Apparently my 99 Montero has had enough and is rebelling against my low priority maintenance schedule. Yesterday driving home it started coughing a little on the long uphills. A few minutes later it was acting like it was running out of gas and I limped it home just off of idle. It starts up and idles fine but once it starts to need more gas it's not there. If I stop and let it idle it seems to build pressure back up and I can take off and get up to speed before it starts again. I tried disconnecting the MAF which made no difference. I checked the filter and while it's not new and probably needs to be replaced fuel dumps out of it when the key is turned to start, I pulled it off and it doesn't appear to have any major dirt in it. The fuel pump is obviously working but I don't have any way to check pressure. Do fuel pumps lose pressure but continue to work or do they typically just pump or not? Anyone have any ideas on my next step, I can't really afford to start replacing parts in hope one of them works. I've got a timing belt/water pump kit on the way that I'm planning on doing next weekend and a BMW 5 series getting a new engine. My car budget is pretty tapped. Help, thanks.

A little more info, I found a website selling fuel pressure regulators that said to test the regulator by squeezing the exit line. If the pressure goes up it's the regulator. I don't have a pressure tester but the rough idle came back up to how it should be when I did that.

 

sounds like the 2 inch section of fuel hose in the tank that hooks the fuel pump to the fuel line