running out of gas....
 

so about 3-5 weeks ago i ran out of gas.. car shut off, fuel pressure dropped, that whole mess of shit, good thing i was 100 yards away from my apt complx entrance. i got it restarted and drove back to my place (on fumes.. my fuel pressure gage was bouncing). went put a few gallons of gas in, it sputtered a few times while it got the air bubbles out(im guessing) then ran basically normal.

ever since then its been randomly hesitating. not at a specific rpm or anything like that, which would lead me to believe it is not timing related. did i just get a bunch of crap on the bottom of my tank stuck in my fuel system? it has stalled a couple of times(3 at the most in this whole time span)when it hesitates in neutral while im turning or stopping. i put a injector cleaner in with about 8-10 gals of gas but i havnt really noticed an improvment.

what can i check?

what should i replace first if needed?

did i break shit?

is the hesitating even related to the gas thing or could it be timing, or something else?

help?

edit> changed thread title

check your fuelpump, or fuel filter ?

yeah thats what i would suggest. also it could be from stuff that had sttled on the bottom of the tank and a mixture of injector cleaner still running through the system, i would say run it out again, but not like before, almost out, and then fill er' up again and check, i know thats how i solved the problem on the civic, has the gas mileage changed?

Not sure it's fuel......Have you ever replaced the PCV valve? That might be it.

ive never replaced it. how much do one of those run?

im at around 4000 miles for oil, so im gonna change that either today or tomorrow(weather permitting) and check around for loose vaccum lines or something

no rain today, thats oh 1 day out of 22 i think for florida? it was good to not have to worry about wet roads!

haha yeah i got out yesterday and managed to change my oil before the rain

Man...running a tank dry can completely fuck any EFI car. You could have some wicked vapor lock or you could have cavitated the pump. The big problem with in-tank pumps is that when you run below a 1/4 of a tank or so, the pumps start to heat up since they rely on the gas to cool them. When you run the tank dry it just causes more problems. I don't think it's the PCV valve (although it might be a good idea to change that anyway since they cost less than $10), especially since the problem only started after running the tank dry. I'm willing to bet it's fuel related.

well whats step one in fixing this then?

reset the ecu. i know it fixed my accord few times when i ran out of gas or i started it with the kill switch on

i did that last week... didnt help :no:

replace your PCV valve first... it's cheap and easy. Then crawl in the back of your car and pull the fuel pump/strainer and visually check it out. I had a similar problem with one of my Civics, and it ended up being the fuel pump. Rust had begun to develop in the tank and eventually clogged up the strainer and burnt out the pump.

ok, i post this on PO.com and came back with the following responses.

1: i was just having a horrid problem similar to this today... what helped was re-gapping my spark plugs.

not saying that you need to do this, but you might want to check that they are not gapped too wide.

2.fuel filter would be a good place to start

Just curious but what did you mean by the fuel guage bouncing? Do you have an analog setup?

yeah i have a analog one. i'll check the plugs and filter today

i threw code 3.. electrical problem with mass air flow sensor...

that will do it also.

cuase the car to run in limp mode and stutter majorly.

yup, now since its electrical that means i have a bad connection somewhere? what should i do to fix this problem?

change the sensor, then reset the ecu.

how much is the sensor?

i dont know. never had to replace it before.

this is the reply i got from PO.com

We don't have mass air flow sensors... we have map sensors (manifold absolute pressure). This sensor measures vacuum from the throttle body. You should find the map sensor on the firewall (if memory serves) Check Helms for how to troubleshoot. Also, did you make sure to change the pick up in the fuel pump? When you run your car out of gas, the fuel pump tends to pick up all the sediment at the bottom of the tank. This is why many people complain of problems after running the car out of gas.