Its an 85 with the 1.1 NA motor. 230,000 miles.

My son has had several incidents where it has lost power while driving, once when he was on the gas pretty hard going up a big hill. He pulled off to the side and after a moment it started up and off he went. Later it had the same type of episode on the highway...it lost power and died. These happened about 3 weeks ago, today it acted up again...lots of d riving in between, he puts like 80 miles a day on this thing.

Today it happened again twice.....he pulled onto the shoulder and it wouldnt start but one of those emergency patrol trucks pulled over for him and splashed a cap of gas into the carb. It started, and he went on his way to work. The second time it happened today on the way to school, he pulled off and cranked and cranked it and finally it started again and went.

Sounds like a fuel issue...maybe the pump? Do they tend to get weak or fail intermittantly or are they usually a lights out failure?

Clogged filter maybe? Is that underneath somewhere ?

I think the previous owner said he had put a new fuel pump in a while back. (we've had it about a year now)
Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Neil

 

Gas tank nasty, fuel pickup heavily clogged. I'll betcha a dollar.

 

First bet is fuel as cookboy suggest.

Second bet is ignition failure. Usually only happens once a car get good and hot.

 

I'd replace the fuel filter first. Behind the left rear wheel. Slide under the car from the rear and you"ll see it. Cheap and relatively easy. Clamp both hoses so gas doesn't run down your sleeve. Once you get the old filter out inspect it for floating debris. If your tank is really dirty, filters may only last a couple of months.

 

As said above - fuel filter should be changed annually. $3-4 at an auto parts store. Mind you get the FLOW-DIRECTION of the filter connections correct! There is arrows of flow direction on the filters. NOTE the flow on the ORIGINAL filter BEFORE you remove it so you know which hose is which...

BUT - if the tank has rust/munge build-up inside (not unusual on old cars), it will just continue to plug either the filter itself or the gas outlet in the tank (to the fuel line). I believe there is a mesh covering this inside. If the problem persists then the tank has to come out and get chemically dunked, usually at a radiator shop in one of their emersion tanks. THEN you really need to re-seal the inside so this doesn't happen again. POR15 makes a tank seal kit for about $30. Been there - and this was the solution... PITA but doable at home. Keep us posted and we can walk you thru it.

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Well put, Stu. My recent experience is that even a brand new filter cannot overcome a clogged fuel pickup. The mesh strainer had disintegrated and the pickup tube had so much crud in it I was surprised it ran at all. I'd been through 6 filters in 1500 miles before I dropped the tank.

 

Just had similar problems out on the track with my RX-7. It was the fuel filter. It was a cheapo filter so i cut it open to get a look at the filter element and it was pretty much cardboard element. So I went with a Wix filter and the problem is nonexsitent. So be careful of the cheap filters because sometimes you get what you pay for.

 

I decided to start with the fuel filter. Blowing through it was pretty tough, but there was another issue there. The previous owner did indeed replace the fuel pump. the wires were electrical taped together and the pump itself was just lying up in some cubby...not mounted at all.

There was a problem with the fuel hose where it went to the pump, it had kinked over and was also rotting and flaking away right where it was kinked. I believe that with the pump sliding around up in that little recess there, at times, the old rotten hose probably nearly got pinched off. I zip tied the pump in place up there and replaced the lines to it. So far so good.

So, a combination, crappy filter and kinked hose= running out of gas.

 

I just had the same problem making me 49 minutes late to work the other day. I had replaced the fuel lines and fuel filter the day before. Drove around the neighborhood and all was well. About 15 minutes into my drive to work it stalled. I immediately checked the fuel lines and pump area to find that I had routed the main line from the pump to the carb through the right side of the pump mount and it had pinched and kinked against the frame. DOH! I re re-routed it through the left hole and no more kink.