Bad Gasoline? Something Else?

[BubbaFL]

2002 Ford Windstar, 145k on the clock.

Today my wife filled up the gas tank. Shortly afterward, it started running poorly.

With no load, there is a slight miss when the engine is revved. Under load, there is an extreme miss (bucking, jerking) above 1500 to 2000 RPM.

The check engine light is NOT on. I've checked the computer, and there are no pending trouble codes for anything.

I have checked for vacuum leaks and did not find any. I've also replaced the alternator (it needed one anyway).

I added two bottles of gumout gas treatment (says it removes water). A few hours later, no change.

Does this sound like bad gasoline? Any ideas how to troubleshoot this short of draining the tank and refilling it from another station?

 

[Corvette Owner]

Sounds like it could be water, use a "treatment", like "Heet". Happened to me once, this fixed it.

 

[salv]

You will get a check engine light soon if it is running that poorly. Sounds like bad wires, coil, plugs, or a combination of any of the afore mentioned items.

 

[morepwr]

Did the car get filled up at a large brand name station or a small independent station that may not sell a lot? I would suspect the gas as well at this point.

 

[Rolla07]

Take it on the hwy for a good run, and refill with a bottle of techron or similar and good gas. That will eliminate bad gas as a possibility.

 

[spasm3]

when were the plugs and wires replaced? Fuel filter? Could be lean misfire from low pressure if the fuel filter is plugged.

 

[mikered30]

Water or high ethanol in the gas?

 

[suspiciousmind]

^^^^
Fuel filter?...due to bad gas??

 

[yonyon]

Does it have OEM Motorcraft plugs in it? Sometimes one of the platinum pucks falls off and there you go...

If you really think it's the gas, fill it up with E85 until you can see the gas at the top of the filler neck.

 

[Kuato]

For something that suddenly happened after a fill up, I would blame the fuel.

Give the fuel treatment time to work overnight; it will take some time to diffuse through the entire tank of gas, then additional time to get from the pump to the engine when you start it tomorrow morning.

I once got some bad gas (never went back to the station again, and they dug up the tanks 6 mos later) and my car had to sit for a weekend before it would even start again.

 

[crazyoildude]

fuel filter or fuel pump check the fuel pressure at the fuel rail

 

[punisher]

Figure a way to take a fuel sample. A quick visual will usually verify fuel contamination.

 

[Smokescreen]

Start with the cheaper items first. Start by pulling a spark plug wire, see if you can produce a similar response, if not move on to the fuel. Fuel filter would be my first guess making sure the fuel supply is constant. Even if the filter is mostly plugged it can still run, but fuel starvation has caused a similar response for me, I changed the fuel filter and back to normal. Check this soon though as the increased resistance to fuel flow can burn out the fuel pump in short order.

 

[BubbaFL]

So far I drained half of the gas tank (used the fuel pump to pump it out) and added a quarter tank of 93 from a different station.

Still missing but not as bad, so I pulled the #3 and #6 plugs to inspect.

Looks like it's time for new plugs?

Hard to tell from the pic but the outsides are starting to corrode and they look gunked up and worn to me.


CAM00066

 

[Rolla07]

Plugs look alright to me. How long have they been in service for? You could change them anyways but i would try to run that tank down first and refill it and see if the problem starts to go away. Just my 0.02 cents.

 

[BubbaFL]

Not sure how long the plugs have been in service. I haven't changed them since I bought the van (4yrs / 15k miles).

 

[KitaCam]

The plugs look like they made too many short trips...based on year...
I'd recommend taking the car out for a 30min highway on I95/I75 ride once a week to help keep the new plugs from getting carboned up.

 

[BubbaFL]

New plugs and wires did the trick, seems to be back to normal now.