Have a 98 JXI convt/2.5 liter. I am driving down south midwest to florida), after I passed though the hills of Tennessee and Alabama the car just lost power and completly died, with no indication. There is no check engine light. The car did start back up, but then it shutters and there is absoulutly no throttle response. Now it will bearly run. There is still no throttle response.
Funnything, this happened to the wife once last year when she drove it to New Mexico. But after letting the car sit for 30 mins is ran fine and has not skipped a beat....no luck for me. ANother thing I noticed is that the car began to get 40 + miles a tank the further I drove south. The same thing happened to her. Is this coincidence, or could this tell me something (like the car was running lean)?
Timing belt/plugs/wires/car/rotor are year old. I am guessing it is something with fuel pump/filter. Where does the pump sit in the tank? Is it likely that after going through some of the hills/mountains that krud in the tank resettled by the pump and clogged it?
It is at the shop now...won't get worked til morning. Besides hopefully getting a code or being one of the various sensors, does anyone have any info that would help me out. I'm stranded at the moment and need to be in place Tuesday morning, so I'll take any info. Thank you!!!

 

Tank on my '99 needs to be removed to access the fuel pump. It sits some what close to the filler hose. Has a plug on bottom of tank to remove gas to drop tank. Have you checked for any blown fuses? I know thats some what a moot point since you have stated it has started but ran like crap. And when you turn the key on can you hear any whir of the pump for a second or so before trying to start the engine?
You could have bad gas, for the stalling part, as the better mileage have no idea why thats happing?
I tend to think that it could be a pump going out? I've had a '95 Dodge Neon that had a pump going out and could milk it some by whacking the under side of the tank. But since you have it a shop it maybe better that they diagnose it and fix it since your away from home.??

 

Thanks for the reply. No I don't hear the pump precharging when I go to start it. So ither the fuse is blown, or the pump is krap. Do these type fuses go bad by themselves often, or does a blown fuse mean that something else in the system caused it to blow?

 

Usually a blown fuse will indicate a cause, but there's little harm in trying a new fuse with the correct rating and seeing how it goes. If the problem is still there, it will blow again. If the fuse is good, another possibility is a bad fuel pump relay, so you could test by swapping that with a new one or with a non-essential one and see if it makes the pump come on.

If you don't hear the fuel pump coming on, the pump is the most likely culprit though. Did you try banging the tank below where the pump is? That will sometimes get it going for a while.

 

mine was cutting out and it was the cam sensor breaking down, and once the sensor cooled down it would restart.

do you definatly have spark???