Starts - Runs - Dies poss fuel issue

[NUTCASE]

Starts - Runs - Dies poss fuel issue **FIXED**

So I woke up this morning ready to pull apart my axle right.......LOL


I did a thread search here and on google, I have found nothing close enough or conclusive to my issue.

I think I know the answer to my issue but I want to run it past you guys before draining $48 of gas out of my tank and buying ANOTHER fuel filter.

So I went to do a few things today, first thing I went and got 12 gallons of gas.

went to work to talk to my boss. the distance to work is about enough to run the gas out of the line.

I leave work, it stalls suddenly. I pop the hood to see if anything was obvious, nothing was, a minute later it started back up.

I got to an intersection about 1/4 mile down the road. It died again. I called a tow truck. $80 later I am home.

pull the fuel filter, blow through it, its clogged. Usually I cannot get any air through a clogged fuel filter but I felt there was a ton of restriction.

I have a spare lying around. When I first got my car I changed the fuel filter. When I tested the old filter it flowed like new so I kept it. I installed that.

Car died after 6 min of idling. I pulled filter back out, tested it, and found it was just as restrictive as the filter I had taken off.

Walked to gas station to tell them about it. They said they have sold 10k gallons of gas today and everything is fine. I walk to parts store and get another filter. $20

Come home, purge about a gallon out of the fuel system through the fuel line. Install new filter and test. Idled for about 10 min and died again.

new filter is now quite clogged, but seems operable.

I go to do my first round of internet searching.

I pop the hood and check for any loose electrical connections and reboot my tune.

install filter again. Idol car for 20 minutes. It struggles a lot but seems to smooth out eventually. I do laps around my neighborhood, all is fine. I go down the street to gas station to drop of the gallon of gas that I purged. Talk to those guys. Take off to do everything I had not started yet today at now 5pm.

I get another 100 feet, across the light, I feel a loss of power, pull off just in time to get my car close to a parking spot before it dies.

wait about 10 minutes, car starts, I drive it home.


I think I will need to buy ANOTHER fuel filter and completely purge the tank. Something I just don't want to do right now.

I mean, I woke up thinking about installing my diff clutches that have been sitting on the shelf since January LOL.


any ideas on this? does it look like I have missed anything?

I ask because in some other forums and threads people are saying this could be a sign of the alternator and battery going bad. sounds outrageous, but I hope to have this fixed replacing as few functional parts as possible.

thanks

 

[lindertw]

check this thing in the trunk - it's the fuel pump driver control module. when you put the wheels/tires in your trunk last night, you may have bumped it???

I'm checking my service manual for troubleshooting info

 

[NUTCASE]

LOL I have two of those. GT500 fuel system.

I will check that in a bit and report back.

 

[lindertw]

here's what I could find on it in my service manual

good luck, hope it's just something that came unplugged!

 

[NUTCASE]

Just checked both FPDMs, all wires, grounds, and harnesses are as they should be.

 

[AutoXRacer]

Whats your fuel pressure doing at the rails?

 

[TexasBlownV8]

If your filter is getting clogged, there is something amuck in your tank, or your sock filter has come apart.

I would remove the pump and inspect the bottom filter and look in the bottom of your tank. You'll find your problem.

 

[AutoXRacer]

If your filter is getting clogged, there is something amuck in your tank, or your sock filter has come apart.

I would remove the pump and inspect the bottom filter and look in the bottom of your tank. You'll find your problem.

Wouldn't he see stuff coming out by disconnecting the fuel filter and running the pumps?

 

[NUTCASE]

I fixed it

I think I got hit with a 1-2 punch of my tach adapter going bad and a not-so-great tank of gas on an old fuel filter.

I am still going to change the filter again when the tank runs out.

I did a ton of research and found everything that could be the issue.

btw, between idol test, driving test, and driving with hood popped test I determined that heat was an aggravating issue.

One of the things I researched was wiring not proper gauge or bad connections. I checked everything and re did a bunch of old connections. When I was doing my research some of the people that were having my problem had wiring replaced somewhere with a smaller gauge, increasing the gauge fixed the problem. This reminded me of my physics class where we discussed how increasing temperature increases resistance. Also, my electrical tape had turned into goo in some places from age and heat. I also added heat shrink tubing to many connections.

this did not work, car still died when things got hot.

Limped it to advance auto. Had them to a full charging system test while while it was hot and had just stalled recently. My charging system passed with flying colors.

However the guy was into cars (an import guy but still) and he pointed out my tach adapter and asked me how old it was. It is like 3 years old. He said it could be an issue.

So I limped it home and disconnected the tach adapter (no big deal, all the stuff it used to control is off the car anyways).

Upon start up it idled like a champ. I gave it a pretty hefty test run with the A/C on, lugging it in a high gear, flooring it, stop and go, ect. Car works again. I saved a ton of money I thought I would be spending today.


For people who use search function, here are other things I dug up that can cause these same problems in a wide range of cars:

battery
alternator
cam position sensor
crank position sensor
ECU is fried
ignition module is fried
coils are fried
vaccume leak
IAC failure
loose wires
insufficient wire gauge
bad connections
Aftermarket tune not compensating for heat and humidity
fuel pumps going bad
Fuel pump safety switch (ford only) going bad.

these are all things that can happen both with or without a CEL

A lot of people with my problem have gotten caught in a situation where they have to just keep replacing parts until it works right, and some people have ended up junking their cars after a long time of this. I know it is hard to believe the crank position sensor but I read two different stories where a mechanic tapped the CPS with a screwdriver and the motor stalled. Replacing said part fixed the problem and there was no CEL.

 

[NUTCASE]

Wouldn't he see stuff coming out by disconnecting the fuel filter and running the pumps?

I did that while I was purging some of the gas. Bad gas can appear completely clear.

Like I said in my post, I think I did get a bad load of gas, but my tach adapter went bad at the same time which really killed me.