So my fiance had just gotten gas, her car started shaking and bouncing a couple hundred feet from the gas station, she put it in park and it seemed better, then put it in drive it it did it again. She then turned it off and it would then no longer restart.

I wish I was in the car as this is the best description I can get out of her. Anyways, got it towed home for free courtesy of AAA and from what I gathered it sounded to me like a fuel pump or fuel issue. I checked the pump and lines, cars getting fuel to the fuel rail. So thats not it.

I'm going to go check the spark here in a second but what other things could this be? Bad gas??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

 

Pulled the number four plug, covered with gas and when grounded out sparked just fine.

 

Any dash lights on?

 

Its turning over and cranking butt not showing any signs of starting. So all the dash lights are on basically since it hasnt even started up.

 

Alright. Did you check all cylinders for spark?

 

Hey show, I only checked number 4 to see if it was getting spark. Since I checked number 4 and saw there was fuel on it and the plug fires I am thinking that it should have at least stumbled or shown some signs of starting. Its not doing that. Will still probably check all of them tomorrrow.

 

If the other three are dead your car might not seem like it's trying to fire.

 

I'll check, plugs are only about 500 miles old.

 

-ignition (http://techauto.awardspace.com/ignition.html)

 

If you got spark on all then check the injectors to make sure they're firing.

 

Any CEL codes?

Was spark bright white or weak orange or deep blue?

Check the mechanical timing to see whether the timing belt skipped a tooth or two.

If all above is fine, compression test the cylinders.

 

Will check that tomorrow too but when I did a compression test on this engine less than 2 months ago it looked healthy.

Spark was bright white.

 

That was then, this is now.

 

I had a similar experience, turned out to be my igniter (aka icm)..but that is an expensive part, so definitely troubleshoot everything else that has been suggested first.

 

don't think its the time belt try the battery to see if it tighten or try the negative cable that hits the ground for the battery maybe it loose but it strange since the car started shaking the whole car or just the inside of the engine?

 

Thanks for the help guys. After running through every troubleshooting scenario I could come up with I came to the conclusion it was bad fuel. Well I was somewhat right, turns out she put diesel into her car. Finished draining the fuel last night, flushed the system and its running good as new again with the proper fuel in it.


Jeff