For the third time in the last year and a half or so, I was driving along, and all of a sudden my idle becomes erratic and then within a minute the CEL goes on, restricted performance, the extreme smell of unburnt fuel coming out of the exhaust and the accompanying smoke, the car becomes undrivable. Each of the other two times, a reflash of the ECU returned the car to its normal state, but we never did figure out why. Happened again, this morning and was towed to the shop in the early afternoon. This time, I'm not bringing it home 'til I have a real explanation. Waiting 3.5 hours for AAA to show up is not something I want to do again. I will report back. Luckily my X100 was at the shop having had its smog test completed yesterday, so I could drive it home. And tomorrow afternoon I get my De tomaso Pantera back after four years. At least the weekend won't be a complete bust!

 

My bet is random dumbness from one sensor or a ground problem. Leaning towards a ground problem causing a lot of sensor's reference points to skew out of tolerance.

 

If it weren't for previous experiences of reflashing the ECU as the remedy, the basic PROBLEM sounds like an injector stuck open. Exact symptoms I had with that problem. No reflash for me though.

 

Cee Jay,
I was so sure it was exactly like your symptoms that I described your solutij on to my mechanic. He claimed he replaced the injectors the injectors the last time this happened (took them off of my old engine). I've told him to make sure and check again. It does sound like what happened to you.

 

Check your driver's side engine mount

 

I forgot that you had had some similar issues and that the engine mount replacement solved some of your problems. I will have my mechanic check, but we put new ones in not long ago when I replaced the shocks, control arms, and bushings. But good to check.