I have what I think is a very strange situation and wanted to see if anyone else has a similar experience.

I have a 1992 E 300 with 169,000 miles. Over the last three months I haven't driven it much and over the last two weeks we've had almost a biblical amount of rain, I live in Southern California.

Two days ago I jumped in the car to drive about two miles to Best Buy. Car started with no problem. I drove exactly 1.8 miles, heard it miss two or three times and it died. All attempts to restart it was futile although it almost caught a couple of times. Killed the battery trying to start it, had it towed home, charged the battery overnight.

Yesterday morning, after charging the battery, the car started right up and drove again to Best Buy and it died in exactly the same place, exhibiting exactly the same symptoms, missing a couple of times before it died.

Instead of having it towed... again, I went into my favorite sports pub, ate lunch, worked a bit and three hours later went back out to the car and started right up.

Thinking it's bad gas, or possibly a bad fuel filter, nursed it home, turning off the car at every light. Because of traffic I didn't take the freeway, took surface streets instead, a slightly longer distance, at a slower speed.

Just went out and the car started right up.

My thoughts.

It has a quarter tank of gas, should I siphon the gas out of the tank or alternatively, is there a way to otherwise drain the tank that I can do?

Could the fuel filter be the problem? If so, where is it located and is it a user-replaceable part? How much is the fuel filter likely to cost?

With all the rain we've had, is there any way that moisture inside the tank is possibly an issue?

And finally, I'm thinking that kids might have poured something into the tank, which is why it will run for about two miles and quits but restarts after sitting three hours.

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to E-mail me direct after posting here.

Richard Truesdell
Sun City, CA