I've been having trouble with my car for a little bit. I don't really drive it much anymore but when I do it acts up sometimes. The check engine light comes on from time to time but when I go to bring it into the dealership it goes off before I get there.
I've had 2 instances now though that have scared me a little.
The first time happened about 3 weeks ago. I was driving along. Came to a light, everything was normal until I went to go again. The car had no power at all, it felt like it got a quick 2 second boost then was just rolling. I tried second gear thinking that might help and nope, no power at all, even with my foot all the way on the pedal. Then it started to pump power bursts, like a split second of power then nothing again. It gave off a BAD smell, like something was burning. My friend in the car behind me said that he smelt it as well. Stopped the car, popped the hood to make sure that nothing was on fire (smell was that bad), waited a few minutes and turned it on. It drove normal the rest of the way home (about 3 minutes)
I've driven the car twice since then with no problems until tonight. I drove to my gfs house, car drove fine the whole way, no engine light and car felt normal (about a 10 min drive). When I went to back into the garage when I got there the car started acting up again. The RPMs would drop down to about 500 at idle then come back up to 1000ish. Then I tried revving it gently, did the same thing. When I went to back it up I had to give it a lot of gas and rev it up to about 2500 RPM just to get it to stay above 1000.
The car is a 99 2.4L with about 115,000km on it, which is roughly 70,000miles I think.
Does anyone have any ideas on what it can be? I will take it to the dealership when the light comes on again so they can tell me what code its throwing. But like I said I don't drive the car often, so it might be a little while, so I'm hoping someone can give me some tips on what to look out for. I'm thinking it can possibly be the fuel pump, I haven't had it changed yet, but I am taking a stab in the dark here.
Thanks a lot!
"Louis, you better watch who you call a child. Because if I'm a child,
that makes you a pedafile, and I'm not gonna stand here and argue
with a pervert" -- Peter Griffin
Has anyone ever scanned it for History codes? Some codes will leave that.... even if it's already fixed itself.
Intermittent problems are the WORST to track down... take it step by step, systematically tracking any problems you do have... then go from there. Don't start randomly replacing stuff hoping it'll fix it. You waste too much time and money doing that...
It does sound like some sort of fuel problem. As Lenko said though... you need more information.
Even with the light off, have it scanned to see what might be wrong. If you've got a good dealer to go to they shouldn't charge you for this.
When did you last change your fuel filter?
Have you tried running a bottle of fuel system cleaner through it? It's a cheap first step that will do you some good whether it solves the problem or not.
As mentioned... you don't want to just go and start replacing expensive stuff until you're pretty sure it's the cause of the problem.
How old is the catalytic converter?
Curiously... I had some fuel issues over the past few days as well. My gas gauge went all wonky and I had trouble filling my tank. I wonder if there's some bad gas going around??
The Cat is as old as the car. As well the fuel filter has never been changed
I didn't know that they can pull codes even when the light is off, I guess thats my first step.
"Louis, you better watch who you call a child. Because if I'm a child,
that makes you a pedafile, and I'm not gonna stand here and argue
with a pervert" -- Peter Griffin
I jsut got it checked out at the dealer. Turns out its a TPS censor, or something like that. So if anyone else has this problem as well get yours checked before it gets worse!
"Louis, you better watch who you call a child. Because if I'm a child,
that makes you a pedafile, and I'm not gonna stand here and argue
with a pervert" -- Peter Griffin
Yeah, that'll definitely cause you some problems since the car manages most of it's closed loop fuel operations based on the TPS sensor.
My g/f's car is having the exact same problem; no power, smells, check light with TPS code. Post up if replacing it solves the problem.
Thx
Ryan
