Need Help from the experts diagnosing a problem

[hotdog19d]

I was driving to work the other night, and i stopped to get a few red bulls. As I pulled in to the parking lot the car just died. So I restarted it and it would not stay running unless i gave it gas. So I shut it down, got out, and did a once over and found nothing. Ran the peake and found no fault codes. I started it up again an it ran fine. So I shut it down one more time and restarted and it ran like crap again. I decided to try and make it to work and deal with it later. On the way there the car would decacelerate even with it floored like it wasn't getting any fuel. After a second it felt accelarate again like i got fuel pressure back ? I thought it maybe a fuel delivery problem somehere, but when I got to work there was a distinct burining smell under the car. Now the car runs fine ever since??? Anybody have any ideas??

[TiPerformance]

How many miles on the car? How old is the fuel filter?

You might have gotten a bad tank of gas, or you may have dirty injectors.

[hotdog19d]

The car has about a 130,00

Yea I know it could be a million things, but I ruled out the fuel filter, because of the burning smell from underneath the car. I have to admit though that the fuel
filter hasn't been change out in "quite some time", so I'm not going to completely
rule it out.

[brucelee]

I would change the fuel filter which you have to do anyway. Also run some Chevron fuel cleaner through your next tank full.

Could be injectors being clogged and this may do it short of pulling those.

Good luck.

[maurolin]

here are my guesses:
leak on the vacum like for the fuel press reg.
bad fuel pump
bad gas (water dirt)

[hotdog19d]

Yea I need to get a new fuel filter, but anyone have any ideas what the burning smell could have been?

[aceyx]

how old is your clutch?

[hotdog19d]

I'm positive it's not the clutch.

[hotdog19d]

Also the car has ran fine ever since that one incident, but I'm still going to change the fuel filter for good measure.

[motorsport]

injectors or fuel pump? if it isnt getting fuel the pump could be losing its ground and regaining it again. but before i did anything i would replace the fuel filter if i was you, it wont hurt anything.

[hotdog19d]

It has to be something with emissions, because it heated my cat up red hot.

[aceyx]

if the cat is getting hot it means it's dealing with a lot of unburnt fuel (however, this should trigger the o2 sensor, no?).

in any event, check your plugs for fouling, and also test the spark to see if the wires are worn (use a tester; they're inexpensive and much safer). i generally replace plugs every 50k, just because they're cheap and it only takes 10 minutes.

other potential causes are injectors, check valve, leaking gaskets or worn rings. after doing the fuel filter and checking the plugs, i would take it to a cert mechanic.

[ultralinear]

Also, it could be that the cat itself is or was developing a clog. I've seen this happen with other cars. That would also explain the build-up of heat. They will sometimes clear until even more of the ceramic breaks loose and it REALLY clogs.

[chepas]

It sound like a E30 of a friend of mine, i did everything possible to fix it:
spark plugs
fuel filter
cleaned the inyectors
fuel pump was almost brand new
air filter

was fixed it a little, but 2 days later the problem came back again and the f**ker died.

i changed the whole igntion wire, a then the car started again and the problem was gone. the smell could've been one of the wires burning as well.
tried this if nothing of the above works.

Good luck!