your posting about the 207 this morning so changed the title on our posting and added the bit about the bulb, knowing that you would be curious. Hope it helps you.

Thing is, we finally get around to possibly helping someone on the forum but have to admit that we stole the idea from another posting by Paul-R, so no creditit coming our way.

Thanks for the advice Paul.

This wiring and pump thing has jogged our memory about a French neighbour. Heavy smoking and drinking chap.

He used to knock around it a 406 saloon, and it has dawned on us that had a cigarette lighter plug with a long wire on it going to "somewhere" in the back of his car. We never bothered to work it out.

We found it curious as to why he always lit a cigarette before he started his car - but now we know !!!!!

[xsaras4ever]

More puzzled than ever.

When driving, the lamp we have rigged up is always lit, so always a good power supply, as its a 5w bulb.

Its lit right up until the car stalls.

The puzzling thing is that every time we stop at a junction we can hear the pump, and mostly when driving along too.........

[Paul-R]

Its lit right up until the car stalls.

...and then it goes out or it stays lit?

[Paul-R]

Regardless it's beginning to look like it's not the pump electrics.

Even though you said that you can still hear the pump all the time, didn't you say above (somewhere...) that the pump changes tone when you give the tank a bash? I think I would take the pump assembly out and look at it closely for clogging crud.

[xsaras4ever]

Light goes out and stays out.

However, that is not significant, because with ignition on, the bulb lights for 5 secs, then goes out, then comes on again when engine is running.

Feed to pump has 12v for 5 secs, drops back to 3.36v and we assume goes back up to 12v when engine is running.

So in reverse order, 12v when engine running, 3.36v when engine stalls - lights out - all out.

Yep Paul , inclined to agree with you about crud.

We are going to do one more test before dropping tank - that is - igniion on - pump primes - then we are going to disconnect pump and see how far we get.

This will give us an idea of how quickly crud being sucked up would cause the engine to stall.

[RichardW]

If the pump is not running the engine won't even start.

If the light goes out as the engine dies, then I suspect the power is being cut. Try starting the engine, then deliberately stalling it, and see what the light does, does it go out immediately, or does it take a moment before it goes out? This will help to inform if the pump is stopping before the engine or vice-versa

[xsaras4ever]

Hello Richard, yep already did that - stalled in gear, light out instantly.

[xsaras4ever]

Yep again Richard, you are correct - disconnected pump wiring - engine died instantly.

One more test then before dropping tank - that is - new 12v supply to pump and see how far it goes ???

[CitroJim]

That's a very good test Richard as now we're in a chicken and egg situation; has the engine died because the power to the fuel pump has been lost or has the power been lost because the engine has died or been stopped for another reason/ If the latter then it is correct that the pump will stop but like you, in such a case I'd expect there to be a short delay.

Lexia live data should help too to determine the cause. is it low pressure due to blockages... Live data should show if that is the cause. It's a good call as over the time it takes to restart the fuel flow can be sufficiently restored to allow a few more kms of running.

This is getting interesting...

[CitroJim]

Sorry, my last post went in before I saw the latest replies..