Hey everybody. My car runs great, but just recently it seems to be taking longer to start, it has good cranking power, but it just doesn't seem to fire right away like it used to, and when it does fire up, it kinda stumbles around for a couple seconds, then its fine. I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what could be causing this. Thanks.

A common reason for that is a failed fuel pump relay. Do you hear it run if you turn the key on without starting the engine.
If it fails you have to crank the engine long enough to build oil pressure then the oil pump switch closes and starts the fuel pump.

sound like a possibility.. ?

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 08-28-2008).]

Fuel pump relay is located on upper firewall on drivers side. IIRC, all relays on the Fiero are the same which makes it handy to test, if you have A/C, there will be two relays side by side.

Hmm that sounds like a possibility, i will have to listen for that tomorrow. If that is the case, does anyone have a picture of where it is located and what is involved in testing and replacing it?

If you have ac there are two relays. usually they are right behind you drivers seat on the firewall.



Try swapping the ac for the FP relay and see what happens.

If that does not help then you might have more work. If the relay is not energizing you will have to check out the power etc.on the relay socket. The FP output from the ECM is special since it is the only one that supplies the power to the relay instead of grounding the relay to turn it on. That fact makes it a weaker output and has been known to fail. Hopefully it won't be that and is just the relay or a ground for the relay...

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 08-28-2008).]

Mine does exactly the same thing , but my fuel pump & relay are fine. I've been told by a few that it has something to do with the cold start injector, but I don't know how to test it.

Mine too does this.
No A/C in mine so I guess I should get a new relay.

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87 coupe resoration project.

mine does this too. it has a new walbro 255 i just put in and a new FP relay. it did that before the upgrade. i think its all in my tune tho since the idle fuel map is too lean and the throttle fuel maps is too rich. more tuning is coming

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1987 Fiero GT built by my brother, merlot566jka, 3500 LX9 from 06 Malibu, WOT-TECH.com 1280 grind stage 3 cam, LS6 valve springs, 1227730 ECM conversion, Darrel Morse solid aluminum cradle mounts, Truleo headers modified to fit the 3500, 36# inectors, 70mm 4.3 throttle body adapted to 3500 intake, ported heads, upper and lower intakes, lightly polished, tcemotorsports.com crank trigger wheel, CenterForce dual friction clutch, Flowtech Afterburner muffler, 2.5" piping, cat deleted, EGR deleted, SinisterPerformance tuning, C6 Corvette exhaust tips. projected to be 35 MPG with a guesstimate of 250 hp to the wheels

As funny as this sounds, mine (4.0) was at the extreme of this. Crank and crank and crank and finally starts and runs rough. Turns out the PCV valve was stuck open. I cleaned it with brake cleaner and now it starts immediately.

Bob

[This message has been edited by RCR (edited 08-29-2008).]