Heat Exchanger pump issues!

[ninety5fiveoh]

Yesterday when filling my freshly assembled heat exchanger setup, I tried the jumper trick to burp the system. The pump turns on for a second, then off for a few seconds, then on for a second, then off for a few seconds. It repeatedly does this cycle as long as the jumper wire is installed, and obviously doesn't move any fluid. I tried squeezing the hoses as well as blowing into the hose. I got a few bubbles out, and saw the fluid level go down slightly in the reservoir, but the pump still doesn't completely turn on. I took the pump out today and realized 2 things.

1 - My tube coming off the pump going to the heat exchanger was going to the lower bung on the heat exchanger and it was supposed to be on the lower bung. So I switched the hoses to be correct.

2 - I took the pump apart and it looks like it was not the original because it was very clean inside, spun freely, and the orings looked perfect.

I then reinstalled the pump and tried the jumper again...still no dice, just the intermittent pulse.

Then I unplugged the the pigtail from the harness going to the intercooler pump and hooked 2 wires to the battery and to the prongs on the pump and it turned on and worked perfectly. I then checked the fuse and it was fine.

Can anyone explain this? I've done a lot of research on this issue and haven't seen anyone that had the same problem.

 

[Beavis281]

Maybe the relay is flakey?

 

[03' White Snake]

Loose connector on the pump harness. Mine will cut out if I shake it really hard. I applied dielectric grease in mine and haven't had an issue since.

 

[ninety5fiveoh]

Loose connector on the pump harness. Mine will cut out if I shake it really hard. I applied dielectric grease in mine and haven't had an issue since.

Yea my buddy mentioned the same thing yesterday and I checked that. I really pressed the thing on hard, and with the jumper wire in, it still didn't run...only the perfectly spaced intermittent pulse. I will try the dielectric grease and see if that makes a difference. I may also un-pin the clip and touch the pins to the pins on the motor to see if that works.

 

[ninety5fiveoh]

Maybe the relay is flakey?

I thought of that too, but it should run constantly with the relay out and the jumper wire in. Of course I can't test it yet with the car running because the car isn't running yet...that's another issue.

 

[Woody6799]

I believe it is a tune issue. I was having intermittent pump issues with mine and I "believe" my tuner at the time was able to set the pump so it would pulse instead of run constantly. I never tested anything with the jumper though and we are going back a few years to something I never really paid attention to. Maybe try reflashing a start up tune.

Out of curiosity though, why not upgrade? With all the mods you have now a larger pump would definitely help out.

 

[ninety5fiveoh]

I believe it is a tune issue. I was having intermittent pump issues with mine and I "believe" my tuner at the time was able to set the pump so it would pulse instead of run constantly. I never tested anything with the jumper though and we are going back a few years to something I never really paid attention to. Maybe try reflashing a start up tune.

Out of curiosity though, why not upgrade? With all the mods you have now a larger pump would definitely help out.

Thanks for the info. Maybe it is in the tune, but I tried running the motor with the jumper wire and it doesn't work either. I can't imagine that it would be pulsing since the "pulse" is less than a second and really can't move any coolant in that time. I may just wire the pump to be key-on so I always have it pumping when the car is running.

 

[whitedevil95]

In the stock tune there is a 20 second delay and a minimum IAT2 temp of I think 60 or 70 degrees before the pump turns on. I had my tuner get rid of both so my KC can be pumping the ice cold fluid asap.

 

[MaximumVelocity]

Check basics. What is the voltage doing at your jumper wire? If it varies like the pump activity, you have a voltage supply issue.

 

[ninety5fiveoh]

In the stock tune there is a 20 second delay and a minimum IAT2 temp of I think 60 or 70 degrees before the pump turns on. I had my tuner get rid of both so my KC can be pumping the ice cold fluid asap.

This doesn't apply when you use the jumper wire in replacement of the relay though, correct? That is just parameters changed in the tune.

Check basics. What is the voltage doing at your jumper wire? If it varies like the pump activity, you have a voltage supply issue.

That is my next thing to check. I'm not confident with a voltmeter, so I'll do some research, test, and report back.

 

[whitedevil95]

This doesn't apply when you use the jumper wire in replacement of the relay though, correct? That is just parameters changed in the tune.

Correct. With the relay jumped it should run full time non stop.

 

[ninety5fiveoh]

Correct. With the relay jumped it should run full time non stop.

Ok, so they it must either be a short in one of the wires, or I'm not getting enough voltage for some reason.

 

[John M]

whats your batt voltage? I would backprobe it with it connected to the pump when your jumping the relay this will tell you what the voltage drop across the pump is, sounds to me your voltage is too low or you have a bad ground. The nice thing about it is you can do continuity test on the wires to the pump through the batt jnctn box and its not that far to run the test leads to check it, and if it checks out then its farther up and or in the (tune maybe) plus depends on the type of short but usually you blow fuses

edit: could be an open in your ground or pwr wires that's making contact once in a while

 

[ninety5fiveoh]

whats your batt voltage? I would backprobe it with it connected to the pump when your jumping the relay this will tell you what the voltage drop across the pump is, sounds to me your voltage is too low or you have a bad ground. The nice thing about it is you can do continuity test on the wires to the pump through the batt jnctn box and its not that far to run the test leads to check it, and if it checks out then its farther up and or in the (tune maybe) plus depends on the type of short but usually you blow fuses

edit: could be an open in your ground or pwr wires that's making contact once in a while

As a quick test today, I checked the voltage at the clip on the harness and with the jumper wire in place of the relay, I have over 13v, so I'm good there. Something doesn't add up. I also put a wire from each prong on the clip to the terminals on the pump and it does the same thing. But when I go directly from the battery to the pump it works mint.

 

[MG0h3]

Conduct the test you did with the load (pump) in play. Many electrical issues won't show up without a load on the system.

 

[ninety5fiveoh]

UPDATE: Backprobed the wires with the jumper in, and when it pulses on, it only gets ~4 volts.

Thoughts?

EDIT: This is what happens when you do an entire drivetrain swap. The ****ing ground on the rad support was loose. Pump works mint. Thanks for the help guys!!

 

[whitedevil95]

Sweeet! Its seriously always some kind of a ground issue on cars.