My '97 has been acting up slightly for a while now. Just a slight miss, every once in a while. It's done it maybe 4 or 5 times now in the last 8-10 months, every time until the last one in steady to heavy rain. Saturday night was the only time it's done it in the dry.

Seems to happen somewhere around 40 mph, and I think I've always been in fourth gear (though I don't know if that's just chance), and it will miss maybe 5-8 times, then it's OK. Often when accelerating up from a slower speed or stop, or shortly after (within maybe 1/2 a mile).

Plugs and wires are 1.5 years old; Autolite plugs and Napa wires. No signs of cracking on the wires or the coil packs.

Maybe it's not logical, but I'm wondering about the fuel pump. (I had the fuel pump fail 2000 miles into a solo road trip in a borrowed car, on I-70 in Denver, at 5:30 pm on a weekday, in 100* weather...) I've also got intermittently poor throttle response off idle, (e.g. when I put my foot back on the gas after upshifting), which improved but did not disappear after cleaning the MAF.

Is a fuel pump reasonable enough that I should pay someone to check the fuel pressure? Buy a gauge? Or should I just replace the plugs and wires and then move on to coil packs?

 

I'd say you probably have rain getting into something, so start by trying to figure out where that rain is getting in. Spark plugs are the thing commonly effected by water, so I'd start by removing all the boots, ensuring they are dry, and then putting some dialectric grease in them before putting them back on. See if that fixes it.

 

Take a spray bottle filled with water and mist water on the plug wires and coils. It's a simple and cheap way to simulate a rainy day. Just keep you hands dry and far enough away. You should hear the arc you may even see it. And you should see the engine miss when it does it.

 

That WAS what I figured, until Saturday night- I made a hard u-turn (the front tires may have slid a little on sand ) stopped at a stop sign right there, then accelerated up to maybe 40 mph. It was dry, hasn't rained/snowed in weeks; and maybe 25-30 degrees.

 

Well...get the codes pulled. See if it's a single cylinder misfire or multiple/random misfires. If it's single, I'd be looking at that plug/wire, and possibly the coil or the cylinder's fuel injector. If it is multiple or random, then it's another problem. The fuel pump wouldn't cause a single misfire.