I was having both belts in my car replaced at the mechanic'* yesterday. They had a special deal going on where you could buy a card with all kinds of free or discounted things to have done for $50. It had a lot of things on it for free oil changes and what not, but I bought it mainly as it was a good deal, and had a free engine code scan on it which I've been meaning to get done. Anyhow I got them to scan it, and here'* what was pulled:

740 - Torque conv. clutch failure
171 - Fuel trim lean
300 - Misfire detected
530 - A/C pressure switch failure

Now they tried for a couple of hours to find the cause for the 1st three, and could not find any problems, as the engine was running fine and showing no symptoms of this. For the last one, my A/C had been working fine a couple of days ago, so I dunno why it suddenly went bad. In any case I grew tired of waiting on them to figure out what was wrong, so I told them I'd drive it as is, and if anything started acting up, or I figured out what the problem is, that I'd be back.

They could very well be idiots not knowing what they were doing, but I honestly feel that they couldn't figure out what was wrong, as the car was running very well, and if there was an issue it sure wasn't showing one. Is there something that they're missing? Should I be overly concerned that something'* about to go, or is this something I can ignore for now?

Was the check engine light on and if so.. how long has it been on?

Most likely if you tuned it up etc..then you fixed the issues that caused the middle two codes.

Check your fuel pressure, and tell us what rpm'* you run at 55mph with the cruise control on.

I'll have to take it for a spin tomorrow to check the rpm'*, although my cruise control doesn't work. There was/is no check engine light on; I was having them scan to see what else if anything I needed to get replaced, as I'm finally to a point where all of the major problems have been resolved.

That being said though, I made the trip from Virginia to Ohio (500 miles) for a couple weeks vacation. Everything was great until about 100 miles from my destination, I started getting a hesitation/stall if I so much as pressed the pedal down any more than 1/4 of an inch. If I pressed it down any past that, it would immediately start losing power and speed, so I ended up having to go VERY slow to accelerate.... made for a very nasty time. As it started getting dark out, I noticed that my gauges/headlights were dimming considerably, and started to believe that it is an electrical problem. I've checked the battery terminals, and all cables between there and the alternator with nothing seemingly out of place. I was heavily leaning towards the alternator going bad, but when sitting still at idle, everything is fine. When trying to accelerate from a complete stop (90% of the time), or at other seemingly random times it'll start to drain, and the engine all but dies until a few seconds later when it all returns to normal. I'm starting to wonder if the shielding on some wire is grounding out somewhere... In any case I'm going to take it to Auto Zone in the morning and get the battery & alternator tested to try to eliminate that... :?

Btw, almost forgot to mention that the accessory belt has jumped a groove towards the edge of the pullies, so its starting to fray. Considering that its gonna be a pain to get it back in place, I can't be for sure if its causing this issue, or just something else to fix.

I went and got the alternator/battery tested the other day to see if that was the problem. The tech said to have the car idle at 2,000 rpm so he could get a good reading. Well the car started doing its "draining" as I was holding the pedal down, and ended up dieing. The tech said he thought it was fuel related, and not necessarily electrical. The best thing I could figure was that maybe I got some bad gas somewhere on my trip. So I put in some fuel system cleaner, and immediately it stopped giving me problems. I was able to drive it around all morning, with only a minor bit of the stalling happening, most times I was able to power through it. After thinking about it, I did end up stopping for gas in West Virginia, at some little run down old fashioned station. I needed gas at the time, and it was the only station around. So apparently that was the main source of my problem.

Later in the day in an attempt to run all of the old gas out so I could fill it back up fresh, the car got worse and worse as it got below 1/4 tank. It started having all of the same symptoms again, so I ended up filling up with fresh gas. Once again, the problem vanished right away. So knowing that its fuel related, any ideas why it runs like it does between 1/2 tank and 1/4 tank full? Could it be related to the codes my car is still apparently throwing?

Have the fuel pressure tested. There is a good chance that your pump is getting weak, there is also a possibility that the filter is clogging.

When was the last fuel filter change?

I just had the fuel filter replaced a month ago, otherwise I would've thought the same thing. I had discussed this with some friends, and they suggested that since fuel injector cleaner/water removers were seemingly fixing the problem, that maybe I have a large amount of water in the tank, so when it gets down to that last 1/4 of a tank, that the engine is just sucking that up. I'd have to agree with their suggestions of draining the fuel tank completely. How difficult would that be for the average person? Or would it be better left for a mechanic?

Let'* check your fuel pressure first.

Key on (no start), key off, 3 times, then leave it on (prime 3 times for 2 seconds).
Pressure?

Start and idle.
Pressure?

Start and idle, then pull the vacuum line off the FPR.
Pressure?

Pulling the fuel tank is roughly 2-3 hours of labor and a lot of cussing with rust in your eyes.

Testing fuel pressure is a 10 minutes job once you purchase a pressure tester for about $20-=30.

Test the pressure..lol