My daughter was driving to St. Louis in the Taurus and was stuck in traffic for over 3 hours. The car stopped running though all the mechanicals worked. The emergency tow driver and IDOT both came and tried to start it. They told me they thought it was the timing belt. It was towed to a Meineke (this all happened after midnight). They are 6 hours away from me so all of our discussions were done over the phone. I told Meineke to check to make sure they hadn't run out of gas as they had been stuck on the road for so long. I also told them that she said her gas gage had been acting strange for about a week (full tank sometimes flucuating to read 1/2 full). They told me they put a gallon of gas in and the car started but wouldn't stay on, which told them it is not the timing belt. Then said they ran "all of the diagnostics" and it is the fuel pump. They were not able to get 1 today as it is a flex/fuel pump and will need to work on it on Monday. Does this sound like a fuel pump problem? The car had run fine up until that point, except for the gas gage problem last week. I will be going down there tomorrow to be there when they do the work on Monday. Does this sound like a fuel pump problem and what else should I look for on these "diagnostic" tests that Meineke does. They are quoting a price of $550 for labor and parts. I looked up the fuel pump online and the pump alone is $315.

Help - I don't want to be taken by a place so far from home. I would like to try to get it back to Chicago to have my own mechanic look at it but don't know if I should try to drive it once it starts again (if it does).

Thanks.