Here's the background. I bought a very used 89 Pontiac Sunbird last October, and put a lot of money into it. I bought it knowing that it had problems with the fuel system including several leaks in the fuel line and a hole in the gas tank. I've replaced the entire fuel line, but the tank still has a hole in the top, preventing me from filling it up more than halfway.
Water tends to find its way into the tank, and, as expected, wreaks havoc on the car. I know and expected this. I usually pour some drygas into the tank when I fuel up, and I have a can of fuel injector cleaner for when the injector freezes up. Ok. Problem isn't fixed, but I can deal with it.
As of late the temperatute has become warmer, and one would think I would have less problems with water freezing in my fuel lines. However, the past week, my car has been giving me a lot of trouble. It will start all right, and seems to be ok in Park or Neutral, but it will run very rough as soon as I shift into Drive or Reverse and will stall at low speeds. Furthermore, it doesn't want to respond to the accelerator. I can push on the pedal, and it's like it's not even connected. Sometimes, if I just keep on blipping the throttle, it will respond, but if I keep the pedal depressed, it will rev back down and stutter. It sounds to me like the engine isn't getting enough fuel, and I thought maybe the injector was clogged. When looking at it, it seems to me that the injector is not spraying well. But, I removed the injector and cleaned it, and it had no effect. neither does spraying it with injector cleaner.
Now here's the really weird part. It runs like this all day, until 4:30, when I get out of work. The minute I leave work, she starts fine, and runs smooth as butter for the drive home. But she spazzes out during the morning on my way to work and during the day to and from class and work. At 4:30, she's usually been sitting out in the parking lot for 2-3 hours, so it's not like the engine is warmed up, I would think.... And it's a 40+ mile drive to work, so I would imagine that if she just needed to warm up, she would be fine by the time I got to work.
So, in summary, my car drives rough in the morning and during the day. Acts like the fuel injector is clogged, but I cleaned the injector and it made no difference. car seems to act like this in morning and during the day, but runs fine in the evening after it's been driven around a bit but has been sitting for several hours.
So, any ideas?
Water tends to find its way into the tank, and, as expected, wreaks havoc on the car. I know and expected this. I usually pour some drygas into the tank when I fuel up, and I have a can of fuel injector cleaner for when the injector freezes up. Ok. Problem isn't fixed, but I can deal with it.
As of late the temperatute has become warmer, and one would think I would have less problems with water freezing in my fuel lines. However, the past week, my car has been giving me a lot of trouble. It will start all right, and seems to be ok in Park or Neutral, but it will run very rough as soon as I shift into Drive or Reverse and will stall at low speeds. Furthermore, it doesn't want to respond to the accelerator. I can push on the pedal, and it's like it's not even connected. Sometimes, if I just keep on blipping the throttle, it will respond, but if I keep the pedal depressed, it will rev back down and stutter. It sounds to me like the engine isn't getting enough fuel, and I thought maybe the injector was clogged. When looking at it, it seems to me that the injector is not spraying well. But, I removed the injector and cleaned it, and it had no effect. neither does spraying it with injector cleaner.
Now here's the really weird part. It runs like this all day, until 4:30, when I get out of work. The minute I leave work, she starts fine, and runs smooth as butter for the drive home. But she spazzes out during the morning on my way to work and during the day to and from class and work. At 4:30, she's usually been sitting out in the parking lot for 2-3 hours, so it's not like the engine is warmed up, I would think.... And it's a 40+ mile drive to work, so I would imagine that if she just needed to warm up, she would be fine by the time I got to work.
So, in summary, my car drives rough in the morning and during the day. Acts like the fuel injector is clogged, but I cleaned the injector and it made no difference. car seems to act like this in morning and during the day, but runs fine in the evening after it's been driven around a bit but has been sitting for several hours.
So, any ideas?
On the plus side, she was nice and smooth driving to work today... I'll check her out when I get home.
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