Last weekend I left Toronto for a three day weekend in Montreal and Quebec City.  I had tuned up my vehicle back in July and and prior to leaving for this trip I did an oil and filter change.  Now the whole way to Montreal we stopped 3 times along the way and had no problem what so ever.  We get to Montreal and I park the car and I don't start it up again until Sunday when I leave for Quebec City.  When I get to QC, my tank is almost on empty, and I notice that there is a mild to hard rough idle when I had to come to stops at lights and stop signs.  I decide to fill up on gas.  When I start it up again it's still has a rather rough idle enough to shake the whole vehicle.  When I accelerate, it seems normal.  I get to my destination and park.  I don't start up until about 5 or so hours later.  (I went to see a concert.)

When I start up, it ran for about a second and then died off.  I decided to crank the engine....nothing happens.  I get out and check under the hood.  Oil is fine, fan belt is normal, and all wires and tubes seem to be fastened tightly.  I get back in a crank for about 5 or 6 seconds.  Again nothing.  At this point I'm freaking out....I'm about 1000km's away from home and I don't need this crap.  I'm worried I'm going to have to spend the night in my Sidekick and then go a trek for a shop that is going to be able to solve the problem.

I make one last ditch effort to start up the 8-valve motor and crank for about 10-15 seconds...it starts up.  I instantly lay on the gas pedal and bring the revs up, way up!  The engine is roaring and I leave it like that for about 10 or seconds and let of the gas.  I look at the tach and it starts to drop down past normal idle and is about to stall yet again so I slam on the gas again and bring the revs back up.  At this point I figure it's now or never, so I drop the hand brake, check that there is no on coming traffic and shit the automatic transmission into drive and off I jump out into the street.  At this point I know if I come to a stop I'm as good as dead so every time I was required to come to a stop, I would shift into neutral, brake with my left foot and keep the revs up with my right foot.  I had to do this about 3 or 4 times until I got back on the expressway where being a Sunday night after midnight there was little to no traffic and I could pretty much cruise back to Montreal at about 120km/h about 250 kms away.  There didn't seem to be any problems the whole way back but I never let off the gas, even when having to make transfers onto other expressways (shifting to neutral when slower speeds were necassary).   When I get to Montreal, I missed my transfer and was forced to get off on a major thoroughfare that runs across the city.

So at this point I am ULTRA relieved to have made it this far and decided to see what would happen when I came to a normal stop...and to my surprise and RELIEF it was back to normal again...and performing ultra smooth.  It's 3AM in by the time and I find a parking space and park my beloved Sidekick.  I then go out short while later and to get some food and again, performing normally.

I leave later that day back for Toronto and again all is well and I haven't had any problems since then.

I have noticed that on a few of the colder days this past week, it has taken longer for the starter to get the engine going, like about a second more then usual but that's it.

Can anyone explain what cause this bizarre problem and why it happened?  I don't ever want to be scared like that again damn it.

I did use a bottle of Lucas Fuel Treatment before I left Toronto but I'd like to think that wouldn't have done anything since I fueled up twice before I got to Montreal.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Obviously your Sidekick is not a fan of Montreal, you'll just have to stay away in future. 

sounds like it's allergic to the French? probably bought some bad gas? 

sounds like you sucked up some junk out the bottom of the gas tank and it needed to be burned off.
George

Considering the symptoms and the weird weather down there lately...

Could have been intake icing, the old days we called it carb ice.

Time for gasline anitfreeze dude.

Zag

You could have recieved a bad tank of gas .. sounds like bandit has had some experience with this too. This time of year with all the rain and snow somtimes the stations get overwhelmed and bad things happen. Its happend to me with newer cars.. Knock on wood the Kick dosnet care. At least you got home and nothing bad has happened. For the 20 bucks or less id replace the fuel filter just in case.

yeah you could of just had a little bit of water try the gas line shit and cross your fingers ....but it definately made my ming up .....not going to montreal any time soon

I had the gas filter changed this past summer.  I beginning to think that it probably was some kind of bad gas or shit it had sucked up from the tank because I have never let it go that empty before.  It's working normally now.  Thanks for all the info guys.

BTW Montreal and Quebec City are GREAT towns!  You guys should check them out one day.