I need your wisdom!

[chkchkchk]

So I found a dirt mountain to try to run the V up last night. I totally underestimated the angle of it and tried to give 'er a go in 2nd gear. About midway up, I stalled out and had to roll back down. The car would not start back up for me on the first or second try, but did catch (although barely) on the 3rd and is starting up normally now. Mind you, this was after I gave my newly-permitted friend a driving lesson, so this was, like, the 10th stall of the evening.

Did I do something to my car by stalling it in second that would have caused it not to start? I'm thinking that the reason that it didn't may have been caused by a combination of the steep uphill angle and the fact that there wasn't a whole lot of gas in the car when it had happened--maybe the fuel line emptied itself out and just had to be back at the right angle for things to be flowing again?

I don't know anything about how cars work. Come on, guys! Give me your expertise!

[fjwagner]

I wont ask you how much beer you had.

[blindsnyper]

yeah id say you ran out of gas

[Ever Victorious]

Could have been low on gas, or you could have the fuel pump/fuel regulator problem. You'll know in a few days to a few weeks, if the problem occurs again with a full or nearly full tank.

You would have had to be REALLY low on gas to stall out on a grade, though. as long as the pump can grab ANY fuel, it will feed it to the engine in a precise manner. If there was so little gas in there that the pump couldn't get to it at grade, I would have doubted your ability to drive back home without running out of fuel on a FLAT surface.

[hiimjered]

I can think of a couple of possibilities. The fuel one is the most likely. I'm not sure it the Versa is a front feed, mid feed or rear feed tank, and if it is a front feed, and the grade was steep enough, the pump may have been sucking air. This could happen with as much as a half-tank if you are on a 45 degree incline or steeper.

Another posibility is the steep grade triggering the oil level sensor. Once again, I'm not sure if the Versa has one, but I had a Pontiac with one a while back, and if I let it get over a quart low and parked on a hill, the sensor would trigger and would prevent the vehicle from starting. Adding oil always fixed it.

Engines are wierd beasts, sometimes they do things that make no sense. It was unlikely to have been anything that truly harmed the engine.

You need to learn how to better determine whether your engine needs to shift and how to shift while driving uphill (yes this is possible.) But, that is what learning experiences are all about.

[vkheifets]

The fact that you stalled befor in the day has nothing to do with the car not running. Although you may have put a little bit of dammage on the clutch that has nothing to do with the engine. Even if you broke your trans all together the enging would still start and run the car would just not drive. It sounds like you had very little gas in the car and unpon the incline the fule pump did not get enough gas to keep it running. The reson it took 3 tries it every time you turn the egnition on of the car it starts to pump it took a few tries to get enough in the fuel line to get it started.

No big deal do not let your friends drive any more.