Fuel Pump Question

[rbo1577186]

94 Nissan Sentra
1.6 4cyl Auto Overdrive
248,000 miles

Is is possible for a fuel pump to slowly die? Ex. Not work, a few hours later work?

Yesterday morning she wouldn't start. Turning over great, just won't start. She would turn turn, sputter once or so like she was trying to start, then just turning over again.

Got spark.
Got air.

Earlier I pulled the cover off the relay box, and just looked at it. Didn't pull anything. Pulled the fuel pump fuse(not blown) and tried to crank it do depressurize line to look at fuel filter. She crunk up and ran out of fuel. Replaced fuse, held ignition on for a few seconds to let fuel pressure build up, crunk right up. Drove around the neighborhood, stalled out a couple of times. Crunk up and made it back to the driveway.

I'm gonna change the air + fuel filter anyway, and see if fuel filter is choking it down. Also gonna check the butterfly to see if maybe it's gummed up.

Possible I got some bad gas??

 

[tech701]

Sounds like a classic clogged fuel filter to me

 

[rbo1577186]

Yeah, I changed it out, along with some ashy plugs, a slightly choked pcv valve, a leaky valve cover gasket, cleaned the butterfly (wasn't really bad) and an air filter. Seems to be OK now other than a little top end noise you would expect from a 248k engine (the top end is pretty clean!!). In my expirience a clogged fuel filter is usully really heavy for it's size. This one didn't feel too heavy, but I'm guessing it's been 60k since I last changed it. If it runs OK for 2 or 3 days, I'll quit worrying about it. We'll see what happens.
Thanks
rbo