So I posted on here about a month ago about my mishaps with this vehicle and I have done a lot more things to the car since then with no fix. I'll give you the run down.

When I first bought the car, it ran perfect. After about 4 months of driving about 1,000 miles a week (I deliver pizza) the car would jump a little on acceleration (Which now I understand as misfires) but nothing to harsh. I changed plug wires and it never did it again. Jump forward to 9 months of having the car, same driving conditions, it would sometimes be hard to accelerate from a stop when hitting ~3000 RPMs. It progressively got worse and worse and would happen with lower amount of RPMs and now it does it regardless of what I do. When I have a wide open throttle from a stop, the car goes to ~2000 RPMs and just increases in RPMs as the car SLOWLY accelerates. There is no quick acceleration with this car while it is having problems. As the RPMs increase, the car seems to misfire less and less until it hits ~5000 at which I am going about 20 MPH and at ~5000 the car tends to stop stuttering and accelerates fine until it has to shift at ~6000 RPMs. The car also tends to idle EXTREMELY rough in drive at a complete stop, and the problem gets more intense if I turn the air or heat on (Rough idle at a stop).

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN REVERSE, PARK OR NEUTRAL. I can tell this is not a transmission issue because 1. There is a CEL on for a Random Misfire (P0300) and a down stream O2 sensor (No Cat Converter (Symptoms were showing with it on and off, no difference)) and 2. I have had my transmission checked, flushed and filter replaced with absolutely no change in symptoms. I can tell you that when I am in park and I have the E Break on (I like to use it to save my motor mounts) while on a incline with my trunk lower than my hood, the car sputters and has an extremely rough idle. The vehicle has died like this sometimes. This is the only time the car dies on me, and it has never died at a stop light, stop sign or while in traffic. ONLY when I am in park with the trunk lower than the hood. I can even have my car on a flat surface without the e-break on, and push the front of my car back and the RPM's will sputter and drop, then go back to normal.

Here is a list of things I have done to try to fix the car:

Replaced Plug Wires x3
Replaced Spark Plugs x2
Replaced both coil packs and tested with moving their position
Replaced Ignition Control Module
Removed and Cleaned EGR Valve, nothing out of the ordinary
Removed cleaned and re-installed throttle body
Sprayed Brake Cleaner on ALL vacuum lines with no change
Replaced Fuel Filter
Replaced Fuel Pump
Replaced Fuel Injectors
Removed Cat Converter
Changed Oil and Oil Filter
Inspected Fuel Pressure Regulator
Removed and Cleaned all three sensors on the throttle body (I believe they are MAP(Not sure about this one), Idle Air Control and Throttle Position Sensor)

This car has ~80,000 miles on it and I am looking to have it run for another 100k miles or even more. This is the only problem with the car and I am starting to pull my hair out trying to figure out what this problem is.

It really sounds like you still have a fuel pump/supply issue to me, despite changing all the hard parts in the fuel system. Did you replace fuel lines? Are your lines rusted? They could be constricted or clogged. Is your tank venting properly? It the return system working? Did you check the fuel pump wiring? It could very well be something as simple as a poor ground connection somewhere in the fuel system wiring.

These are the only things I can think of. Maybe someone with more knowledge than myself will chime in.

If I remember correctly, the fuel pump is grounded to a stud under the carpet under one of the front seats.

Have you tested for voltage drop at the pump?


- Your not-so-local, untrained, uncertified, backyard mechanic. But my @!#$ runs

I have not done really anything other than what I posted in the first post. When I do push on the gas petal more than I would to normally accelerate, I can smell gas really bad, and multiple people have told me they smell gas as well. This tells me the engine is collecting enough gas, but isn't able to do anything with it so it expels in some way, and I can tell if I floor it a lot through out driving, my gas meter goes down more than usual, meaning it is pushing enough gas to the engine to cause the gauge to drop faster since it would be using more gas.

I have had a few friends tell me to look at the Crank Sensor and the Cam Sensor, since that also tells the spark plugs when and how to fire while driving. Do you think changing these could possibly help or does this not seem like something that those two parts would effect in any way?

It sounds like you have an ignition problem. Obviously if you're smelling gas on the exhaust side your not burning all that's being put in the cylinders. The symptoms you described (smell gas, rough idle, misfiring code) are identical to what my wife's ford focus was doing. I swapped the plugs, wires, air filter, you know basic trouble shooting stuff. After getting no where I decided to take off the ignition coil and sure enough #1 & 4 were cracked. I replaced it and BAM no more issues after that except for vibrations that I fixed a week later with new motor mounts.

Falcon 2.4 wrote:It sounds like you have an ignition problem. Obviously if you're smelling gas on the exhaust side your not burning all that's being put in the cylinders. The symptoms you described (smell gas, rough idle, misfiring code) are identical to what my wife's ford focus was doing. I swapped the plugs, wires, air filter, you know basic trouble shooting stuff. After getting no where I decided to take off the ignition coil and sure enough #1 & 4 were cracked. I replaced it and BAM no more issues after that except for vibrations that I fixed a week later with new motor mounts.

I have replaced both coil packs and the ignition control module on the vehicle. At the moment, I am looking into replacing my lower motor mounts but I don't see how these could cause the P0300 code (Random Misfire). I am still looking for some input on replacing the Crank and Cam Shaft Sensors. Would these cause any of my issues?