So, I got my car back from the shop after a problem with my battery constantly going flat. They patched the problem up (something related to the fan not switching off) nicely, and gave me my car back. Went from the shop to the shopping center, where I stayed about an hour.
I started my car, and while it took very slightly longer to catch, it did start, but almost instantly died again. I tried to start it again - it turned over and over, but wouldn’t catch. Waited a moment - another start-stall. Finally, I got it to start and instantly hit the gas to get the engine running higher, and eventually, it was fine.
It’s a car I’ve had for a little over a month now, and I’ve never had this problem before. I noticed the gas was slightly low (lower than it had ever been since buying the car), so I thought maybe there was some weird problem with the gas not getting pumped correctly at a low level (pulled that out of my ass, I did) and took it to the gas station and filled it up. Started up fine. Went to the grocery store, was inside for maybe 30 minutes, came out, same problem. Also, when I did hit the gas, it would take a good two seconds before the RPMs actually climbed, as if I wasn’t hitting the gas at all.
And now the problem persists. I can’t run the AC unless I turn it off before coming to a stop light etc. because it chokes the engine so much that it will die. And occasionally, it will idle quite low at a stop, so that I have to hit the gas to keep it running.
My WAG is that it’s some sort of fuel injection problem, or some sort of blockage in a filter or line somewhere. As I said, I just got it out of the shop (don’t know if the problems are related, but I can’t see how they would be) so my car maintenance budget for the month is pretty much shot. Anyone have any ideas?