2006 Columbia Fuel Delivery Problems

So you have to put fuel in the filter to get it started?

Sounds like it's sucking air, if that's the case.

 

Different vehicle, but same symptoms. I had a 1991 Ford F-150 do the same thing. Turned out to be the in-line fuel filter on the frame.
So I would replace the fuel filter(s). It sounds like a fuel restriction somewhere, as it starts fine, runs for a bit until it uses up any fuel past the restriction, then dies. After some time enough fuel has slowly gotten sucked past the restriction that you can go again.

 

Oh, also. Next time it happens try to notice if all the gauges go out at the same time. Maybe master engine relay, 70 amps, less than ten bucks.

 

I had a tin foil cap from a fuel additive can floating around in a tank and it would suck up against the fuel pick up shuting the fuel off and the truck would quit.
It would sit there a while and the foil would drop down in the tank and then the truck would go again.
This would play out over and over till I found it......

 

There is o rings inside that fuel pump I bet those things fail then suck air then no fuel make you feel like you are driving a 12 horse briggs engine at 8 mph...

That is the first thing I look at Ive lost fuel pumps before... for reasons totally crazy believe it or not. Usually I abused the pump to the max drying it out at 116 for a few months on that particular truck until it started sucking air and quit entirely.

That was also when they put a computer on it and discovered a history with speeds up to 132. That was when the shouting began....

 

Sounds like an electrical issue to me. If it's a mechanical issue, it'll do it either all the time or under certain conditions. Check your relay and wiring, sounds like the relay gets hot and shuts down, the after a few hrs it's cooled off and works.