Saturday Evening: vehicle lurching or bucking while driving down the road
Sunday afternoon: similar, card dies altogether, but cranks strong
- changed air filter, fuel filter, inserted concentrated Heet and concentrated STP fuel injector cleaner. No change. Vehicle engine light comes on when attempting to start, and stays on, but no codes are stored. Checked fuse and relay associated w/fuel pump (swapped 2 relays, identical part #'s), no change.
Monday morning: car starts fine
Monday evening: drove it short distances, problem appears to have disappeared.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc: same results
Saturday afternoon: drove the car for about 10 miles, started to lurch/ buck, then dies, refuses to start. Maybe it isn't entirely accurate to describe it as lurching/bucking, but rather a refusal by the car to accelerate or maintain acceleration/constant speed.
Sunday morning: car starts fine. While accelerating (when parked), car cuts out about 4 times, but resumes, eventually dies, but restarts. Later, car won't start at all. Still later, car starts. When cranking (when it wouldn't start) I'd either hear the fuel pump come on or shut off (in any event I heard it). When the car was cutting out (but didn't die altogether), I can smell something like rotten eggs (of course I've smelled it before, but this smell was *different* or just not as strong).
- what to do? Does hearing the fuel pump mean everything is kosher inside the tank (integral pump and sending unit located in tank)? Or could that filter be clogged and be causing the problem? Can a fuel pump filter (inside the tank) be blown out w/compressed air?
Could these problems be related to a clogged cat or other exhaust components? Would cutting out the cat and installing a strait/test pipe tell that tale (I can always save the cat and have it spotted back on)? There is a small hole on the side of the body of the muffler, that drips a fair amount of water, even dirty water perhaps, and, though I won't swear to it, w/a faint smell of gasoline.
I'm told fuel pumps just die usually, and aren't intermittent. There's a wire/connector near the driver side strut tower, is that the place where you apply 12 volts to determine if fuel pump will come on? Even if it does, that doesn't tell me if it's intermittent, does it?
Could the problem be an electrical connection (having to do w/the fuel pump) that's intermittent? If you've been following these posts, I was the guy w/the leaky power steering pressure hose (no it wasn't the return line, sorry). Could that fluid have gotten somewhere it shouldn't and fouled something up? To me it doesn't sound like it though.
Of course the *Ford* owners are gloating right now. Everything that ain't a Chevy falls into the *Ford* category.
What are the other possibilities? I doubt it has anything to do with ignition components, because when cranking the car (when it won't start), and again it cranks strong, I don't smell any gasoline.
Incidentally, can you drop the fuel tank when the car is up on ramps, or is there insufficient clearance?
Thanks in advance...