1997 Ford Escort Bad Gas?

gotpoi · Posted at Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:58 am

Engine Performance problem
1997 Ford Escort 4 cyl All Wheel Drive Automatic 67000 miles

A few weeks ago, I put some gas in my tank and my car felt like it was going to die after I drove off from the station. I managed to make it home and then I didn't drive my car for that weekend due to having a cracked radiator and heater core. I got those 2 things replaced and drove it home without any problems. I let my car sit for about 2 weeks because I was waiting on a new CCRM to arrive from the dealership. Got the new CCRM installed and upon taking a drive, the car felt like it was losing power at about 10-15 mph. Then it kicked in and drove fine around my neighborhood. I poured some Seafoam into the tank and refilled with better gas as suggested by a mechanic. The start up and slow down problem seemed to get solved because the car started running better. I drove in on the freeway for work, going about 60-65 miles per hour. Once I came down to about 20-25 and then to a complete stop, the car started to feel like it was losing power. When I came to a light, it started displaying the same symptoms of feeling like it was going to die at low rpm and the motor was jumping at idle. Then after getting it going, it smoothed out and was fine again. I ran my car around town and burned off the gas and re-fueled with the good gas after. It's still acting up though because I've noticed that if I run the car on roads where the speed limit is around 45-50 mph or lower, it runs beautifully but if I take it any higher and have to slow down, it starts acting up. It doesn't have any problems running at high rpm or picking up speed to climb up a hill. It's just when you come off of a high speed and have to slow down or stop. Nothing is leaking either. I've also kept up with my oil changes and just had a tune up about 2 months ago. I had the spark plugs checked and was told they seemed fine. The air and oil filters are brand new. Could this all be a cause of bad gas or something else? I was thinking maybe fuel filter? Distributor cap? Timing belt? Do I need to get another major tune up due to the bad gas sitting in my tank for all that time? Please help because I'm stumped! Thanks.