Dear Tom and Ray:

I have a 1985 Subaru wagon which has been treated nicely all of its long life. It has about 130,000 miles on it and has never given me any trouble until recently, when it decided not to run. It would start and run for a few seconds and then die. My local mechanic suggested it might be the fuel filter, so I replaced it and drove to his shop. I could barely get above 30 mph without stalling out. After sitting in the mechanic's field for a week, he was able to check it out and it ran perfectly. It continued to run perfectly for about two months, and now the problem has recurred. I can't even get it to run long enough to get it back to the mechanic's field. Can you help?-- Mary

Tom: I'd be willing to bet it looked right at home parked out in that field, Mary. Did it have the hood up and amber waves of grain growing up through the engine bay?

Ray: Actually, I wouldn't put it out to pasture yet, Mary. It could be a lot of things, but it sounds a lot like a fuel-pump problem.

Tom: This car has an electric fuel pump. and it could be dying a slow and painful (for you) death. But it's easy to check, especially when it's not working.

Ray: Right. See if you can talk your mechanic into riding his horse over to your field with his pressure gauge, and ask him to measure your fuel-pump pressure.

Tom: But before you do that, take another look at the fuel filter. If it's all clogged up again after only a couple of months, that suggests that there's crud and rust in your gas tank which keeps plugging it up. And that could be the part or all of the problem, too. In that case, you may need to replace the gas tank to keep the problem from recurring. But I suspect you've got a bad fuel pump. Good luck, Mary

Stop the madness! You can stop driving like a knucklehead, and you'll help your car in the process. Learn how your driving habits can harm your car in Tom and Ray's pamphlet "Ten Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car Without Even Knowing It!" To order, send (check or money order) to Ruin, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. You can also order online.

© 1998 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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