Stopped at a car wash on the way to the Woodward cruise and the Rotary club event, and my car literally started cutting out at low rpm in 2/3/etc gear. First gear I could wind it up as much as I wanted, but as soon as I got into second, it would rev up then almost hit a rev limit of some sort...but the limit wasn't stable..it was just all over the place...if I kept my foot on the gas, it would all of a sudden lurch forward and drive normal for a second..then kick the engine speeddown...

I tried just shifting into 3rd and keeping it going, and it's the same..can't get enough speed to try any other gears, but i dont think that matters.... Now I limped to a parking lot in first and could rev the engine as much as I felt like in neutral, and idling it would run smoothly, and now i'm at the point where it went from idling to dead...car just stopped as i was sitting there watching it idle....and now will turn over but won't.


no check engine light, and i had some odbii tools with me and have no codes

Any idea what i can look at? tried doing some quick searches but finding stuff on a phone with a car full of people isn't exactly working well

Pete

 

damn dude. You obviously haven't reached the rx7 dudes in Pontiac then. If you are close I can give a couple guys a shout for you. I'm stuck in Windsor with prior engagements.
No codes.... smell anything different?

 

Nope...car just cranks, but doesn't even try to catch any more... I had new coils/plugs put in last year, and haven't had any issues since I put them in..just checked them again and reseated everything and it looked ok...Having a friend at a local shop tow me home...literally like a half mile from my house on the way to a rotary event..talk about luck...

 

sounds like your fuel pump.

 

I'll say the fuel pump too. I could be wrong, but that looks like the problem with your car. Keep us updated though. Good luck.

 

You do have gas?

Sorry couldn't resist......

 

Thats what I said in the Michigan Lounge.

 

You know, I'm not really sure what to think at this point...

Ok, got the car home and had no codes, looked for any signs of other issues, looked underneath the car, no issue...basically the car would then start and run for a couple seconds then shutoff...then would start and barely catch, then just crank and not even sound like it was getting gas at all. I had a quarter tank of gas...according to the dash gauge... But, I put a little gas in...and what do you know - things ran fine. Insert a couple hours of checking everything under the sun into that equation, though...

So the car is running, but it's still reading 1/4 tank left!? It's never misread before...was it even a misread? I went to the gas station and filled up all the way...it took 13 gallons... I've been tracking this previously but don't have the numbers in front of me, but i'm almost positive i've had this thing down to fumes at filled it up with close to 15-16 gallons previously?...which would indicate the indicator is still correct....i probably had around 3-4 in there already...so what, I have an issue where the pickup won't pick up gas or the pressure can't be sustained unless there's more than a quarter tank of gas in there? Don't recall seeing that one come up in the guide to Saturday afternoon fuel pump failures...heh! But again, i had just got a car wash....unless somehow water got in from the car wash and the pickup was grabbing the water? that doesn't even seem right, the pickup would be on the bottom of the tank, wouldn't the water rise to the top if it was in there?

I recall having a similar (definitely less intensive) rev limiting situation a couple months back where I couldn't accelerate over 3k on the highway briefly...went to change lanes and pass someone and after downshifting the car would just hit a mark and limit me there... never happened again after getting to my destination, and I thought it might be related to the air pressure light coming on while I was cruising on the highway earlier on that trip...then it went away (along with the pressure warning light, as the ambient temp had just changed significantly from the prevoius evening and i think it was just enough to lower the temp of the tire and trigger the warning light)

However, this rev limiting seemed to link together with what was happening today...which again, makes the whole 'fuel pump going bad' suggestion make sense....but I just drove the car 5 hours on the highway after all of this happened today, and not a single problem.


Scratching my head on what to do here...at least I made it to the Rotary club meet, but mother nature congratulated me by starting a downpour upon my arrival..heh It was like a big sign to just stay home today

Pete

 

Just wondering if the car wash itself was the culprit - water fouling the intake. Do you happen to be running an aftermarket CAI setup?

 

check your cat too