Last weekend I went to a 76 station to get some gas. I payed the man and put some octane booster in my car. I looked at the pump and saw that they were out of premium gas. I went and talked to the guy and he said they were almost out of all their gas. Since I had already put the octane booster in my car, I didn't thing I could drive to another station so I filled up with the medium grade which should have been fine cause Ive used lower octane fuel before. But ever since then my cars been stumbling when accelerating and misfiring. It made my engine light come on twice. I thought that it was from them putting water in their gas but even after I've filled up twice, still misfiring. It has gotten much better, now it just happens sometimes on the freeway. Does anybody have an idea of what might be going on, Im taking it to the shop today to get diagnostics run but would love to know what everybody thinks. Thanks alot in advance.

 

Anyone?

 

Maybe their gas was low in there tanks and the pump pick up some debris. Check your fuel filter. Just a thought.

 

Never thought of that, thanks alot

 

Does it do it only under load, for example if you were to floor it in 6th @ 1500 RPM? Just curious to see if we're experiencing a similar problem...

 

Well, at first it was really bad, if I accelerated at all over 2000 rpm it was misfire. Now it is mostly under load, like when accelerating on the freeway from a speed of 40 or 50. Or accelerating uphill sometimes. Very strange though cause it seems to know when its on the freeway. Street driving It runs fine but once on freeway it will have some problems. It is in the shop right now and the guy is supposed to be calling me sometime today to tell me whats wrong. I can let you know to see if it sounds like what could be wrong with your car.

 

Yes, PLEASE let me know what the shop says, our problem sounds very similar. I thought my problem was ignition related but I've pretty much gone through the entire ignition system. Shoot me an email when you get it figured out.

Thanks.

 

Sure thing

 

Ok, just talked to the mechanic and he told me that my number 1 spark plug was misfiring so Im getting all 8 changed. Costing a grip too. but hey, at least it will be done. Maybe you got a bad sparky too, if not, hope you find out what it is. Thanks.

 

Thanks!
Looks like I'll be swapping plugs (again). Just curious, was your problem also accompanied by a slight "tick". Almost sounds like an exhause tick?

 

Yupp, My exhaust is so damn loud that its hard to miss anything but also hard to distinguish what sound is what, but I did definitely hear a repetative tick out of the back of my car. Its hard to tell though if it is a new sound because once the problem started to occur I became extremely peranoid about every sound. But, there was a ticking. I heard it best when driving next to a curb or a wall. hope that helps. Just out of curiosity, do you change your own sparkys?

 

The sound I'm hearing is coming from the engine compartment... I think.

And yup, I change my plugs. Even with headers (SLPs) its still very difficult for me though I know others on this board swap em out in under an hour

 

Damn, I havnt payed attention to where you're from, shoot, I would of loved to pay you to change my sparks, I dont think you would have charged me as much as the damn mechanic, too late now, already gottem workin on it. Im from san fran, near the beach, where about it the bay do you stay?

 

what kind of octaine booster are you using? The stuff you buy at checkers and autozone that says it will boost oct. up to 4 or 7 points, means .4 or .7 points. so If you have a tank of 91, and added a booster of 4 points, you would have 91.4 octaine. That stuff ruines your spark plugs. When they take them out, look at them. I will put $20 on them that they are black (if you use that type of oct. booster). Thanks. Noah

 

I'm in San Mateo; went to School at SF State actually.
Yeah, mechanics charge alot for something that seems so little. That's why I try to do whatever I can myself. If I don't know how I'll read-up here or look in the manual and try to tackle the project.