Greetings All,

I noticed that my engine would studder when the gas guage got in the red so I added a bottle of Gumout. I then added 11 gallons of gasoline. Now, the engine studders all the time, almost cuts off, has little power and the Check Engine light is on.

Does anyone know what could be happening or can someone recommend what I should do?

Thank you,

JMW

 

Go up to "Technical" and then "Engine and Exhaust" - post this there.

THIS forum is for FORUM troubleshooting - you know, problems with the website!

You will get more attention there - many of us hardly ever look at this area of the forum.

 

I can't imagine why the engine would shudder only when the gauge is in the red zone. It would have been better to keep enough gas in it to keep it out of the red zone than to put gumout it.

Nevertheless, you need to do a code check for the check engine light. Perhaps you have a auto parts store near by that can do that. Call around before going.

 

It's possilbe that there may have been some gunk in the bottom of the tank and by adding the gumout may have broke it loose and clogged up the filter !
Just a thought !

I usually add a pint of STP to the gas tank at each oil change to be on the safe side. One never knows what they're buying at the gas pump these days ...

 

This is my vote as well

 

Start by having the CEL code read, and post that on here so we know what code it is.
Have you had any work done on your car recently?

How many miles are on it?

BC.

 

Hey guys,

Here's NovaCharged's CEL codes from another forum he and I visit:

Any suggestions?
Other forum says that it is most likely the MAF sensor, and I agree with them.

BC.

 

Wouldn't a clogged fuel filter cause the multiple cylinder misfire? After adding the gumout and made things worse I would think the problem would be in the fuel system.

 

Here are the engine codes (note, they are P-ZERO-104, not P-OH-104)

P0104 - MAF SENSOR THROTTLE ANGLE AND SPEED
P0134 - O2 SENSOR 1/1 CIRCUIT OPEN
P0154 - O2 SENSOR 2/1 CIRCUIT OPEN
P0300 - MULTIPLE CYLINDER MISFIRE
P0302 - CYLINDER #2 MISFIRE
P0304 - CYLINDER #4 MISFIRE

This might sound like a dumb question but did you run it out of gas? We have a pressurized fuel system on these cars sorta like old diesel tractors that you'd need to prime them if they ran out of fuel. If you did, cylinders 2 and 4 are closest to the test port and farthest from where the fuel enters the fuel rail. You could have had an air pocket and not a good solid stream of fuel going through those injectors hence the 2, 4 and multiple cylinder misfire codes. The O2 codes could be from it cranking and not seeing a steady pulse as it would when the engine is running normally and the maf code could be a result of the this two as it is comparing what it sees to the O2 sensors. Just a thought. If you didn't run it out of gas, I can't think of any other reason why it would do this other than the gum out moved all the nasty crap from the bottom of your tank to your filter.

 

Iam gonna get into this and say that it looks like a vacuum leak to me. Get a vacuum gauge on the intake and see if you are doing about 18 - 20 inches of mercury at Idle.

If its low then check the seal from the throttle body to the intake assembly to see if it is split or cracked. If that is it, let me know and Ill tell you how to fix it.

WOODY

 

Since it started after you added more gas and gumout - you may have got a slug of water when you filled up -
May just want to run it a while and see if it clears - then try different station

(had the same thing happen in my truck - turned out to be water)

 

It got fixed and here is what happened:

The mechanic changed the spart plugs and it did no good. Then he borrowed a coil pack and started swapping it around and it did no good. Then I told him again what happened again, reminding him that the problem started within 5 miles of adding the Gumout, so he put something in the tank called CFoam (or Sea Foam). Within 5 miles, the problem was gone.

That whole exercise cost me $300.00. Guess what I think of Gumout

Thanks Everyone!

PS - The car did run out of gas on Thanksgiving day.

 

Glad you got it fixed. $300 is a expensive "lessons learned". Going forward, never let the gas gauge go much below 1/4 tank.

 

Ouchey ! Lesson learned !

 

Would there be any detriment to adding a can of seafoam to a full tank, in a car with ~23k miles on it? I know the X-Fires w/o the catch-can have issues with very oily intake assemblies... (HDDP's handiwork showed us this).