Hi folks,

A while back ago my XJ was taken to a shop near where I live because the car wouldn't start. It would crank and then quickly die. At the shop, they tested the fuel pressure and confirmed it was dropping. They assumed it was the fuel pump to blame, so they told my mom (the person who brought the jeep to the shop, as I was not in the country at the time) the fuel pump needed to be replaced. Unlikely because I replaced it myself about a year prior to this. They also do not detail in their description of the work that they tested to see if the fuel pump was actually working. They only tested the fuel pressure. They also replaced the fuel filter, which I had already replaced about a year prior. I'm 100 percent sure the fuel filter did not need to be replaced. In their details of the work that my mom emailed to me, after installing the new fuel pump they claimed there was fuel pressure but when fully opening the throttle, the fuel pump psi would drop. I do not believe this. They then write that "upon further investigation we discovered that this car uses a fuel pump ballast resistor". They checked the resistor and it was broken. They then bypassed the wires by attaching the ballast wires to each other and eliminating the ballast. My mom kept the ballast and I can confirm the coil inside is broken. I believe this was problem behind the car not starting. I do not think the fuel pump was a contributing factor. I believe they replaced the fuel pump and then figured out it was not the problem, but then wrote that replacing the fuel pump made a difference, so that they wouldnt have to remove the fuel pump and seem like. they had made a mistake. My question is, how should I deal with this situation? Am I correct in assuming that they should have done their "research" about the ballast before removing the fuel pump? And they also should have tested the fuel pump detached from car to confirm their hypothesis that the pump wast working? Your feedback is much appreciated!

 

I'll be honest, I'm not seeing the problem.

 

I believe the fuel pump never had to be replaced. In other words, if I plug in the broken ballast that they removed, the car should run like they said it did when they installed the new pump (because the new pump is still in there now). If we tried that and the car doesn't run, it means they lied and replaced the fuel pump for no reason when all that had to be replaced was the ballast. The problem is I was charged for parts and labor work that didn't need to be done.

 

happens a lot bro,

that is why I do my own work

No point at all complaining to mechanic

 

Ahh I see where you are coming from. But in the end they performed work with the approval of the person in charge that got the vehicle running.
Its done and payed for.

 

They should have studied up first and troubleshot by the steps instead of throw parts at it untill it works.

 

Most likely they just assumed the pump was bad replaced it. When that didn't work they had to look further.

 

Yeah, more than likely they saw pressure dropping once started and assume fuel pump. Wouldn't be the first time that happened. A bit more diagnosis they would have noticed no power to the pump and eventually lead them to the fuel pump ballast resistor, but probably wouldn't have bothered if they saw pressure initially. At most, they might relent on the labor, but not the parts. Hopefully they installed a decent quality pump and not some crappy chinese junk that's going to fail within a year.

 

Well, not many shops around here have any experience working on these old "pre-obd" Jeeps (or other pre-obd vehicles for that matter). While your description of the problem is consistent with a bad ballast resistor, we'll never know if that was the only bad part.

You have the ballast resistor but, I assume, not the pump. So there's no way to confirm the pump was good or bad. If I needed to change the pump, I would also change the fuel filter.

 

The got it running. I assume mom approved of the repair. If you want to second guess their work, you need to do it before approval of the work, not after the work is approved and done. Next time ask mom to familiarize herself on the workings of the jeep, you can be her teacher. other than that, oh well, water under the bridge.

 

I don't agree with this. They told her it was the fuel pump and it needed to be replaced. They mislead her to believe that. Therefore they made the error.

 

I should also say yeah they got it running but they didn't fix it right. Now the pump is too loud, plus making it work harder and putting more strain on fuel pressure regulator which I also already replaced myself

 

They wrote that when they installed the new fuel pump (not yet discovered about the ballast), KOER PSI was 20 and dropped to below 12 when opening the throttle and then there was backfire.

So My idea to confirm this is to attach the old ballast and then the fuel pump should show those same conditions that they wrote in their description of the work. If not, and the engine dies like before, going from 10 psi to 0 immediately when trying to crank, then we can assume adding the fuel pump made no difference and they lied about what they wrote in their description. Does that make sense?

 

True, but that is the nature of the business, Unless you can show fraud or such, there is not much that can be done except not go to that shop again. I do most all my own work, and i too have made mistakes and ended up doing unnecessary work. I dont get paid for this. If they did the work in good faith, well sometimes this happens, it is part of the repair process.

 

To be a lie, well that requires intention to lie. It could be that they just did not know. It is done, you can blast them on yelp, or the BBB. You can picket their place of business, take out a newspaper ad and call them liars. But what is done is done, they did get the jeep working again. Sure they may have been able to do it differently, done the repair for less cost, Sure they may have initially made the wrong diagnosis. But that is the nature of the car repair business. You can spend your time proving they made a mistake, but it is your time to spend. Let it go is my advice. Never go back there if you wish.
Sorry this happened.