)So here's what happened: We stopped after church on Sunday to fill up the tank at the local BP and when I tried to get back in the car it would turn over but not catch. I usually try not to overfill the tank at all, but this time I probably did a bit. After about 3-4 minutes of cranking (it barely caught once or twice but didn't stay running), i went inside the station to grab some starting fluid. After coming back 5 minutes later the car started right up!
We had a similar situation arise last year where every few days or so the car would be hard to start. I replaced the fuel filter and haven't had a problem since. I assumed this was the same situation rearing its head (or there may have been vapor lock from overfilling the gas tank) so we got back on the road. Less than a half of a mile down the road the car stalled again! We pulled right off to the side of the road, put the car in park, waited a few seconds and it started right back up. I assumed wrongly again
Long story short, my wife goes to drop the kids off at the baby sitter yesterday and the car stalled twice on the way back and the second time didn't start back up immediately. At this point my exasperated spouse threw up her hands, (undoubtedly cursed a bit) and had a friend pick her up. Later on she collected her wits, remembered that she was married to someone would inevitably want to DIY and was too cheap to have the car towed, and had a friend drop her back off 6 hours later and drive the car the 3 miles back home with no problems (I was out of town on business - or I would have done it myself of course).
Understandably at this point she doesn't want to get back in the car unless she knows for a fact it is fixed. As a semi-responsible husband and father, I don't blame her. The most reasonable thing would be to have the car towed to a shop to get looked at, but I have a funny feeling that it is probably an easy fix. The strange thing about this is that the stalling seems to be as random as possible. Its not always at startup, and its not always on acceleration or when idling. My first thought is that it is fuel pump related, but I imagine that would mostly effect the car when accelerating. I did replace the battery a few weeks ago, but at least the major connections are snug. I will check for loose ground connections around the battery as soon as I get home.
Also, the check engine light came on with a code recently that is P0455 (i think, or maybe thats the other car?). I know I need to do a more thorough inspection of the vacuum hoses, especially aroung the fuel tank when I get a minute, but could that tie into the diagnosis??
Any help is much appreciated!!
