When I am low on gas my car will hesitate a lot and will feel like it almost kills. It only seems to happen at low speeds. I changed my fuel filter but that does not seem to have had any effect. Is my fuel pump going, do I need a tune-up? I would really appreciate anyone's help or suggestions. Thanks.

 

Could be a few different things.

1- inaccurate gas guage. No surprise here, even from the factory our gas guages suck. If it starts to get a little flaky, you might be even lower on gas than you think. Thus your problem is not enough fuel on the pick-up which would cause fluctuations in pressure and thus your problem.

2- broken pick-up in the tank. Think about drinking out of a straw. Now think of what happens if you have a crack in the straw. When the level of frosty beverage gets below the crack you start sucking air...

3- Fuel pump on the way out. The fuel pump is cooled exclusively by the fuel in the tank. When you get low on gas, the pump will run hotter. If it's on it's way out, it may run so hot that it decides to start flaking out. Or something similar.

4- General funk in the tank. (not to be confused with the p-funk ) When you get way low on gas, all the sediment and crap is 'concentrated' in what's left in the tank. Which could be clogging the pick-up sock in the tank. When you refill, it gets a little breathing room back..


Unless someone can think of something i'm not, i'd say you're going to be pulling your gas tank soon. And take special notice of point 3. Running around with a nearly empty gas tank is a very very bad idea in a fuel infected car. It takes a big toll on the fuel pump when it doens't have anything to help cool down and leads to it's early death.

 

if i'm remembering right, don't 1LE fuel tanks have a little thing at the bottom that keeps the fuel from going all over the place when you turn?

i'm just saying that if he's gonna have the tank out anyway, he might as well put one of those in (if you can get one, if they exist, i'm not totally sure). does anybody else know?