P0233: Fuel Pump Secondary Circuit Intermittent
Do not keep driving
Have this diagnosed promptly rather than tolerated. If the fault appears only once the car is warm, say so — that pattern points at a heat-sensitive pump or relay and changes how it should be tested.
What this code means
The fuel pump secondary circuit is dropping out intermittently. This is one of the more dangerous intermittent faults in the standard, because the symptom is an engine that cuts out without warning and may not restart immediately — a genuine concern when pulling into traffic. Heat-sensitive failures are common: a pump or relay that works when cold and fails after twenty minutes of running.
Likely causes
Start here
- Failed fuel pump relay · easy
- Failed fuel pump · moderate
- Intermittent wiring fault · moderate
- Voltage drop from corroded pump connections · moderate
Less common
- Corroded earth connection · moderate
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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