My 88 240 died yesterday as I was leaving work for lunch. I had enough momentum to coast into a nearby parking lot. I tried to restart several times during the day and it would start and run for just a second and then die again. I had it towed home and when I tried to start it this morning it ran for around 20 seconds, then died and would not restart. My first thought was fuel pump relay, because I had that problem on a 740 I had. So I thumped it a few times and still nothing. I took it out and the soldering looks to be okay, though I don't know how effective a visual inspection is. My next thought is the fuel pump itself. I've read that the car will still run without the in-tank pump, but if the in-line pump goes bad it will not.

I'm still confused as to why it will start and run for a short period of time after sitting for awhile. If the pump is bad and the car died as a result, shouldn't the fuel system have practically no pressure at this point? If there is no pressure how would the car start?

Since it starts and runs for a second or two, I'm under the impression that it is getting spark. I'm 99% certain that this is a fuel problem.

any ideas?