Help! SC300 Won't Run...
 

Hi,

I just picked up a 98 SC300 last week, great car until it stopped running. Anyway, here's what happened:

The 2nd day of owning it I went for a short drive and put some gas in it. I got home and left it running in the driveway with the door open while I loaded some stuff in the trunk. After about 30 seconds of idling it "hiccupped" a few times and died. I went to restart it and it started right up but only ran for like 2-3 seconds before dieing. It would continue to start but only run for a few seconds. Pressing the gas pedal down did nothing unless it was floored all the way, this would make it rev up but as soon as I let off it would die.

After sitting for a few days it doesn't want to start at all unless the gas pedal is floored. With it floored it starts but sputters some and then begins to rev - almost like an old carburated car that's flooded, as soon as I let off the gas though it dies instantly. I haven't hooked up an OBD2 scanner to check codes but the check engine light is not coming on.

Any ideas? I'm guessing fuel pump but it seems like it could be a number of things so I don't wan't to start throwing $$ at it without having a more educated guess. Please help! Thanks!

Phil

Check your battery connections first, I've had those symtoms before and I had forgot to tighten everything down on the battery. It does sound like a fuel pump though, too...

I had a car that did that, It came out being the battery was bad. Good luck.

I did try hooking a battery charger up to it while starting in case the battery was low but it didn't do anything. I guess the charger wouldn't help if there was a problem with the cables/connection just past the battery. I'll double check that again although it seemed OK. Thanks for the replies.

I also checked the fuses and disconnected the battery for a while to reset the ecu which didn't do anthing.