96 Infiniti I30T Hesitation Problem

About a week ago, I was driving up an 8% grade with not much fuel in
the tank, probably a gallon or two. The car sputtered a bit, and then
stalled. I was able to start it up again, drive up the hill about a
mile, and then coasted down in neutral to the gas station I was
heading to that was about 2 miles away. I filled up, and thought I
was just stupid for drawing down the gas so much. The car has about
103,000 miles on it.

This morning, I got a minor version of the same hesitation while
idling at a level stop light with a nearly full tank. I suspect some
crud could have been pulled into the fuel line last week, and that
might have caused the hesitation this morning. I decided to go to
work anyway, and the car drove fine the rest of the way in, about 10
miles.

I guess replacing the fuel filter is the logical first step. Is this
easy to do for someone who isn't afraid to turn a wrench, or should I
just take it to the shop? If someone has other ideas about what might
be wrong, I'd appreciate hearing them.

pour some fuel injection cleaner and see if it helps....

"BrianEWilliams" <sorry_no_email (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

About a week ago, I was driving up an 8% grade with not much fuel in
the tank, probably a gallon or two. The car sputtered a bit, and then
stalled. I was able to start it up again, drive up the hill about a
mile, and then coasted down in neutral to the gas station I was
heading to that was about 2 miles away. I filled up, and thought I
was just stupid for drawing down the gas so much. The car has about
103,000 miles on it.

This morning, I got a minor version of the same hesitation while
idling at a level stop light with a nearly full tank. I suspect some
crud could have been pulled into the fuel line last week, and that
might have caused the hesitation this morning. I decided to go to
work anyway, and the car drove fine the rest of the way in, about 10
miles.

I guess replacing the fuel filter is the logical first step. Is this
easy to do for someone who isn't afraid to turn a wrench, or should I
just take it to the shop? If someone has other ideas about what might
be wrong, I'd appreciate hearing them.

The best thing would be to check the fuel pressure on the rail, but if
you can't do that then go ahead and change the filter. It's under the
brake booster. It's a bit of a pain depending on how easy the hoses
comes off. Pull the fuel pump fuse and start it to release the pressure
first (if it's been sitting overnight you probably don't need to do this).

DT wrote:

pour some fuel injection cleaner and see if it helps....

"BrianEWilliams" <sorry_no_email (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:92383dd3.0306250831.3f8444c2 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com...

About a week ago, I was driving up an 8% grade with not much fuel in
the tank, probably a gallon or two. The car sputtered a bit, and then
stalled. I was able to start it up again, drive up the hill about a
mile, and then coasted down in neutral to the gas station I was
heading to that was about 2 miles away. I filled up, and thought I
was just stupid for drawing down the gas so much. The car has about
103,000 miles on it.

This morning, I got a minor version of the same hesitation while
idling at a level stop light with a nearly full tank. I suspect some
crud could have been pulled into the fuel line last week, and that
might have caused the hesitation this morning. I decided to go to
work anyway, and the car drove fine the rest of the way in, about 10
miles.

I guess replacing the fuel filter is the logical first step. Is this
easy to do for someone who isn't afraid to turn a wrench, or should I
just take it to the shop? If someone has other ideas about what might
be wrong, I'd appreciate hearing them.