Took off from the house, everything was okay but a few blocks from the house the car sputtered and died and the wideband gauge went full lean before it conked out and the CEL was lit.

Played with it a while and it would start for a couple of seconds and die again.

Let it sit for a while until it had cooled off and it fired up, the CEL was off and all seemed to be okay again so I turned around and went back home.

Put the X3 on it and read the codes, only one D0190, low fuel rail pressure.

Left it sit and run a while and it didn't die again but I'm afraid to drive off in it again in case it dies on me even further from the house.

Fuel pump about to croak completely maybe?

This is my only running set of wheels so I'm stuck without it.

 

Okay, think I have the possible culprits tracked down, either the CCRM or the driver module in the trunk.

The car has sat and run for 10-12 minutes and not died, more than twice as long as it ran when it first died.

I may just have to chance driving it and hope it was a temporary glitch since even if it is one of those two parts that are bad I have no other wheels to go get parts.

 

vapor lock? filter?

 

It was some sort of power failure.

I drove it today down to town and back without a hiccup so maybe just a one time glitch or a ticking time bomb and will fail again without any more notice.

Can't afford to throw any parts at it so will probably just have to see if it happens again and hope I am somewhere that I can track down the failure.

 

Back in the day my Jensen-Healey/Lotus had an external electric fuel pump in the trunk. It would act up like that and I would smack it with a ratchet and it would work a few more weeks. lol Finally had to buy a new pump.

My coffee truck started acting up a bit when they switched to 10% ethanol (only during the winter back in the 90's for 'oxygenated' fuel). It would start and idle fine, but past about 1/2 throttle would start to bog. It was reported that a lot of people were having problems with the winter switch because the ethanol was loosening up junk in the tank and plugging the filter. Changed the filter and it was all good.

 

I would start with replacing your fuel filter...$10 part, no reason not to. The CEL you got is not a good sign and the fact it then went away even more so as that's indicative of a dying fuel pump...could last another year or another week if that is the issue (and these pumps have a tendency to die...mine went at 80,000). Remember this pump is in the frigging tank and requires tank removal...if you're car savvy you can change it yourself and just spend $250 on a Bosch pump otherwise labor is steep at 3 plus hours for the install

 

Seeing how you are running a s/c on that 3.8 is there a chance you are overowrking the pump now that it is getting older. Have you done anything to upgrade the fuel system or up fuel rail pressure?