Hi all. My girlfriend's '96 is developing a mind of its own. In the last several months, it has started to idle erratically and sometimes will not start. These conditions are sporadic and infrequent at best but nevertheless, a sign of a problem. The symptoms do not seem to show sign of a pattern but I will describe what I do know. The starting problems are typically when it's warm, i.e. been driving for awhile and then stopped and the car has sat for sat 15 minutes to a couple for hours. Now, she's been stranded a couple of times because of this, but when I have been there, I am able to get the car to start fairly easily. Apparently, she pumps the gas pedal or something and it floods ( she doesn't do this to start it normally). When I get it to go, I just keep cranking for about 10 seconds. You can hear the car try to grab but is struggling. Eventually it catches and starts BUT it sounds like it is running on 2, then three then finally 4 cylinders. At this point, the idle can become erratic, jumping back and forth as high as 1500 rpm - even when it sounds like its running smooth on all four. There is also the smell of gas (obviously) and a fair bit of black smoke. Once it does settle - after maybe 30 seconds - all is well. She does claim however the car has 'hesitated' or 'lurched' while driving under normal city conditions on two occasions, lasting for a minute or so - even though the car had been running fine for some time trouble free. Also claims that it is getting terrible fuel mileage all of a sudden. It looks OK to me but I don't drive the car and of course she 'knows' it better. I have tried to get her to fill the tank, check the odometer and fill the tank back to the top next pit-stop in order to calculate mileage, but you know 'women'. She insists on going by the fuel gauge.
I did a minor tune-up on the car: changed plugs (which, by the way are showing signs of an overheat condition. The electrodes are not worn but the 'soot' is a grey silver and thinly coated with a little bit of white spots or pits. Boy this car is a bitch just to change the plugs!). Also noticed the plug wires to be a little green on the contacts - a little corroded. The cap and rotor were thickly covered with fine black powder.Air filter is clean. Several doses of fuel injection cleaner - she never has used it before. Couldn't find a PCV valve.
So, the car is still behaving the same. I was thinking along the lines of fuel pump or filter problems or a vacuum leak somewhere in the intake manifold. Again, this behavior is sporadic at best, so whatever is causing the problem isn't always there. The fact that it does this only when the engine is hot really leads me to believe it is a air leak. Was hoping it might be a common problem that others have observed. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks a heap in advance! Randy/Debbie.