It was snowing pretty hard last night and i was making my way home when all of a sudden while my foot was on the gas the engine would spudder and stop running for a couple seconds then run... it would go on and off... i have a loud exhaust and i could tell that the times the engine was off it was REALLY off... i heard nothing from the exhaust even though i still had my foot on the gas... i had 2 bars left on fuel... then the stops started to happen more than the engine was going... i then got the light that i was low on gas... i kept it going until i got to the nearest gas station... filled it up about half way... then the rest of the trip home i was fine... but i got a CEL... anyone know what happened??

thanks

 

do you have a CAI? also, maybe the gasoline at the bottom of the tank was really bad(had water).

 

i do have a cai... but wouldnt the same thing happen if i drove in the rain? but if thats the problem... how do i remedy the problem?

i turned on the car this morning and let it warm up a bit... seemed to run fine... but that CEL is still bothering me!

 

That sounds like you might have been close to running out of gas. I had that happen to me once, gas was low car would hesitate even when the pedal was all the way down. I dono why you got a cel though...

 

Probably started to run too lean if you had crappy watered down gas. You should pull the code to see what it was, reset it and then see if it comes back.

JJ

 

I get CELs constantly from a loose gas cap. I tighten it, but it just loosens back up once every few fill ups. If the tank was low, the cap might have vented the fumes and loosened in the process.

Were the cylinders missing or did the engine actually cut-out?

I'd suggest:

1) Make sure the intake/air filter is dry
2) Fill the car with premium
3) Tighten the gas cap good
4) Clear the CEL and try again

 

s2k_zonie... before i reset the CEL ill try to see what exactly the code is just to make sure

Doc... i only get premium 93... always from the same gas station... and i never had a problem before... although theres always a first... could it be that i sucked up water from my cai?

does anyone know how much it would cost to get the dealer to pull the codes from the car? or is it just worth getting a obd2 scan tool?

 

I think Checker/Kragen sells the ODBII for like $99, worth it to avoid taking it into the shop everytime the car throws a code.

If you DID suck up some water it hopefully wasn't enough to hydrolock. That can cause some serious probs. Might consider installing a bypass valve for winter/wet months ($15 and 10 minutes worth of labor).

Let us know how it turns out.

 

I know out west we can just go to an Autozone and they will pull the code for free. You might check that out. If you go to the dealer it will run around $85 for them to just hook up the machine.

You could have had some water in the tank, especially if you have had some dramatic weather changes recently that might cause condensation.

I agree with zonie, once you find out what the code is.

JJ

 

I would drop some dry gas in there too.