Quest engine dies (HELP! Please...)

1999 Quest, bought used 1,000 miles ago. Has run fine. Ran fine for 10 to 15 miles today with several times parking and restarting, Parked it in the driveway, about an hour later I started and when I tried to accelerate on the main road it wouldn't get above several thousand rpm, kept feeling like it was coughing without the noise of a cough, if that makes sense. I pushed it several miles and it only got worse. Barely made it back to the driveway, but refused to go up the incline of the drive at first, then the engine shut down on me. After a while and multiple restart attempts it finally did restart with a lot of hesitation, and then made it up the driveway. I have it parked and am letting it cool down.

Gave it a full tank of premium yesterday. It was almost completely empty.

Obviously I don't want to put "fuel filter" into anyone's head, I would rather leave the field open to all ideas, but I guess I already did so. I need to consider all options though, if there are any, as I don't want to fixate on only one in case there are others I should test for and either eliminate or further investigate. It seriously did feel like fuel starvation though.

Only if we are highly certain that I should attack the fuel filter (I can NOT afford to throw money at a number of things just for the sake of it as money is awful tight), where the heck is the filter on this thing, and can anyone point me to a diagram or breakdown on replacing same (only if there are no other strong possibilities).

Also: The "check engine" light did NOT light up.

Thank-you for your considering my problem.


Edit #2: After about a half hour I restarted. Restart was without any problem, but when I pressed the gas pedal (OK, accelerator...), when it went over about 3,000 rpm it started choking and hesitating, not able to get into the 4,000 rpm range. I then shut it down.

Well Bruce, I think you are right. Though there is still a good chance you have a bad fuel pump, I would say the odds are greater it is the filter, given the circumstances you describe. Matter of fact, now that I put a new filter into it and she is running well, I am pretty certain of it, but don't count your chickens yet, for as we both know, Murphy of Murphy's Law, sits on your shoulder like a parrot sits on a pirate's shoulder.

Lol, Good job bruce!

Yeah, I was a little stressed... I have become used to replies I had from other boards on other more popular (I presume) vehicles that came wihtin ten to fifteen minutes of a post. I have had this van just about a month and have not had time to get to know what is what on it, and having to now depend on it, when something went wrong, I went into a panic. Everything pointed to a clogged fuel filter, which has happened to me before (I am old enough to now have experienced that more than once...) but the Autozone guy said that he thought it was the pump after I gave all the same details. I highly disagreed but presumed I could be wrong (I have been wrong before; more times than I care to remember) s I was quite cognizant of the fact that if it was one of those occasions again, I was going to have to drop the tank a day after I just filled her up - that made me just as sick as thinking of the rest of the job. I was formulating what I would have to do and finally came up with the clean plastic garbage can siphon idea (money really is tight). Then I was worried about getting it off without destroying a seal or anything else. Last time I had to go after a pump it was a cinch as I just took the bed off my pickup. Couldn't do that here.

Anyhow, I will remember not to get into any emergencies (what???) and post several days before thinking of getting into this thing.

Thanks for saying hi!!! Nice to know someone out there read my post!

Yeah, as much as I would love to trust the guys at autoparts stores, fact is you cant. They usually see the worst of the worst, and they usually catastrophize everything. (Worst case scenario) . I cant really blame them, I do that from time to time. Im glad it was something cheap and easy. I totally understand money pinches. Been in one for the last 5 years of my life.