Briney, you wouldnt happen to be a fireman or something? lol, that was exactly what I thought.

My guess woulda been the coil but I guess we've circumvented that by now. My car's starting to play up along these lines, but not so bad yet, just missing and taking ages to fire after she's hot sometimes. I'll be keepin an eye on the coil packs I think. Allthough, my fuel pump sounds a little crook. Is the sound supposed to pulse when the car's running, or be more or a constant buzz?

your problem sounds like crank angle sensor. the fuel pump also makes a constant quiet buzz while running.

Thanks Smoke! So, if my fuel pump is making a fairly loud, pulsating buzz I should get it looked at?

Crank angle sensor's take much cash/effort to swap out?

not 100% sure as i haven't done a crank angle sensor in an ef for a while, but i think the balancer has to come off. someone else may correct me?

how loud is loud? can you hear it with your stereo off while idling? to me that's loud.

Ah no, this is standing at the rear of the vehicle, outside. I cant really hear it when im in the car, tho I havent paid any attention. It just gets me, the way it seems to pulsate. Like it's loosing power or struggling to operate or something.

Spew bout the balancer having to come off. Would be a bit of work involved then... Hopefully it's just as simple as a bung lead...

Thanks again!

did the same for my ef and then all was good