Hi everyone,
I have had my brick for about 2 months and the car is in really nice shape for being 16 years old. I had noticed that it had a habit of stalling unexpectedly but would start immediately afterwards and run without issue. It would do this once or twice a day but run great otherwise. I took it about 140 miles from home to the Pocono mountains last weekend and noticed about halfway into the trip that the turbo was kicking in more than usual, to compensate for a power loss in the engine. The problem got steadily worse, with black smoke from the exhaust and extreme effort climbing even moderate hills. I had suspected that the fuel pump relay might be bad earlier, causing the stalling problem but I couldn't attribute all these problems to just the relay. I unhooked a vacuum hose the next morning and the car ran steadily better, even carrying me the whole trip home running much better than it did on the way there. I reattached the vacuum hose after returning home and while it is not as bad as it was over the weekend, it is not the same as before the trip. Is it possible that the relay could be causing all this trouble?