Injection Fuel Pumps..Do they prime before starting?

[D-reame]

Hi. Could someone please shed some light on this for me.

I have a 1988 GTX. When I turn the key to ignition 1 whee the warning lights, light up. Should I get an initial whir of the fuel pump. I have checked all the terminals on the fuse box and I get the correct voltage on all the pins. I have taken the relay cover off to visually see if the relay activates. It does not at this point. It only kicks in after I start it about 1.5 seconds after crank. Once started I can here the pumps. Both pumps work if I jumper terminals 30 and 87 (relay numbers) the car then drives normal once started. I can hear the pumps for on second before they shut off after I switch the ignition off.

I suspect the relay to be faulty but did not want to waste my money.

I am having cold start problems and wondered if this is causing it.

Other possible causes could be dribbling injectors but I wanted to start with basics before I dig deeper.

Hope someone can help.

[Brunty]

I've definitely heard some that prime. But I'm fairly sure that on the GTX it doesn't need to because of the pressure accumulator that sits next to the fuel pump under the tank. There was a revision (1984?) that brought in the pressure accumulator iirc.

Could be talking balls though as I've only had one coffee so far today.

[ianaudia4]

My Storm primes but my Scala does not.

[Birdy]

Mine used to prime every time, but since i changed the dizzy and the hall sender it never primes

[MrP]

1985 GTX, Mine never primed, bought a replacement relay to be sure, it then primed everytime. They are about £20 from GSF. (Sorry to shamelessly exploit this here, but my relay was used for a few weeks before the car came off the rd. £10 posted? )

[D-reame]

If you could photograph the relay pins to be sure it's the same please. Of it is then I will take you up on the offer. If you take paypal just invoice me. I will pm you my details. Thanks by the way.

[markh]

My 87 & 88 GTXs both prime.

[DannyH]

My '92 Scala primes

[D-reame]

Cheers all. Thanks to MrP, there is a relay winging it's way on Monday so hopefully it will resolve my problem.

[MikeH]

It depends which relay you've got. My 89 and 92 scalas didn't prime when I got them, but now that I've got a Mk1 golf relay in the '89 car (no rev limiter) it primes. It was a GSF relay, incidentally.

Given that almost all of these cars will have had their fuel pump relay replaced at some point, I'm not surprised there are different answers.

[D-reame]

Well thanks to MrP I now have a happy GTX. Primes and starts.