Cranks but won't fire
 

Out of nowhere My '04 S won't start. I drove to work today and everything was fine. Got in it this afternoon and it cranks fine, strong battery and starter but it will not fire. Nothing, no sign of firing.
If this car was from the '60s I'd say the coil wire was off or I was flat out of gas. Since it's from 11 years ago, the coil wire doesn't apply but fuel could be a problem. It does have a quarter tank though.
My first thought is the fuel pump quit. Does this sound familiar to anyone or am I barking up the wrong tree? How would I go about checking? I don't notice any wrong sounds or lack thereof.

Any input greatly appreciated

There is a valve on the fuel rail under the ic....
You could check for psi with a guage...can you smell fuel coming out the tailpipe?
Try putting a spare sparkplug on a sparkplug wire....let it sit on something metal or ground it...see if you have a spark....

I'll try those suggestions in the morning. Thanks

Mine did this a year ago. Towed home ordered a fuel pump and was back in business.

I finally got to it today. It has spark. I ran out of time but I'm thinking my first thought of fuel pump was accurate. I'll check more tomorrow.
Do the fuel pumps have a tendency to quit out of the blue? I'm at 87K miles.


Car won't run 101: Gotta have fuel, gotta have spark, gotta have spark at the right time.

On a modern car like this the spark at the right time is rarely an issue so it does point to fuel pump.

Probably fuel pump. Mine went at 187k. It was fine until it didn't work. Almost like there was a dead spot in the pump. Once it stopped on the dead spot there was no starting it. I banged on it and everything.

It was the fuel pump. $200 part and my own labor and I'm back on the road.

Someone is selling new pumps with a two year warranty on eBay for just over $100 but I didn't want to wait.

Folks who run their tank below 1/4 or lower regularly tend to have them fail...
Remember, the pump is submerged and cooled by fuel....

That would be me.
In my opinion German engineering is not all it's cracked up to be. Running below a 1/4 tank should not cause such issues.

I will avoid doing so from now on...

Pump Inspection
 

My curiosity was killing me so I took the old pump apart to try and see what went wrong. I got the motor/pump assembly out and it is quite stout. It turned freely and felt fine. I put 12 V to it and it whirred away like nothing ever happened. I put everything back together and the same thing.
I'm sure it would pump fine now but for how long until it freezes again?
I think these motors tend to stop on a dead spot and then won't start next time.

It's frustrating that nobody will sell you just a new motor/pump and you have to buy the entire assembly, most of which is perfectly fine.

heat tends to cause one or more of the solder joints fail in the motor/windings of any fuel pump to fail., or ANY electric motor to fail..same happens to the insulation on the wires in the motor....causes a "dead spot" where IF the pump stops in that spot, it is stuck...that is why banging the pump/fuel tank with your hand to jostile it works...same trick as hitting a starter with a hammer to get a few more starts....