My car is running really poorly. I started the car earlier and it started meagerly. Then the idle was rough and it seemed like it wanted to die. There seems to be a slight ticking coming from the engine. I just ran it around the block and it was bucking and continued to run poorly. I've checked under the hood and everything seems connected. The car was running fine 2 days ago (the last time I drove it). Could it be bad gas? I did just fill up on Friday, but I did a lot of driving on Friday and Sat and it was fine. What do you guys think is wrong? Thanks for any help.

 

im not really sure man, i've had similar problems but they were caused by things you dont have. my car also sat for about a month once and when i started driving it again it acted just how you're describing and it was caused by bad gas. i dont see how that could affect your car though since it only sat for 2 days. have you added any mods recently? also check your air intake between your mafs and the throttle body, see if any thing is loose or not connected. when you give it slight throttle does it sound like its going to die and giving it more throttle lets it run right? or vise versa?

 

Haven't added any new mods in a long time.

I'll check again to see if any connections are loose, but before I didn't see any thing.

Giving throttle makes it run slightly better, but it still sounds shaky and not right. When I ran it around the block, it would be poor at idle, get a little better as I started to move, then it would start to buck a good amount as I got up to 10-15 mph. I didn't go any faster than that.

Thanks for the reply.

 

yeah that sounds like a problem i've had before. like i said, check your intake pipe. mine came loose once right after the mafs and un-metered air was coming into the intake. had the problem another time but it was related to a mod i put on. and like i mentioned, had the problem again when i had bad gas. check your intake, fill it up with some more gas and drive around a little. water could have somehow gotten into your gas.

another thing to try is reset your battery. disconnect it for about 2 mins and start it up.

 

you are definately having A/F ratio problems. If you have an aftermarket intake I would try putting the stock one on for now just to troubleshoot. If its not an air metering problem then it is either a poor running fuel pump(bad gas), a clogged filter, a filter that isnt correctly attatched to the fuel line(common), or your fuel rails could be loose leaking fuel.

 

I know this is basic, but cars run poorly for three problems:

1 - too much or too little air

2 - too much or too little fuel

3 - Bad spark

Make sure as far as you can that all the basics are in place.

 

I'm guessing unmetered air also. Although both times I had that problem, the car would hardly idle and wouldn't go anywhere. Have you cleaned your Air Filter recently?

 

You definately have a vac leak somewhere...unmetered air is coming from somewhere.

Get some carb cleaner and spray it over your engine and over your vac hoses. If you hear your idle change, its probably a vac leak. That should help you pin it down.

Otherwise, have you tried cleaning the IAC? That might solve part of your idle problem

 

check spark and check for vacum leaks. I dought it is fuel and you can also check DTC by holding doen the odometer reset and scroll thru and check for the codes. Just my .02

 

Check for codes to see if anything comes up as that should always be the first step. How many miles do you have?