The dreaded fuel pump issue...

[KingRat]

Hi folks... back after a long time.

My Cougar has been a sad story. Its a 2001 manual SW. Car has done about 180k's overall. Replaced the engine a couple of years ago with 80K's on it. After that, it ran alright for a few months... but did have that issue where it lost power in the 3rd and 4th gears at highish revs and died on me a couple of times when the fuel was lowish, but I put it as a faulty fuel gauge and filling it up would have it running fine again.

Then it started misbehaving with engine cranking but not turning over randomly. Got left stranded at the mall and carpark a couple of times and then after 10-15 minutes, it would just start and run normally for a few days... then one day in my garage, it just did the same thing and never started... I had another car so kept driving the other....

The Cougar kept sitting in the garage for a few months (had a new battery)... and then the battery died and stopped turning over....

Brought over a mechanic and he took my battery and charged it up but the battery was fked... so I bought a new battery, put it back on... and the car started again! and the mechanic kept it for a few days and had a look and basically said, it was just a faulty battery and the car has been running fine for him. Serviced it, excited, I started driving... sadly only lasted half a day :(

The car started losing power miserably on the freeway, with a full tank, and basically became undrivable... struggled to get it back to the mechanic... he checked it up again... we ended up replacing the fuel pump(some after market Bosch one)... and it ran okay for a day... and then started misbehaving again... took it back, where he had a look, tweaked a couple of things, but drove alright while it was with him... I took it back and it drove alright for me for a day or two,,, and I was busy moving house.. so didnt drive it much for those couple of days... and brought it over to the new place, and used it a couple of times without problems, but then started noticing that in third or fourth gear, after 3000 rpm's it was literally completely losing power and stopping... so carefully drove it back to my garage.... and is again sitting in my garage undrivable... a bit far from that mechanic and have been busy travelling with work so the Cougar has been left neglected again in the garage... and it has been a couple of months.... sad.

Having gone through the threads and researched on the net and it looks like this fuel pump issue is a real pain in the ****...

Any suggestions? I still feel it is just the fuel delivery to the engine that isn't happening properly... was hoping replacing the fuel pump would help but I think it was made it worse... Is there something I can do to get it back on the road? I have thought about selling it but its funny how every time it is back alive, I change my mind and want to keep it.... love its drive when its running well... but for the past couple of years.... it hasnt been driven much at all...

Need help. I am in Melbourne. Any good mechanics that can help?