[willx]

I had a very strange problem happen to me today. I was driving home from work and my engine started stuttering a little bit. I turned a corner and pressed the gas pedal, but the engine wouldn't respond. The car just slowly coasted to a stop. It was still in drive and I pushed the gas pedal, but the enging didn't even idle up. I put it in park and it died. I waited a minute and started it back up and it worked for about a mile and did the same thing.

It kept doing this all the way home, every mile or so. Sometimes the gas pedal would rev up the engine and then it would just stop responding, even if I pushed the pedal all the way down. It took a really long time to get home. Any ideas on what might be causing this? Thanks in advance.
-Will

 

[Scott_SVT]

fuel pump would be my first guess, although a REALLY clogged filter will do that too.

 

[Timmah!]

Sounds like what I did when I installed my intake; I did not 100% clamp down a pipe near the MAF and it shook loose after like 5 miles. When I would brake the car would shutter badly, and it actually died on me in an intersection. Also, when you were beginning to notice the shaking, did you have a hard time shifting into 2nd?

Needless to say I have assed the pipe till I could get it home and put another clamp on there and it ran like a champ after that. I am assuming you do not have any mods or anything like that so in that case I don't know if that is the real issue or not. I am not a car expert or anything, just starting to get into cars with my purchase of an '03 ZX5. Of ya, first post, awesome site you guys have here! [thumb]

EDIT: Yea, I suppose a very badly clogged filter would cause the same effect.

 

[willx]

No, I haven't made any mods, but I checked the metal hose clamp on the plastic air hose coming from the air filter and sure enough it was loose. I tightened it back up and went for a pretty long test drive, and the problem has not reappeared. Could a loose hose clamp cause this? That's what you said caused yours right? I hope this was all, because it seems to be running fine now. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

 

[Timmah!]

Yea, I installed my MAC shortram intake this past weekend, and that's exactly what it was. It would shudder badly when I would brake, no response when pressing on the gas, and then dead. The pipe that connects to the sensor had shook so bad there was a very small gap where air could continue through. I actually had a broken clamp with my kit (comes with 5) and thought I could get away with 4, WRONG! []

As soon as I got the new clamp I tightened it down nice and firm as well as the others, and surely enough all was well. Was very worried at first as I thought my first endaveor into car modification had gone bad, and I have only had the Focus for a month. Needless to say, I was quite revlieved.

 

[froznwalrus]

Thanks so much for this post and good answers. My car wouldn't response to throttle input this morning while driving down I-95 in rush hour traffic. Barely made it to a parking lot.

The culprit: loose clamp on my Steeda intake.

Thanks again.