2002 Protege - Starts, runs briefly and then dies

[salguod]

Hello,

My kid's 2002 Protege with ~175K miles will start and run briefly, stumble then die.

It did this a couple of months ago, they took it to a mechanic who could find nothing wrong. It ran flawlessly for the shop. They speculated particulates in the fuel that worked themselves out. Since then, it's run fine until today. They were home for about a week, so the car sat, and today it wouldn't stay running when they went to go to work. No CEL while it ran briefly.

It sounds like a fuel problem, and I'm thinking a new fuel filter may be wise. A fuel injector cleaner additive might be a good idea also. Unfortunately, I'm in OH and they're in MA, so I can't work on it, they'll have to get it to a shop.

Curious if anyone here has any other thoughts.

Any fuel injector cleaner additive recommendations?

 

[bugboy32337]

I've used "REGANE" by Gumout with good success.

I would agree with you, that it sounds like a fuel filter issue (or clogged injector or two). However, I would think that a fuel injector issue would result in a CEL, due to a rich or lean condition.

The randomness of the issue would also indicate fuel filter ... as, once it gets jostled around a bit, the blockage may be (temporarily) correcting itself.

 

[salguod]

Well, it decided to start again after a couple of days. I ordered some Redline fuel system cleaner shipped to them. Hopefully they'll figure it out.