So today I came home to visit from school. I see my car all dirty in the garage and I guess my Mom has been driving it a few times for some reason. Now I don't drive it in the winter and that just pissed me off. Anyway, I take it out to wash it. Get in it and the gas gauge is sitting on E. I pull out onto the highway and decide to stop and wash the car real quick then get gas. The car wash was on the way. I get it all washed. Then pull back out on to the highway and the car starts to stutter a bit, so I am thinking that I'm about out of gas. At the same time I am thinking oh **** because it's bad to run out of gas in these cars, although I have done it before on accident. So I make it to the gas station, leave the car running and fill the tank up with about 10 gallons of gas (that's all the cash I had on me). The car idled fine, I go to pull out and it dies. I start it back up and it wants to die again so I give it some gas and make my way to the highway. Get ready to pull back on the higway and head home and she dies. Can't get it started so I have it towed back to my house. Now I don't think I can hear the pump priming but I am not sure. There is some sort of whining come from the engine bay when I turn the key and it lasts longer sometimes than others. I know this isnt the pump but what could that be? Could the pump have crapped out on me? Just recently I had a problem with the wire going from the coil to the opti and I had that temporarily fixed. Well I finally got a new wire and put that on today thinking that may be the problem because it was doing the same thing it did before when the wire was bad. No dice though. The coil looked a little corroded but it seems strange that it would just all the sudden quit. Is it my pump? Pump relay? What can I do to check things? Does it sound like it could be ignition? I'm lost here guys, the car only has 66k on it and is starting to cause me some problems. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Also to make things worse. While I was pumping gas the guy next to me complimented me on how nice my car looked and was asking a bunch of questions, then this **** happened right infront of him. I have had a bad weekend.

 

Do you have or have access to a fuel pressure gauge? A quick fuel pressure test will let you know if you fuel pump is working.

 

Don't have one but could probably pick one up. If I get one how do I go about testing the pressure? I have never done that before.

 

You can get the gauge from Sears or most likely any auto parts store. Here is a reference from Shoebox outlining the procedure. http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.htm...essure_testing

 

Thanks for your help. I will give that a try and check back. Could my coil of just went out like that though?

 

Maybe a dumb question, but how do I check the pressure if the car wont run? When I turn the key should the gauge show something?

 

Yes, hook up the gauge, turn the key on the run position.

 

Judging from the shoeboxes site it needs to be between 41-47 psi correct? If it's not between those numbers will that guarantee it to be the fuel pump that is bad? Thanks again for all your help.