So a friend and I go over to the owners house to bleed the brakes and get the car at least drivable so i don't need to hire a tow truck to get the car home(approximately 15 miles to my house from his) all goes well and we get the brakes working. we start the car and gently let it roll back and forth to test how well they're gripping and if it would be safe. we decide yes, it should be. so we leave to get dinner and wait for the owner to come home to transfer the title to me. but in my stupidity, i left the lights on which killed the batter while we were gone.
So we get back, do the paper work, and the car will not start. we jump it, let it sit so the battery has some charge, and proceed to leave. i'm driving with one friend in the car and one following in his 76 bmw 2002. i get on to the main road in the neightborhood and all is going well. so far. I look behind me and i have a giant cloud of white smoke behind me and get concerned. i get into 4th gear and immediately lose power. pressing the gas doe nothing. i down shift, still nothing, and then it dies. i roll over onto the side of the road and we proceed to delegate about the what just happened. we decide its bad gas/out of gas(this is the same gas that has been in the car for 5+ years) and luckily we have a can in the back of the bmw. i walk a block to the gas station, come back with a gallon and add it to the tank. there is no room to turn his bmw around and jump it since both cars have batteries in their trunks. so we push it around the corner onto a side street and proceed to jump the car. sean(the bmw owner) is the one operating the fiat while jumping. but the bad thing is, he is way too gas happy. we're trying and trying to get it to go, and finally it starts. goes about 200 fight and dies again. there it sits and we try to jump again. at this point i decide im going to get more gas. just in case. on my way back, sean flies past me in my car, and ryan(other friend) picks me up in the bmw. we arent paying attention and when we look up, sean is pulled over and the car is dead. while approaching i notice a lot of fluid under the car for it having just gotten to that spot. panic sets in.
There was a speed bump 15 fight prior to death, so my first assumption is he was flying, didnt see it, took it too fast and cracked the radiator, which would explain the decent sized puddle under the front end of the car. but alas, its not water or radiator fluid. its gasoline. we look under the hood and see some fluid dripping out of the air cleaner above the carb. we open it up, and low and behold, the air cleaner/filter is flooded. at this point we cant drive it due to a fire hazard. so i call the tow truck. skip forward two hours and the car is now at his house.
The next day.
I go over to start diagnosing the problem. First things first, a new battery. got it, hook it up, and viola, it starts. engine is idling well, nothing seems to be wrong with it. no smoke out the back, no nothing. so on to the next step of getting it running, we go ahead and change the oil(which took forever. couldn't find an alan wrench to fit the drain plug, so we used vice grips) and after the oil change, we decide to take it around the block. we're going and the cars idle starts to drop unusually low and the car beings to die out, assumingly from the idle being very low and the engine just choking out. but we manage to get it home with the help of hills and gravity.
Heres where i need help. I am not the most mechanically savvy person in the world and dont even have a clue where to start to diagnose/repair the problem. thats all the information i can currently think to give, but feel free to ask any and all questions that might help you get a better understanding so you can help me.
And sorry for the essay up there
