[ANTHONYD]

DanielB_ZX3,Apr 4 2005, 10:04 AM Wrote:Hmm.. add me to the list.

I filled up with gas last week (at Sunoco, as always) and as I pulled away felt a hesitation in the engine while in 3rd gear. It was brief, just a stutter.

Over the next few days I noticed it happening more often, and randomly - usually in 3rd or 4th gear at below 3000rpm. If I accelerated hard (or put in netural and revved) it seemed to cure it temporarily. I thought it might have been a batch of bad gas.. so I let it run down (about 25km after the light came on) and put more in.

At first I thought it had fixed itself, but 2 or 3 days later and the problem is back.

Then early this morning I went out and it started off normal but then started hesitating, and then when I got a red light it sputtered and I was able to get the revs up just in time (sounded like it was going to stall). But as I pulled away from the light, the engine sounded it was running on 2 cylinders and it felt sluggish all of a sudded. I hit a bump and it seemed to shake itself back to normal. Then another red light, and same thing when I started up again -- it felt like something was plugging up my exhaust pipe and the engine was suffocating. I took about 10 seconds just to get to 40km/h, and maybe 20 to get to 60km/h from a stand-still.

No lights, oil temp normal. I was obviously concerned, so pulled over and checked things out. Nothing in the tailpipe that I could see (unless I have birds nesting up inside!), oil level normal, all vacuum tubes appear to be in place, nothing leaking, air filter (cone) clean... hmm. I wasn't far from home so decided to drive home as nothing was open at that time anyhow.

First thought was fuel pump.
But don't they normally just quit?

Fuel filter was next thought - but it was only replaced ~15,000 km ago. I had an injection cleaning service at the same time. It shouldn't be clogged already.

I an overdue for an oil change if you go by the book - I think I'm at about 14,000km  . I wonder.. what would be the effects of a clogged oil filter??

Never had a DPFE problem, but I suppose it could be.
Does the DPFE problem give a dash-test error code??

I'm thinking fuel pump, and I suppose I should take an oil change too.
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How empty was the car when you filled up???

You could have just had some "sludge" go through the filter from the bottom of the tank.

The DPFE will eventually throw a CEL just be patient.,