Lugged, sputtered, died; no restart
 

Hey all,

Driving my 94 today on the freeway and it started jerking and running poorly. I stopped in a parking lot and it seemed to run fine but every once in a while it would lug and bog down, then idle fine again. Tried to move out of the parking lot, it actually stalled on me and now won't restart.

Here's what I noticed:

-lugged at any RPM
-has 3/4 tank gas
-plenty of oil
-cranks fine
-no lights came on until it actually stalled, even while bogging down
-temp gauge normal
-no leaks underneath the car

Now what would cause a situation like this? Bad ignition? Distributor? Fuel pump? All underhood components are connected, wired, and whatnot. The car ran fine prior to today.

Ideas?

^^bump^^

Anyone?

Plenty.

Tighten clamps on Air Intake Hose (Biggest hose on the car) and inspect
for any cracks in the ribs of the hose. Easy solution.

Bad Fuel? Add gas treatment $2.00 or less.

Question....
Do you have spark at the plugs? Easy way to test without shocking
yourself is to remove plug number 1 and wedge into hoist hook on
top of the Engine(Chasis Ground) careful with the threads. Have
someone crank over the engine and watch for repetitive spark
through the full crank time. Also a good time to inspect the plug
for fouling or worn electrodes, which could cause you problem as
well.

Provide more info.

Best Regards

I'll doublecheck everything and get back at ya.

When was the last time the fuel filter was changed? If it's been a good while, that could be a definite problem. Topfile's right, pull a plug and see how worn they are. With these fuel injected, computer controled cars, the symptoms of need for a tune up aren't always so gradual. The computer makes up for the difference in performance failure quite well until it just can't anymore.

Check for that spark. After that, take off the oil cap on the engine and have someone inside the car try to crank the car on. If there's nothing moving in there then the timing belt broke.

first thing i think of with those problems is fuel filter....

But Specture, if it was the filter, wouldn't it have started bothering a long time ago? Dirty filters usually have the car bothering and slowly getting worse over time. Don't get me wrong. I have always changed the filter first when I start getting any kind of stalling or starting problems. It's the easiest and cheapest job to do and might end up being the answer to the problem. It's just that this doesn't seem like the problem. Do the timing belt check since it's even easier than changing a filter. If it checks out ok, change the filter. The filter should be changed anyway if it hasn't been in a long time.

ill just throw in my two cents here.....the second u disconnect the air meter itself from the engine at any rpm it dies......ive run my car strait off the air meter with no filter before and besides sounding cool i get better performance....but besides that i would check my plugs and air clamps/hoses.....it could be more serious like a bad cylinder or something....but....who knows...