Prior to my ownership, it appears my 1996 850 wagon lived in the desert, and at some point was stored. It came to me with a particularly dusty and dirty engine. This afternoon, I finally got up enough courage to spray down the engine with a borrowed power washer and some cleaner. I let the engine dry in direct sunlight for several hours, and later that evening came out to start it up and go home.

The car started fine, no check engine light, etc. I headed back to my house, first with a 20 minute ride on the freeway, still no problems. However, as soon as I got off the freeway, the car started to studder and hesitate, almost like it wasn't getting enough fuel. Within a minute or so, the check engine light came on. I made my way home, but slowly, and the car struggled the entire time. The hesitation and studdering is most noticeable under heavier acceleration, but you can basically feel it the entire time.

I'm going to let the car sit for a couple days, hoping it has a better chance to dry out. If the problem persists, I'll most likely take it in to have the error codes read out. In lew of that, however, I was hoping to start a dialog with Brickboard as to the possible causes of my symptoms. Any ideas?