Yeah with the gas the way it is today , tryin to cut corners there is alot of dirty crap out there, and a lot of cars runnin on low and a few $ fills so it can get cloged fast.

 

Is a fuel filter something I can get changed at a regular service station? I don't really have the time (finals starting this Friday) but need the car to get to classes all week so cant just dump it at a shop but can fail any finals.Love how **** always comesup when you really don't need it.. It needs to be 2009 so I can just get me a newone!

 

yeah, shoud ony take them 15 min if that.

 

Perfect... does the quality of the filter matter? Id rather go to autozone and pick up a good one if it will save me the trouble of having to do this every year.

Also, I think I may have some moisture in the fuel lines (when I open the gas cap I hear a "pffffsssht" noise), can you rec. any good products to run through to fix that?

 

No they are pretty much the same, you'll hear that noise even without the water in the tank. They sell stuff to take the moisture out of gas but I forget what it's called. they will know at autozone.

 

When it comes to engine sputtering problems, the best point to start at is ignition. Them move to fuel problems, and then further down the line to compression issues. You stated you checked your plug wires and they looked great, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're holding up under a high load situation. A plug wire is designed to repell heat and retain 40,000+ volts for HEI ignition systems. Any small bit of carbon tracking (a faint, white powdry substance) can draw the current from the wire and short it or ground it before it ever reached the plug. More than one fouled spark plug tip can also cause this hesitation. The best thing to do is have a reputable shop perform a tuneup on your vehicle. This should consist of new spark plugs, plug wires, and they, with all common sense, should test your coil packs. A small vacuum leak could also be the problem, but as I stated earlier, anything electrical should be put in the foreground when it comes to diagnosing a random misfire/hesitation/surging. Also, the noise you hear when you take the gas cap off is normal in most cases. The entire fuel system is under pressure and natural pressure will develop in the tank on warm or hot days.

If you feel better doing so, have the fuel filter changed, but when doing so, mention a tune up. They should have no qualms doing so.

 

Stop guessing & start with a good tune up as indicated above, ignitionproblemsare the main reason for bad running. Also,don't forget to change the air filter if dirty.If still bad get the car scanned, looking for active and retained codes and get them fixed, don't just clear them out. A good scanner is essential for working in computer controlled cars.
If you doubt the coil packs, you can have them tested, and also test the ignition module under the coil packs. Many AutoZone shops do free testing.
The best way to test injectors and fuel system is to test the fuel pressure and pressure regulator, and use a set of NOID lites to see if the injectorsare getting fired.
Also if you dump Sea Foam in your tank, be prepared to change the fuel filter several times as it may get clogged by loosened up debris that was sitting in the tank.

 

I figured it out and got it fixed, it was the coil pack/ spark plug wires (i guess i didnt check the spark plug wires well enough the first check). Runs beautiful now.

 

Glad to hear it got better. Plug wires can be very tricky. They like to act up under load and arc paths a lot when they're fragile. Remember, current takes the path of least resistance, whether it's through the exhaust manifold or through the spark plug!

 

i had the exact same problem man its ur egr valve check that one out it took me awhile to