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NightDragon
6th Grade UsernameRegistered User regular
6th Grade UsernameRegistered User regular
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I'd go to a different mechanic. it does sound like your fuel system. You have a 2001, does the check engine light come on?
Try a container of fuel injector cleaner - it's cheap and can't hurt.
Next - fuel filter
After that, bring it to a mechanic.
Do not neglect basic tune up items, with 44,000 miles and a previous fuel pump failure you could have a host of potential issues stemming from ignition problems.
If your car has a distributor or a coil pack replace the spark plugs and wires (as well as the cap and rotor if distributor) and if you have a coil on plug setup you will only need the spark plugs. You should also replace your intake air filter and if seperate from the pump your fuel filter. afterwards warm up the car to operating temps and go to a safe location where you can give it an italian tuneup. By this I mean find a safe empty area and mash the throttle through a couple gears, turn around and repeat a few times.
A couple reasons why this is actually good thing is that high rpm, peak power output driving is important for clearing carbon deposits from the cylinders that cause running issues and poor combustion. Secondly a fuel system will usually show signs of failure at high rpm's where the system struggles to maintain pressure/flow to the injectors at extreme loads. With a new filter you can basically know that any bogging or loss of power issues at high rpm's are going to be caused by dirty injectors or a dying pump.
For injector cleaning I recommend a product called seafoam. Just pour a bottle in just before filling your tank to let the fuel mix it as you pump. Drive normally, or slightly more agressive than usual for the tank of gas and let it do its work in the system, do not bother pouring any into the crankcase or vacuum system for a car as new as yours. Just put it in the fuel tank and carry on.
The higher grade gas recommendation depends on where you fill up, but as someone else said higher grade doesn't = better. Mechanics recommend higher grade gas because most companies put higher concentrations of cleaners and stricter QC on the higher grade fuels. Use what your car specifies in the manual, the extra octane does nothing for you as it's designed for resistence to pre-detonation (for high performance cars or cars running agressive engine management to try and get every bit of hp frkm their motors). Texaco and Chevron gas is unofficially the recommended gas by almost all car enthusiasts as we all feel it has the best quality but this is in no way proven and is more of a personal preference.
Change the fuel filter before you put the injector cleaner through it - the cleaner could push some waxy deposits that were in the filter through to the injectors, and fuck 'em.
Make sure you are performing the recommended maintenance on the right schedule. You may want to move your 50k maintenance up since you are close enough and have already had some problems.
Fuel injector cleaner never hurts and Seafoam is good stuff. Throw a bottle every now and then, it's all pretty much the same. Maybe some dry gas too if you've had problems with water. The type of gas you put in generally doesn't matter unless you have a performance vehicle (induction or high compression). The benefits of premium are usually more detergents and higher quality control...I usually pass on midgrade (most people get regular or premium so it sits the longest) and anything that's below the normal 87 octane regular gas. Just don't trust supercheap gas.
Also, look for a forum for your specific car. Pretty much all of them have a forum. Search for your problems to see if they are known / problem issues and see if there are any recommendations. There is probably a 'sticky' that covers the problems that come up all the time with your car.
Depending on your car and the tools you have available, changing something like a fuel filter may be something that takes a minute or two...or something that's damn near impossible to do on your own. The forum for your car will be able to tell you if the fuel filter is designed stupidly and takes dropping the gas tank, or if it's on the line and you can reach it without a jack.
Have you scanned it though? It's free, only takes a few minutes, and there are a few reasons that you could have a stored code but no check-engine light.
Depending on what you find, you may want to check your plugs. If your maintenance schedule has plugs coming up soon (50k, 60k or 75k) I'd just change them now instead of waiting. A fueling issue can cause your engine to run lean (high air/fuel ratio) - this can cause pinging and damage plugs. They could also be fouled / corroded, depending on what actually happened when you got water in your engine.
Can you give more details on what happened with water? Did your car intake water or did water get into the fuel system? Did it get submerged? Was it salt or fresh water? What was done in that 'large bundle of fixes'?