Hard start, rough idle, acceleration hesitation in one day

[snowboarded]

Ok so I am now having hard hard hard starts at times, followed by very low idling, almost like the car is choking to death, and earlier in the day I was having horrible hesitation problems. I have had each of these sporadically in the past, but not enough to warrant worry as it would happen once every few months and only one symptom at a time. Now it is different. I am getting hit by them all at the same time.

Now I know for a fact that my alternator is dying, its chillin at 40 amps and declining, my plugs and wires need to be changed something fierce, my battery could use a replace, my injectors could use a clening (possibly need to get new ones), and my sterring pump is on its way out (not related in the least but figured its worth a mention) and I was going to be getting a walbro pump in the near future.

So with all this in mind, and since I am on a budget, what should I do first that will help out the most? Is there anything that I am missing that I need to do?

[Splinter]

Sounds like what happened when my fuel pump died, except it went from showing symptoms to total failure in about 2 minutes.

order the pump now is my advice.

[my3awds]

Perhaps your timing is off. I would double check that for sure, as a jumpped tooth would give those symptoms as well.

[snowboarded]

So I changed the plugs and wires yesterday as well as seafoaming it and cleaning the MAF. Scary thing is the maf was clear, no deposits, no dirtyness or anything, but i still cleaned it for good measure. After all of this I reset the ECU. It is starting up fine, no hesitation, and is no longer idling rough. It still idles lower than normal, but I attribute this to the ECU relearning, and the fact that my alternator is on its way out.

[greg donovan]

have you changed the fuel filter recently?

[snowboarded]

I haven't. I will be switching in a walbro 255 in the next 2 or 3 weeks tho. Where is the filter located? Anywhere near the pump on top of the tank?

[scuzzy]

So I changed the plugs and wires yesterday as well as seafoaming it and cleaning the MAF. Scary thing is the maf was clear, no deposits, no dirtyness or anything, but i still cleaned it for good measure. After all of this I reset the ECU. It is starting up fine, no hesitation, and is no longer idling rough. It still idles lower than normal, but I attribute this to the ECU relearning, and the fact that my alternator is on its way out.

The MAF is supposed to be clear and almost clean of any residue. it resides in the intake before any PCV or valve cover vents, thus no oil or residue should accumulate on it. There's no reason to clean your MAF unless it's visibly dirty.

I had problems explaining this to someone recently on the chat channel.

[snowboarded]

So I changed the plugs and wires yesterday as well as seafoaming it and cleaning the MAF. Scary thing is the maf was clear, no deposits, no dirtyness or anything, but i still cleaned it for good measure. After all of this I reset the ECU. It is starting up fine, no hesitation, and is no longer idling rough. It still idles lower than normal, but I attribute this to the ECU relearning, and the fact that my alternator is on its way out.

The MAF is supposed to be clear and almost clean of any residue. it resides in the intake before any PCV or valve cover vents, thus no oil or residue should accumulate on it. There's no reason to clean your MAF unless it's visibly dirty.

I had problems explaining this to someone recently on the chat channel.

I cleaned it because I figured why not rule out any possible problems. It was clean but not spotless. Maybe cleaning it out knocked out that little piece of debri that was affecting it adversly. I wasn't cleaning it for the sake of cleaning it. Plus if done correctly there should be no real danger.

[snowboarded]

Ok so I just finished replacing the fuel pump with a walbro 255, new puralator fuel filter, and brand new pcv valve. From the small amount I drove it tonight, there were no problems whatsoever. I will put a write up on it soon.

[vrg3]

Yay.

[snowboarded]

Thanks again Vikash, you are a life saver.

[vrg3]

You're welcome.