96 honda Accord

[Joshdidnotdoit]

I just got this car and everything was workin fine except for the fact that it idles up and down for a while when i first start it up. I took the battery out of the car because someone stole my keys and i didn't want em gettin my car
so i put the battery back in today and everything was working fine, no problem it started right up and everything. Well i was low on gas so my dad told me he had some gas on the back porch in a gas can that he was using for the lawn mower and i could put that in there
as soon as i did that my car will no longer start
it cranks and sounds horrible, i try over and over to jump start it and when it finally starts it will rev up for like 2 seconds and shut back off
this is really aggravating me and i'm no good wit cars

[jeffcoslacker]

See if the fuel filter is blocked up. That's where I'd start. Might have been marginal to begin with and some sediment in that gas can blocked it up.

Are you saying it wouldn't start at all immediately after putting the gas from the can in, or after driving it on that gas?

If it's sitting on a slope, it's also possible it is simply so low on fuel that it's not reaching the pickup for the fuel pump. It may have started and run on previously stored fuel pressure from the last time it ran, and once that was depleted it couldn't produce any more fuel pressure.

I've seen that happen before, people park a car that's really low on gas on an incline, it starts and runs later, but then dies or won't start until you put 3-4 gallons in it or move it off the incline, because the fuel level in the tank is nowhere near the pickup.

Sitting nose down is particularly suspect, the pickups generally pull from towards the rear of the tank...this is by design, so you are more likely to run out of gas going downhill than uphill.....downhill you can coast out of traffic if you run out...so actually if that's a possibility I'd probably try putting a few gallons more in it before messing with the filter...make sure the can is clean inside...