Missing/chugging
 

2000 3.8
My car is chugging and sputtering like it has water in the gas..but ony when im accelerating and only after it starts to get warmed up,and isnt throwing any codes. I was thinking vac lines or cat, ive ran heat through a tank and a half, and changed the fuel filter (which was pretty plugged up) and it seemed to help a bit. I also felt the exhaust way back on the tail pipe (i was told if the cat was plugged the exhaust would be cooled down past the cat) and it was still hot as the ****ens. This ONLY happens during acceleration, not in park/neutral/steady speed.

check fuel pressure and flow. could be a weak fuel pump.

Now that im done crapping my pants ovet the price..how would i go about doing that?

first u need access to a fuel pressure gauge. see if a buddy or other has one. if not see if one of your local parts store has one u can use. its fairly simple and if u get a new gauge it will tell u how to do it. while your at it pick up a repair manual. perferably get a dealer shop manual. available in used form only. u can learn alot from the book. unless u have or make a trap door in the back the fuel pump is a pita. do a search on here and u should find directions. i know there here.

well..so it seems, I had a miss that was intermittent enough that it wasn't throwing a code. I checked the plug wires and up on the coil packs, the terminals were a bit rusted, so i cleaned those off, and now she's running perfectly. What i'm thinking (and this may be totally stupid and wrong lol) is that it was getting a spark, but it was weak, and when I would get my foot in the gas, the spark wasn't strong enough to burn all of the fuel in the chamber, or would just cut out. OR the fuel pump just decided to be ok for today, which i'm hoping is not the case. As always, thanks for the ideas and responses.

You are correct, a weak spark will cause misfires under heavy loads, like at WOT, and high RPM. The more resistance, such as caused by corroded and/or dirty connections in the electrical path to the plug, the weaker the spark gets.

ahh, thanks for the conformation, i'm just glad its not a $340 fuel pump lol

wow 340 bucks!!! glad to hear your on the road again.