Was out with the car today and experienced some odd issues. Car ran fine for about an hour till the day warmed up and I ended up in some stop and go traffic. I was in this traffic for 30-40 minutes when I started noticing that the car smelled like it was running very rich and I was getting some strange idle blurps. The longer I drove the worse the idle got and my acceleration started to fall off. Eventually I couldn't get it above 40 with out it heavily bogging down. Shortly after that I had very little acceleration and pulled over to the side where it died. Still had pressure gauge on the fuel side and had pressure still. Called for a tow. When I tried to start it would act like it wanted to catch but wouldn't. Sat for about 30 minutes and gave it another go at a start. Again acted like it wanted to bite but wouldn't. Put pedal to floor and tried again and it started right up. Good acceleration and power. Got about halfway home and problem returned. Pulled into gas station where it died. Sat again for about 20-40 minutes. Started it again by putting the pedal to the floor and had normal power and idle. I was right by the freeway so jumped on and had no issue hitting 80 and the car acted normal all the way home. Thoughts where to start?

Wife was with me so you can imagine how that conversation went. I told her I was make a post and she got excited thinking it was on a for sale forum.

Thanks in advance

 

First off, what year? N/a or turbo?

 

As the title says it's an 88 Na

Thanks

 

title only says 88, nothing about being n/a or turbo, which can make a drastic difference

Anyways, theres many options, you could have a coil (probably leading) breaking down and not sparking when hot

could be a water thermo sensor giving the computer sporadic readings

when was the last time it had a good thorough tune-up? Vacuum lines original or have they been replaced? Last fuel filter change? Have you checked compression lately? Looked for vacuum leaks? Have you cleaned your grounds? Especially the one under the intake manifold

Theres alot of little things to check/replace that are cheap insurance for you and the car, that can add up to big problems

In all honesty, it sounds like you need to do more investigating before we can give you an idea of where to start looking, right now we're pretty much just gonna tell you to put your computer closer to it to see if we can "see" the problem

 

deflooding got it started after a while, eh? ... i would look into the ignition system first - coils, coil grounds, wires, and CAS.

my initial thought went to the fuel pump, but if you said you've confirmed pressure during these episodes, then i guess that's good enough for now. however, when this is all over/resolved, it still may not hurt to have your injectors looked at if they've never been addressed before.

if only she knew.

 

Fuel pump is quite new and I had a pressure gauge still hooked up. Doubt it's vaccu hoses since the problem only seems to happen when in stop and go after really heating up and I would think a vacuum issue would cause issues all the time.

Coils having issues seems a good probability, especially since I could smell it starting to run rich after running fine for over an hour. Weakening coil not getting full combustion would cause this. What's the best way to test these things? Especially being intermittent. Would be nice if I had 2 I could swap in, but I don't.

Once I stopped and let it sit for 20 minutes I was able to get it started again and it would run fine for awhile.

Thanks.

 

When the car is fully warmed up (driven for twenty minutes) check the Green/Red wire of the TPS w/key to on and it should read 1 volt. If it does not then adjust the voltage via the TPS adjustment screw til it reads 1 volt.

Also, check the water thermosensor as it should read 2 to 3 volts for a cold engine and the voltage drops to .4 volts w/the engine fully warmed. Pin 2I of the ECU (Green/White wire) is for this sensor.