Hey all, posting this from mobile so please forgive my formatting here. I am having a serious issue with my 240 wagon (which is also my only vehicle, adding to the stress).
Yesterday I drove 80 miles to a friends house, which is a normal trip for this wagon. On my way back my car stalled about .25 miles from his house. The rest of the drive was filled with stalls and near stalls. This is an automatic by the way.
So, here’s what happens. The engine will be running fine, then suddenly the rpm just goes all over (doesn’t shoot up, it’s an up and down in a decreasing way). Sometimes the tach drops to 0, then pokes back up to 800, then back down until recovery or death. The car makes the cartoon “my car is breaking down” noise, has a gas smell/maybe burning smell. It always starts right back up again but the issue will return at intermittent intervals.
I swapped out the fuel pump relay and the replacement seemed to help, so for diagnostic reasons I put the old one back. I have a switch and wires set up to jumper the pumps and bypass the relay. When it tries to die I hit the switch (no luck). I put in the new relay and same issue.
I also tried cleaning the connections on the ignition amplifier, but I’m not sure if the loose connection I found (pin coming out of the rear of the connector) was something pre-existing or if I did that. I would drive the car but there just isn’t a good place to break down around here, so it’s terrifying. Idling in the driveway it’ll sit happily for a long time with no issues until I shut it off.
Hopefully this makes sense. I’ve owned this car for 5 years and have overcome everything it’s thrown so far, but have never been able to make it stop smelling like gas. Everyone says it runs beautifully but rich.
Also it will not run without a MAF. It might for a few seconds but it usually stalls. People always suggest to unplug it and try but I’ve never been able to.
Here’s a list of everything done in the last 2 years that might be related:
Wires, cap, rotor, plugs
intake manifold gasket
fuel injectors
engine temp sensor
crank position sensor
exhaust manifold and flange gasket
02 sensor
timing belt plus front seals (May last year)
fuel pressure regulator
both fuel pumps
fuel filter
in tank pump sender (new)
I also posted this on another forum so sorry if it’s familiar.