I got towed again today.
This time in Victor, New York, near Rochester. I’d only been on the I-90 for maybe 30 miles.
The mechanics this morning at Garage #2 in Bath (near Corning, New York) didn’t get to the root of the problem — they said cylinder #4 wasn’t firing, replaced some spark plugs and wires, and sent me on my way. The mechanic who worked on it called me at my hotel this morning and said he took it on the highway for 13 miles to test it, and it was fine. I was skeptical, though, since I was only having problems when the car was running hot for a long time at higher RPMs. I told them that, but I don’t think he really tried to replicate the situation. When the car was hoisted at Garage #1, it ran fine at idle then, too.
The car was performing normally on the secondary highways I took this afternoon around the Finger Lakes until I reached the New York Thruway (I-90), where I started losing power after about 20 miles and barely had enough to take the exit to Rochester. At that point the car was struggling to maintain 40 mph, so I found the safest place to pull over and called AAA again.
To make a long story short, I got the car fixed at a Ford dealership. Apparently, the fuel pump design in my car was a known issue — not officially a recall, though, so it didn’t appear in the recall list when I imported the car from Pennsylvania last year. It was replaced, the work and parts covered by Ford. I was on my way around 6pm back to Toronto. I’m happy to report I made it the rest of the way with nary a hiccup.