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1998 Buick LeSabre Custom, Sidewinder V-6, fuel injected.
It's parked facing downhill. My son ran it completely empty to that spot. I put almost 3 gals of gas in, and now I can't start it. If it had a carburetor, I could prime it, and get it going.
I don't know how to handle one that's fuel injected. Shouldn't the fuel pump be getting gas to the fuel injectors? The battery is strong and there's no starter hesitation.
Well, the bad news is that the fuel pump may be shot do to being completely run dry. Gas acts as a lubricant in the fuel pump and when the tank is run completely dry, there is no longer any lubricant for the fuel pump and it can burn out. This can be made worse by cranking the engine repeatedly when trying to get it to start.
If you can, I would first get the car on a level surface. After that try starting it while holding down the throttle pedal all the way. This will cut off the injectors and allow you to clear the engine if it's flooded. After that try and start the car normally and see what happens. 3 gallons should be more than enough gas to get it going again.
If you can hear the fuel pump prime when you turn the car "on" without actuating the starter, it might help to do this - just turn the key to "on", listen to the pump try to prime, when the pump quits turn the key to "off" and repeat. .
Depending on how the pump is positioned in the tank, you may need more than 3 gallons of gas to get the fuel pump to prime. I have read that Hondas need more than just a few gallons.
Running a FI car out of gas can damage the fuel pump, and may have, at worst, ruined yours. Sonny boy needs his butt kicked and hard, I would put him on "shank's mare" for a few months. I'd let him know if he ever ran the car below 1/4 tank again, that would be it, he would not drive anything that belongs to me again.
But I am going beyond the scope of your original question.
If you can hear the fuel pump prime when you turn the car "on" without actuating the starter, it might help to do this - just turn the key to "on", listen to the pump try to prime, when the pump quits turn the key to "off" and repeat. .
Depending on how the pump is positioned in the tank, you may need more than 3 gallons of gas to get the fuel pump to prime. I have read that Hondas need more than just a few gallons.
Running a FI car out of gas can damage the fuel pump, and may have, at worst, ruined yours. Sonny boy needs his butt kicked and hard, I would put him on "shank's mare" for a few months. I'd let him know if he ever ran the car below 1/4 tank again, that would be it, he would not drive anything that belongs to me again.
But I am going beyond the scope of your original question.
Good point. If the pump is still priming, you may just need to get it on a level surface, get some more gas in it and prime the pump a couple times before trying to start it.
The engine needs to start so it can suck the air out of the system. Give it a couple shots of starting fluid before you start trying to take anything apart..If you need to check the fuel pressure to rule out a bad fuel pump you can attach a guage to the fuel rail and check it...20 to 30 psi I think so you better check the service manual to be sure,,,,,,iF YOU DONT HAVE A SERVICE MANUAL ,,,GET ONE
Actually on most FI cars I know about there is a way to turn the fuel pump on independent of the engine. Fuel pump is electric and will run a long time on the battery, more than long enough to re-prime the system. Usually there is a relay that looks for a tach signal to run the fuel pump.
On my old Scirocco, you just jumper terminal 30 to IIRC 87, after pulling the fuel pump relay. On the M3 you can do something similar, or use the diagnostic plug.
When doing this it's good to know the typical current draw of the fuel pump (a decent guess is about half whatever the circuit is fused at) so you can verify that the rotor is not locked because knucklehead ran it out of gas.
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