Sudden jolting and power loss?

JESTERKREN

MEMBER
1991 MAZDA 323
AUTOMATIC
45,000 MILES

Hi there, I have the vehicle listed above 323f, 3 speed. Last Sunday I took it out for a drive. A little extra detail if its an identifier to the issue, starting the car I usually have to press the throttle to get a little bit of fuel into the carb otherwise she doesn't start then first turnover she starts then turns off then second turnover she starts and runs. Now I took her on a drive for around an hour and a half when suddenly she jolts a little and starts feeling less responsive but it's nothing too worrying as she's a little unresponsive and you can feel when the cars gears change and then as I continue to drive it gets worse and worse. As soon as you touched the throttle it would jump a little on the rev counter and jolt, lose power and try to stall. I was lucky to even get her home and turned off. She also still jolted while in park when revved. I haven't looked under the bonnet yet but was wondering if anyone had a clue? We were thinking it might be a carb strip needed.

1 Reply

KEN L

MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
42,959 POSTS

It sounds like the fuel filter is clogged which I would change out first. Here is the location of the filter so you can change it out.

The fuel filter, located in the rear of the engine compartment on the driver's side, is a high-pressure canister type fuel filter. The filter removes even very small (microscopic) particles from the fuel. Because of the high pressures and large volume of flow in the fuel system, tiny particles can erode away the sealing surfaces of fuel injectors and pressure regulators, causing injector leaks and fuel pressure loss. Larger particles can plug up the tiny orifices in injectors, restricting fuel, or collect between the sealing surfaces of injectors, preventing them from shutting off fuel completely.

Check out the images (below). Please let us know what happens.

Image (Click to make bigger)