My 2000 SE died on me this morning on the way to work.

It was running a little rough when I started it but seemed to run normally once I got moving. After driving about two miles, I stopped at a light and twice heard a whine / growl (about a second or two in length each time) coming from the back seat area. It was the first time I heard this sound and it sounded like the compressor for the load leveling suspension in the 93 SSEi my dad used to drive.

When I stopped at the next light, my engine died on me. It cranked and would start but immediately die unless I gave it gas and kept the engine over ~1500 RPMs. I managed to start it in neutral and stay on the gas long enough to shift into drive and get it home, but if the RPMs come down below 1k it would stall again.

Neither my wife or I smelled gas / saw anything wrong, and my Check Engine light never came on. I've had some issues with this car, my oil pressure gauge doesn't work, my gas gauge goes all over the place, and I've had a hard-shifting issue with my transmission that went away after draining and running Trans-Tune through it.

My assumption is that my fuel pump is dying, but I wanted to check and see if there is anything I should look at first. The car is maintained ok, regular oil changes / air filter, but is due for a tune-up. It'* got 117k miles but this is the first time it'* died on me. Any suggestions or advice?

Also, I did take a look and see that fuel pumps run $250-400. Any word on how difficult they are to change or how expensive they are to have replaced? Thank you in advance!

Test your fuel pressure first. It could also be a clogged fuel filter.

It'* not all that difficult. There'* a cam locked access panel inside the trunk so you don't have to drop the tank.

I appreciate everyone'* help, it'* looking like I'll probably need to replace the fuel pump.

I changed my fuel filter this morning without much trouble and the car started running fine, but after about five minutes started sputtering and stalled out. After a few minutes it started for a second time and did the same thing.

I opened the panel in the trunk to make sure there wasn't a loose wire or something, but everything looked good.

Starting the car a third time, I could hear the fuel pump'* normal whine, but after about a minute or two I heard a louder mechanical growl. I wasn't sure if the 2000 SE had an air compressor near the right rear wheel for load leveling suspension, and that was my assumption for the noise. The fuel pump continued to run for another minute or two while the growl started and stopped, but after a minute or two the fuel pump quit abruptly.

I'm going to order a new salvage fuel pump tomorrow ($65) and see if that takes care of the issue.

Thanks everyone for your help, let me know if there are any other suggestions though!

Have you tried testing the fuel pressure? If you start at lets say 50# and the car sputters and dies and your still running 50# then the pumps not the problem.

The right rear is where the load leveling compressor is. As Dan said...test the fuel pressure. It sounds to me like the pump is not keeping up with the engine demand.

A problem I saw today when I was working on a GTP was the voltage was dropping, when that happened it seemed like he leaned out. Perhaps check the voltage while driving.

Checking the voltage is a good suggestion...I'm seeing my voltage fluctuate when this is happening, but I was assuming that my engine choking / stalling out was causing the fluctuations, not the other way around.

Since my gas gauge went out in the past 1500 miles or so and started fluctuating wildly, I'm also wondering if the issue is just wiring. Tonight when I do my compression testing I'll take a better look at the wiring and see if that might be the problem.

Check over your wires good. Clean up both ends of both battery cables.

Well, tried testing my fuel pressure and got results that were a bit low but didn't seem to be the issue #43-#50 over about ten tests, mostly around #45 or #46. After testing, I started the car and it ran nice and steady on idle for about 5 minutes, but as soon as I touched the throttle it got into what seemed like a feedback loop and died.

I did hear a loud 'hissing' noise coming from my upper intake manifold, I'm not sure if I've heard it before but I normally leave the engine cover on all the time.

One thing that I found today is that some decided to use the space between my upper intake manifold and engine cover to store acorns. The whole area was stuffed full of them, I didn't find any chewed wires and I'm pretty sure they have been in there since last fall. Not sure if that would be related, but it was definitely a pain to clean them all out.

Anyway, if anyone has any other suggestions let me know...I'm up in the air between replacing my fuel pump tomorrow anyway or just taking my car in for diagnostics. Seeing the acorns makes me wonder if I should just file an insurance claim for animal damage, but the odds are it'* not worth the cost.

All of the help has been greatly appreciated.