when the car is warm the fuel pump relay will become quite hot and begin clicking. there are usually two clicks, an off an on, i assume. sometimes the car will stutter for a bit and regain power and other times it will just stall out completely. sometimes when the relay clicks, the car will accelerate with my foot off the gas.THE CAR WILL ALWAYS RESTART WITH NO TROUBLE.

i have tried:
-replacing the fuel pump relay
-cleaning all of the fuses, including the 25A by the battery. I cleaned the battery connections and grounds on the throttle body. i have also replaced all of the fuses with copper ones.
-swapping out the ecu

It seems that there is some resistance within the fuel pump relay wiring that is causing the heat and the clicking.

any help is greatly appreciated

colin

 

Is this the n/a B23 (I'm thinking) or the B21 turbo set up? There are some commonalities with both. The relay does get warm with use...95-100 degrees isn't uncommon. The relay clicking (normal when starting of course) would, as you suggest, seem to indicate the signal source to close the relay circuit is being interrupted. Are you having any other electrical issues? The signal for the relay is initiated with the ignition switch. When the contacts within the switch wear, all sorts of crazy stuff can happen. Your 83 is smack in the middle of when Volvo had their heinous wire insulation issue too so there could be something shorting under the hood. The insulation inside the car will be fine...just pretty much under the hood.

 

thanks for the thoughts. the car is a N/A.

I have checked out the wire harness under the car and replaced the shielding.

one thing that is worth mentioning is that the broken light signal on dash has been flickering on and off. it has a picture of a light bulb that is broken.

the gas mileage seems to be poor but i have not done a mileage check yet.