Just passing on an experience from this weekend. It might get someone out of a fix in the future.
I've got a '91 5.7 litre Brougham. Picked up my girlfriend on Friday night and we stopped for some take-out. Get back in the car and it didn't start on the first crank of the engine. Then it started, but petered out and stopped. Then it wouldn't start......Of course, due to Murphy's Law it was snowing like crazy at this time :banghead:. Fortunately, we were close to home and in fact I could see the car from my 17th floor balcony.
They plowed early the next morning and we return to the car to find it surrounded by a low wall of snow and ice....great! It still wouldn't start.
Went back home and rang the dealer I bought it off around 3 months ago. He's a Caddy specialist and enthusiast. He suggested it might be a dead-spot on the fuel pump. He told me to get someone to crank the engine while thumping the fuel tank centrally to see if it might shock the pump into action.
So I slide under the rear in the snow....oh joy! Lo and behold it worked! The car fired up just like that!
Big, big relief :D as I really don't need the expense of a tow and a repair right now. At least I now know there's a potential future problem and I can choose to have a new pump fitted when I can afford it. Anybody know the ball-park price on one of these FI pumps and possible labour cost? It's a tank drop operation right?

Martin.

I had almost the exact same issue with my Brougham. http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/rwd-19xx-1984-deville-fleetwood-1985/95934-its-30-degrees-icy-my-90-a.html As it turned out the fuel lines were either frozen, something was in them or something like that. We started by dumping "Heet" brand methanol into the tank and pouring some down the carb. But since mine was carburated I didn't have to worry about failure in an electric fuel pump. I bet since you had similar problems, you may have damaged the fuel pump. But you also may not have, you'll just have to wait and see. As for costs, my dad spent $700 for a shop to replace the pump on his FWD Chevy malibu. It went out because of too many run-out-of-gas occasions. You have to drop the gas tank to get to it, then there's some other work. But I believe the pump is about $150 at Autozone if you're feeling adventurous.

Good luck! :thumbsup:

Greg

Dropping the tank isn't too bad, as long as you've got the right equipment, or another person to help you hold it up. It's also a good chance to put some undercoating on the top of the tank and the body of the car up there. Some parts of mine were rusted to high heaven because water pools up there and gets trapped.

Oh, yeah, and obviously, make sure you empty the tank as much as possible beforehand.

Had the same problem in August 2006. My car's been dead up to this date. 9 chances out of 10, check the timing chain. I should have, but decided to retire the motor.

Well after starting the car via the tank-thump method on Saturday, we used it on Sunday and I drove to work on Monday no problem.

The car felt weak on the way home and the "Service Engine Soon" light came on a couple of times. I had to stop for food and it refused point blank to start again. So I got it towed the next day back to where I bought it in October. One expense I hoped to avoid :mad:

They checked it out fully and it was indeed the pump. A nice shiny new AC-Delco pump now resides in the gas tank and the car feels STRONG :cool2:.....I'm thinking that fuel pressure had maybe been sub-prime for a while. It cost CDN$429 + change for all the diagnosis, removal and fitting which I don't think was too bad....could still have done without it right now, but it's my daily-driver so what can I do?

I drove it home in a blizzard.....lovely weather we're having! Can't wait till Summer for some cool cruisin'.

Martin.