Alright, so I'm out after prom last night/this morning, taking my wonderful girl home after having the time of my life, when all of a sudden my car starts hesitating on the highway.. cutting in and out, finally powering down and not wanting to work at all. I get off at an exit ramp and the car dies. I try for a few minutes to start it and nothing happens. So I get the umbrella out as it is raining and walk my girl across the street to the gas station. She calls the folks and I decide to go out to the car and see if I can't get it away from this off-ramp. Starts right up. So I pull it into the parking lot of the gas station and let it sit. I came back today and it started right up, and I drove it home just fine. However, the check engine light was on 90% of the time (it used to come on for a minute or two on the highway and would go away. This time it stayed on until I got home and turned the car off). The gas fumes are also really bad. What's the verdict guys? I'm thinking fuel pump or fuel filter or something, but I'm not an expert in such matters. Please, please help me out. This is not how I planned on ending my prom night. (Though it did buy me a lot more time to spend with my date, hehe).

(1991 Formula, 305 TPI)

 

With it raining like it was, I'd say check your distributor cap to make sure water isn't getting in it. Same thing happened to my Stang.
Oh, and that's why I took my Mom's car to Prom, nothing more embarassing than breaking down on a date.

 

Actually I had thought about that (my Isuzu P'up I drove before this car had a problem like this) but it wasn't raining an hour ago when I went to pick it up, and I had the whole check-engine light smelly-exhaust thing going on then, so I figured it must be something else...

 

since the SES light is on, the computer is storing codes. refer to the tech articles for the procedure to get them and the meaning of each code number.

 

Yeah I know, I have been getting the check engine light off and on for a while, I already checked the code and it indicated rich exhaust. I've yet to check it to see if something was added.

I tried driving to school and work again. Was fine up until I just got to work and it died a 1/2 mile or so before it. I managed to start it a few times and go a few hundred feet each time, getting here to work. ::sigh:: Acts like it's outta gas, which is why I think fuel pump or something....

 

When these cars were still new, the vin E (like yours) had issues with the connectors on the coil. Ignition would cut in and out intermitantly. Even tho it was never officially "recalled", we still fixed the connectors.

Check the connecting wires on the top of this connector, make sure they arn't broken or halfway there, make sure the pins are still solid. If in doubt, try a new connector from the Junkyard.. All the remote-mounted coil F-body's used the same style connector.

-- Joe