Hey all, just wondering if anyone can help me with a diagnosis? Need to get my car running again...

Was driving home and power just dropped suddenly, could not rev past roughly 2k from memory (was pretty low). If i tried any reasonable amount of throttle would lose power and die, but if i kept the throttle just on a little bit running at low revs the engine would run. Managed to limp it home fortunately! Am thinking it is a fuel problem (fuel pump packed it in?)

Just done a major service replacing spark plugs, oil & filter etc. so should be all good in that dept. Was an instantaneous loss of power, with no increase in engine temp. So am thinking it must be either an electrical or fuel problem. Haven't replaced the fuel filter so will check that soon...

Any ideas on what this could be? Has this happened to anyone before?
Thanks in advance, Ed

just started it and there was alot of black smoke??
thought it might've been fuel pump not pumping enough fuel but if this was the case it shouldn't be running rich?

haven't checked the timing belt yet either but i don't think that could be the issue as it shouldn't suddenly go from running really well to this now :(

Am hoping it's nothing serious... only just bought this car!
If anyone has an idea of whether I'm on the right track or what else it could be would be much appreciated :)
Am not looking forward to having to take the fuel tank out to check, so want to be pretty sure that this is the problem beforehand...
I know it's not gonna be an easy job without a car lift/pit, it's pretty low to the ground!

If you want to check the fuel pump, you could start by checking the fuel pressure with a gauge.
There are many things which could cause this problem, so it's hard to know where to start looking. I assume the check engine light is on?
Do you know how to check the fault codes?

Thanks for the reply robk,
The engine light doesn't come on, just started it again and it runs fine for a bit (albeit with a fair bit of smoke out the exhaust), then after about 20 - 30 seconds really rough idle and dies if you give it too much throttle. Might pay to check the fuel filter i think, as it seems from this it could well be a fuel issue; when left to sit it runs ok, if only for a very short time.

Is a good idea with checking the fuel pressure, could save alot of time! you would obviously need a specific fuel pressure testing tool to do this i take it?
Am not familiar with how to check fault codes either, as I am only new to the car. It does have a piggyback ecu though, I guess this wouldn't affect diagnostics? (3sgte).
Thanks heaps for your help, looks like i could have a bit of google-ing ahead!

you would probably best to reset the ECU by powering it off for half an hour or something like that. after that I'd be checking all the vacuum lines

ok cheers stuka will try that and see how i go

Sounds very much like the fuel filter needs replacing coz the symptoms you describe point to it being clogged which causes the loss of revs. If you don't know when it was last replaced I would replace it anyway.

i've had that problem with an old car of mine,
it turned out the crank pulley key and slot had worn out quite a bit due to heavy abuse:D (rb30 in nissan R31 skyline)
due to this the timing had retarded itself substantially and had problems just picking up enough rpm to move a few meters let alone drive.
i dont know if it would likely be your problem but the symptoms sound very much the same.
so if it isn't your fuel filter, check your timing.

Those symptoms sounds very similar to when I tampered with my AFM on my old Camry (would not rev, lots of smoke, un-drivable). Try checking the AFM connections and/or the AFM could be faulty as well.