The humming noise is the fuel pump priming the system to start the car. There is a fuel relay and it is located under the dash on the drivers side.
The fact that the fuel pump turns when you turn the key means the relay is working. If you think you are having fuel pump related issues, it could still be failing.
Even though the pump turns it might not be producing enough pressure to get the engine to performa correctly.
You can genrally borrow a test gauge from an AdvanceAuot or Auto Zone with a deposit. There is a test port on the fuel rail and the gauge will come with a bunch of adapters so you can attach it to the test port and see what the pressure is.
Sometimes the fuel pressure regulator can fail and that will affect the fuel pressure as the need for more increases with engine load and RPMS. The fuel curve gets thrown off when they fail and will perfomr worse the more load or the higher the RPMs. Fuel pump pressure will affect the engines overall perfomrance at any RPM or even at idle.
Let us know if you need any further assistancew.
Friday, November 11th, 2011 AT 10:36 PM