Last Tuesday, I drove my car home from work which is a 20-30 minute drive, about half of that being on the interstate. About 10 minutes after I got home, I jumped in my car to leave again. It fired up fine and I backed out of the driveway, but when I put it in drive to accerlate up the road (small hill), it started sputtering and jumping all around. I didnt put pressure on the gas pedal (I probably did but got no result, so I don't even remember it now) and eventually put the car in reverse to back down the road so I could get in my driveway again. The idle completely cleared up when backing down the road, and I didn't notice any problem as I pulled up into the drive.
I sat there for a moment and then backed down the driveway again; no problems. As I put the car in drive to accelerate up the hill, the same idling problem occured. It seemed like an obvious fuel problem to me. I sputtered up the hill before turning around and pulling back into my driveway again, killing the engine. After that, I couldn't even START my car again. It would turn over and catch, only to sputter for a second and then kill. This happened 3-4 times.
The car got towed to the garage the next day and they hooked up diagnostic tools to the fuel line - Apparently, fuel pressure and all was fine. They were unable to reproduce the problem; the car was starting fine for them and they took it around the block a few times.
Since getting the car back, I haven't had a problem with it not starting but noticed the coolant was quite low. I filled up the coolant and everything has been fine - for the most part. Occasionally, while driving (I've only had the car back for 4 days now) the engine will bog down as if I'm running on bad fuel. I plan on getting quite a bit of work done on my car in a few weeks, including a tune-up, coolant system flush, new exhaust, etc. Any ideas as to what the cause of this issue may be? Does anyone think that it may be the plugs and the tune-up will clear up the problem? What else should I consider? Thanks for the help!!
MR. DINGA