IrwinFletcher

Hello,

I generally am good about forum etiquette so please don't flame me with 'use the search' please. I am pretty handy with a wrench but my experience tends to be with Japanese and some English vehicles. I'm helping a friend who doesn't even know which side of the screwdriver to hold.

Anyway, the vehicle is a 2001 1.8t quattro (the 225 hp model). He's not getting fuel. We checked fuse 28 as well as #10, 32, 34 & 43. All good. I had asked him to research any other relays that could be of issue (my mistake), so I dove into the fuel tank and pulled the pump. Well when dumping power to the pump it spun. So I did a little searching coming up with the J17 relay under the steering wheel and also a relay on the battery cover. Well with all the searching and images I cannot for the life of me identify the J17 or whichever is the fuel pump relay.

Can anybody point me to the fuel pump relay from the pic below? Note that 1 white relay (second pic) is missing as I pulled it to investigate, thinking that might be the one. Though I cannot seem to find any confirming evidence and that relay seems to be used for a variety of purposes in the VW/Audi world.

Thank you in advance for any help in helping me get his roadster back on the road.


pic of under the steering wheel. Missing the relay in the other pic.

pulled this one as I thought it might be the culprit. I'm not sure though.

JohnnyJ

I asked Gemini and here's the relevant part of the reply:
Don't worry, identifying relays can be tricky! Here's what we can confirm for your friend's 2001 Audi A4 1.8t quattro (225 hp):
Fuel pump relay location: It's under the driver's side dashboard. There might be two relay panels, the lower one usually contains the fuel pump relay.
Relay identification: The fuel pump relay might be labeled "J17", but it's also possible it doesn't have a specific label and just has a number or symbol.

IrwinFletcher

Ok, so we now know Gemini (and most likely Claude and CoPilot) aren't quite ready to replace auto techs. I'm sure if I ask Alexa, she'll happily sell me a part which is most likely the wrong one and when I ask where to put it the reply will be "hmm, I don't know that one".

JohnnyJ

Did you test the relay on your second picture?

IrwinFletcher

Not yet,
I'm trying to not do ALL the work for him, so I have him calling local auto parts stores to see if any of them will test relays. They all advertise that do on their websites, but the yahoos working at many of them don't even know the difference between a fuse and a relay. I'll either get to testing it after work, OR the local AutoZone employee did tell my friend he could buy and return the part if it 'didn't work' as it would be under warranty. Again, sounds like a poorly trained employee as electric parts usually aren't returnable after you put juice through them but if he says 'this doesn't work' and they'll take it back that might be quicker (for me ... I've got my own projects).

I basically pulled it to get the pic of the part number and such hoping I could find something online while sending him out to parts stores to try to get some answers there.

JohnnyJ

What's the use of continue asking if you don't do your own homework first?
Of course you must troubleshoot the relay before asking further!

03_AR_CO

Found a relay panel diagram at https://fuse-box.info/audi/audi-tt-8...ses-and-relays there are 2 panels under the steering column, pic below is the 2nd panel and shows #4 being for the fuel pump

Casimierda

The fuel pump relay is "167" and it is missing from that car. It's the one you pulled.
Here is a picture from my car, also a 2001 225HP.

IrwinFletcher

THANK YOU Casimierda for confirming this. Indeed the one marked 167 is the one I pulled and is the one in the 2nd picture. I didn't take a pic of the 167 side as it was less relevant for me trying to find a part number. I pulled it from that location as it was the closest to the images I found, though his car is missing that nicely labeled sticker 87 F Diesel which would have otherwise confirmed it for me. THANK YOU for being helpful.

JohnnyJ, while I appreciate your snark and all, a little context to this. This is actually a neighbor I'm friendly with, and when I started to help him I did not realize just how low his auto repair skills were. I had gotten him and his 22 year old son started on "go on the web and find all the fuses and relays that eventually lead to the fuel pump" as I very quickly identified we weren't getting fuel. He reports back that it all looks good ... he only checked fuse 28 and I had given him too much credit. So we dove into the fuel tank to pull the pump (and by we it was me). Once out, I tested the pump and it spun up. ONLY THEN did I discover he didn't even know what a relay is. So after 4 hours on a pretty warm day I was pissed but holding back. I went back to my house to do some googling as his google-fu is clearly not so good. I found the diagram 03-AR-CO posted, so I had him pull the panel under the steering wheel. Unfortunately it wasn't quite as clear and obvious without the labels as Casimierda's picture shows, however I did suspect the 167 was it which is why I pulled it. However, I was done for that day. So I put him on task of trying to find a parts store that would test it (most of them used to; not anymore) while I went home to have a beer and see if I could get some confirmation on a forum such as this one. I even started out with an apology for being 'that guy' who didn't use the search. I am very well behaved in that manner on the multiple forums for my own vehicles, however I took a chance on the kindness of strangers for this one.

Thank you Casimierda and 03-AC-CO for jumping in to help without scolding me in the process. I'll now just have him get a new relay having the confidence that is indeed the culprit, but then test the plug at the tank to see it gets voltage once the ignition is turned to position 2.