I have a 96 camaro and in the past couple of months I have been chasing a problem.

History: I replaced the the whole fuel pump assembly two years ago. It has been wonderful since a couple months ago. This is when the gauge started to spike. Cycling the key did not work. So I assumed it was the pump again. I replaced just the pump and my car started and ran fine. I checked the old pump and it ran fine too. Clearly I wasn't on top of my game for my diagnostics. I went with it anyway. Two months later my gauge started to spike again. I took the pump assembly out again to examine it and it turns out the ground on the sending unit was loose. Also, the connector that is part of the pump assembly had a bad ground wire. The wire itself was fine but it was pushed down half way in the connector. I replaced that pin on the wire. Two days later it died on me again. This time my fuel gauge stayed where it was. I rechecked the connection that had a pushed back pin and the pin was once again pushed back. To replace that connection, I would have had to buy a 280 dollar pump assembly that it is attached to. I decided to solder through that connection. A few days ago I started my car, my gauge spiked, and my car died on me. I cycled the key a couple times and my car started. Now, every other time I start my car, it starts, my gauge spikes, my car stays on, the gauge goes back down, and I'm on my way. A friend had a camaro who had a problem close to this and it was his ignition. I started playing around with my ignition. I turned my key, my gauge spiked, and wiggled the ignition to see if anything changed. The first time, nothing happened. The gauge stayed spiked. So, I went back to my soldered wires and banged on the body where they rested against. My gauge went down. It took roughly 10 more key cycles to get my gauge to stay spiked. I hit that same spot and my gauge went back down. My car has never died while I was driving. Only on initial start up.

I thought I did a good solder job. I used heat shrink and electrical tape. Today I'm going to look for imperfections.

I would love a new set of brains to give me their input because I'm chasing my tail. I've looked at the grounds, replaced the relay, checked for power to the pump. If you can think of anything I will gladly listen.

 

when you say that the gauge spiked, do you mean the needle pegged past full? The gage will peg high if the lead from the sending unit is grounded; however that should not affect the fuel pump. Unless the two wires going to the tank unit are momentarily shorting to each other and to ground. This will cause the gage to peg and the pump to stop.

 

Yes the needle pegs to full.

It just died on me two hours ago at the gas station. I waited for my car to cool down and it started right up. I hooked a gauge up to the fuel rail and when my car died the gauge read 10psi.

 

Most likely the pump is shutting down before the engine dies. There is a pump relay that provides power to the pump, you may want to make sure it is working properly. There is a test lead with an empty connector coming out of the harness by the passenger side shock tower. You can connect power to it directly from the battery and bypass the relay. Use a fused lead to prevent a short from setting the wires on fire.

 

I checked my fuel pump relay and it's good. Is there any possibility it could be a bad sending unit? One screw holding the ground on the sending unit was loose the last time I had my tank down. What are the chances of it happening again?

 

The sending unit itself will not affect how the engine runs as it only connects to the fuel gage; however, as I mentioned before, if the sending unit leads short to the pump power lead, it will affect how the pump runs.