[timrice]

Latest update: New vacuum hose did nothing. Not real surprising, but one more thing ruled out. It died once on the way to work this morning; I wasn't hearing the fuel pump prime every time when I turned the key to the on position. So I thought I might be on to something. Got it started and went on to work. Then tonight, I didn't want it dying on the way home, so I idled it in the lot for 20 min. I came back out, and for the first time in two months, it finally had died idling!! So that's new info. Couldn't start it back up, and again, the fuel pump didn't always make a noise when I turned the key to the "on" position. Got my fuel pressure gauge out, but I never saw the pressure below 40 psi at any time. So that's making me think now that maybe the fuel side is OK after all, even though I don't understand why sometimes the pump makes noise and other times it doesn't. At that point, it still wouldn't start, so I poured 12 oz. of cold water on the crank sensor (that's a trick I've seen other people write about here in the forum, so I figured "why not?"). That didn't have any immediate effect. After a few more minutes and a few more crank attempts, it started back up, and I got about 4 miles with it before it died again. Another five minute delay and I got it to go and made it back to the house. Is it possible the ignition switch itself is bad and causing the engine to die? I'd think that if the ignition switch were bad, you wouldn't even be able to get it to crank. And it's always at least cranked after it died.

I already bought a fuel pump relay, so I'm going to try to put that in tonight and see what happens tomorrow, even though after today's events I'm again a bit skeptical that I'm dealing with a fuel problem.