can't get the car to run

[astewart]

The last time I drove my car was a little after Christmas 2008 once the roads had cleared up. I had let the car sit for only about 2 weeks while the roads were completely unmanageable for this car. The last day I drove her, this is what happened: She started up just fine like she always does, I noticed she was sputtering a little bit but I contributed this to her not running for a little while and also driving her cold and not letting her warm up properly. I got roughly a mile from my house when I came to a red light. As I sat there I noticed her starting to sputter a little more. I assumed that she was having a carbon build-up so kind of revved her coming out of the light. Got through the light and she was running even worse, so I pulled over to the side of the road and turned her off. Got out, checked the oil because this car eats oil (not leaking). Not bad, but enough that I keep oil in my car all the time just in case. Anyway, when I checked the dipstick, it was low, so I put some more oil in her. Buttoned her up, got back in the car and started her up. She started right up and ran fine long enough for me stand up so that I could close the hood. As soon as I stood up she just stopped running. I promptly sat back down to start her again. I turned the key and she cranked for a couple roatations then backfired. At that piont, I knew it was out of my hands for the moment so I phoned my friend to come down with his pickup to tow me home. In the meantime I hoofed it home since he is REALLY bad with directions so that I could direct him there personally. Good thing it died sooner than later! Anyway, we got it towed home and he got it started long enough to drive it into the parking spot. That was 11 Jan 2009. And she hasn't run since Since then, I have had a more knowledgeable friend of mine take a look at her and see if he could maybe figure out what might have gone wrong. This is so cliche but the only weird thing we seemed to be able to find (besides it not running) was a clicking sound coming out of where the red arrow is pointing in the diagram below. I feel like I have done just about all the research I can about the fuel injection system but I can't seem to find ANYTHING that tells me what that is supposed to do or why it might be clicking or even what the name of it is. If anyone has any advice or help (or can just tell me how to get my car started ) that would be great! Thank you!

[MEZZZ]

That thing with the arrow appears to be the charcoal canister. I am not an expert by any means but cant seeing this being the problem or even that the clicking sound might be coming from it.

Have you checked your fuel pressure? If you hook one up past the fuel filter, you should be around 36.3. I would start there first. You can by a pressure guage for cheap. Then, it begins a process of elimination.