Car runs out of gas at half tank?

[speedoholic]

First off, I have a 93 L. When I got my Festiva, the fuel gauge didn't work. It only took ~4 gallons of gas to fill it up when I got it so it was above half tank. I pulled the pump, cleaned the ground and it works fine now. When I was going through my first tank of gas, right below half tank it started acting like it was running out of gas. As the car would jerk back forth and it would get power serges like it was splashing fuel on the pump. I thought the gauge wasn't working right. I barely got to a gas station and it only took me ~5 gallons of gas to fill it up. It's been happening ever since. I can be at 3/4 tank and if I get on it really hard it will act the same way but if the car is smooth not jerky it doesn't do it. Anybody else had this problem? Let me know if I'm not making sense. I've got an MPV fuel pump I'm going to put on. I'm also going to get an Escort fuel filter to see if that helps. Any suggestions on cleaning a fuel tank without removing it?

[TominMO]

Under the rear seat there is an access hatch to the fuel tank. Drain the tank (there is a drain plug on the tank's bottom), then open the access hatch, and look at the fuel pump and the little sock on there that acts like a preliminary fuel filter. Clean it off. This might help in general; IDK if it will solve your problem, but it's a good place to start.

[Pu241]

Sounds like you need to bring it to the pre-meet of this:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28640

So we can look it over for you.

[speedoholic]

I will be at FM4 as long as my car is still doing good.

Tom, I'm going to replace my pump and sock with a newish one while I'm cleaning the tank so there's no need to clean the old one.

[TominMO]

I will be at FM4 as long as my car is still doing good.

Tom, I'm going to replace my pump and sock with a newish one while I'm cleaning the tank so there's no need to clean the old one.

Oh yeah, didn't notice that; anyway, keep the old one (with a clean sock) as a backup, since it does still work.

[daniel_cogar]

mine is the same way i keep in mind that 1/2 tank is Empty lol. never really tryed to fix it

[yelo festiva]

Same Problem

My 90 LX does the same thing. I can nurse it along when it gets to half tank or a little less. When it was new I could go 400 miles between fill ups, now I better get gas at 250/275. I have been gona fix it but never get around to it. I had the same thought about the screen or sock being clogged. My fuel gauge doesn't work either.





90 LX 273k miles. yelo

[econoaddict]

I have had 2 that did the same.
Both had fuel tanks that were caved in right below the pick up.

[Occhty]

Just replaced mine a week ago, the pump sock fits into a smaller splash guard inside the tank, it has holes in the bottom, check and see if thier pluged

[redlobster84]

Just replaced mine a week ago, the pump sock fits into a smaller splash guard inside the tank, it has holes in the bottom, check and see if thier pluged

worked on a friends festiva and we had the same exact problem.

[Pu241]

worked on a friends festiva and we had the same exact problem.

Had as in the past tense and it is now fixed?

Or did you mean have and that it still does?

[phyaz91]

mine did this for months... new sock runs like new

[skimsucka]

My 90 LX does the same thing. I can nurse it along when it gets to half tank or a little less. When it was new I could go 400 miles between fill ups, now I better get gas at 250/275. I have been gona fix it but never get around to it. I had the same thought about the screen or sock being clogged. My fuel gauge doesn't work either.





90 LX 273k miles. yelo

wow steve are you going to fix this before the meet? If not you will be stopping with greg, mike and myself every 175-200miles

[speedoholic]

First, I drove the car until it started doing it again. Got it home running very crappy. Pulled the pump out and the gas was just below the baffle so I knew the tube going to the rest of the fuel in the tank was clogged. I drained the rest of the fuel which was almost exactly 4 gallons. My tank and pump were very badly rusted and I figured that was stopping my fuel flow so I tried to use a magnet to get the rust out... didn't work. Time to go in by hand. I dug as much of the rust out as I could then I had to clean the pipe. I grabbed some pipe cleaners and twisted 3 of them together to make them stronger. I could feel alot of resistance but finally all the rust broke free. I slowly poured about a gallon of gas through the baffle to flush out the tube and it flows great now. I installed my new pump and went to put it in and didn't realize the ignition was still on from me checking the radio earlier. Hooked the fuel pump up and it kinda sparked...:bom::blob6:... I burnt the hair off my right arm and some of my beard, eye lashes and eye brows... oops. Grabbed my extinguisher and it's all good. Except for the fact that I have to clean all of the white powder up tomorrow and my upper lip is numb but burns at the same time . After I got everything back together with the battery unhooked I poured only about a half gallon in through the filler neck. Hooked the battery back up and it fired right up:thumbleft:. Poured the drained gas back into the car and now my fuel gauge doesn't work so I'm going to take it apart tomorrow and check/clean the connections. I hope this helps. Oh, and here's what came out of my tank. That is rust and the only place I dug it out from was that small baffle the pump sits in.

[GenevaDirt]

WOW.....that is gross.
Sorry to see you got sort of hurt...but you fixed the Festy.....wooo hoooo!