Engine turns on, sputters, and then dies (unless I stomp on the gas a lot). What’s wrong with it?

The oil pressure light comes on my dash, but when I plug in the code reader, nothing pops up. As I was stomping on the gas to try to keep the thing alive, there was a little squeaking and thumping under the hood. My first conclusion is the oil pump but I’m an expert by no means so any help would be nice.

 

Is there oil in it?

 

Yes

 

Coil, when a coil goes bad they make a terrible thumping /popping / missing noise and barely run. If you had the unfortunate event that more than one coil went bad or you had rodents eat a few wires up that effected multiple coils it would run like absolute garbage and sound terrible. As the engine is about to die multiple CELs normally come on.

I had a coil go bad on the highway about two years ago, driving along at highway speed and instantly started the thudding from misfire in one cylinder and shaking so bad i thought i blew a hole in the block. Full throttle i was losing speed and could barely maintain speed to get switched in the lanes and get off the road. One coil, not multiples, blew me away at how poorly it ran and sounded and how it made the engine shake violently.

Mine was the drivers side rear coil and i have heard from mechanics that for some reason the drivers side rear is the most common to go bad. Cant tell you why but that is what i would check first.

 

Wasn't that the year there was a fuel rail recall?

You need to find out if youre getting fuel, and/or spark.

Any oil leaks? Is there an oil pressure switch or pressure sending unit?

 

My shaking isn’t as violent as yours sounds airdam, but mine did break down on a Highway as well and I was pressing the gas and losing speed. And I haven’t noticed and leaks or drippage acesandeights. The oil light on my dash is on if that’s what you mean by oil pressure switch.

 

Start easy. Corroded grounds. Could be a fuel related issue I'm thinking. Make sure the fuel pump is receiving proper input from ECM. Trace all your grounds back to the fuel system.