One hast try before heading to the stealership.....

1336 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by MarkSpyder, Apr 18, 2008

1BAD02RT

Discussion Starter · Apr 4, 2008

Hello All,

I have been having problems with my car and am going to give it one last go before taking her in.

Recent Problem(s):

1. Car stumples at low rpm's when given instant 50%-100% throttle. It "feels" like a fuel cut....the car cuts out, jerks, and then goes back to normal.

2. Car Sporadically gets flooded when sitting overnight. I wake up and get ready to go to work and it cranks and cranks, no start. I then pull the plugs, dry them off, pull the fuel pump fuse, get the car to fire the replace the fuel pump fuse. it runs fine (with the exception of the stumble) all day.

3. My compass direction has been acting weird lately. Like if I am heading directly S, it will say, E, SE, SW, etc. I have reset it and it works good for awhile then goes back errooneous directions.

4. I am getting "ffedback" through my stereo, and no on AM Radio.....its when the sound is turned down and in CD mode. It sometimes whines with the rpm's, and also makes noise when adjusting the outside mirrors.

What have I done to the vehicle?

1. Replaced all plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. Had mechanic pull the distributor and everything looked good. I pulled the fuel pump yesterday and inspected, everything looked good there. Tested the fuel pump relay on the junction block, worked well.

2. Mechanic has used his live OBD-2 reader and says all of the sensors monitored are running as normal (O2 sensors, VAF sensor, Manifold Pressure sensor, coolant sensor, injectors are adding and pulling fuel as they should.......

3. EGR system has been removed, cleaned, inspected, etc.

I have noticed...........

1. I have never gotten really decent fuel mileage.....

2. I have pulled the plugs and they have a white powdery substanced on them

3. I resent the ECM last night and the car amazingly wouldn't starrt this morning

4. The car runs great (usually) on top, and I have run her hard enought o potentially "clean" anything out of the fuel system.

5. The evap purge solenoid makes an constant "clicking" noise...is this normal?

6. I have pulled the radiator cap and let the car run, but still hearing coolant flowing in heater core when increasing revs slightly.

The verdict: I am so pissed off at spending countless hours trying to diagnose this thing on my own, that I am about willing to give the dealership $200 to tell me whats wrong and needs replacement.

The only other things I can think of is crank position sensor, cam position sensor (inside dist.??). I want to know what sensors give input to the ecm to decide how much fuel to send to the engine. FOr some reason I think there is some underlying electrical issue, possibly a loose ground or something. I mean, the compass, stereo, and presumed ignition system are all messed up.

Someone please help me...lol I am about to go insane with this car!

See less See more

Save

1 - 6 of 6 Posts

rc_maniac

· #2 · Apr 4, 2008

Have you done any data logging on the car? Has the fuel pressure been checked? The ECM does not monitor the fuel pressure, so the only way that shows up is if the fuel trims are way off. Have you had the fuel injectors checked? Maybe one or more are stuck open or not closing all the way.

Yes, the evap purge solenoid does click constantly when the engine is idleing.

Save

1BAD02RT

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 4, 2008

Checking the fuel pressure is one thing I wanted to try. I have not done so, sice there isn;t a schrader valve on the rail to plug into. I am obviously not going to buy the dealer tool to check the pressure, so I'm sure I will have to put a gauge between the output at the firewall, and hook another hose to it to read the pressure. Do you guys know if this is the easiest way to check that? Can I get a fuel pressure gauge at a cheap price at a local Murrays or AutoZone? Please let me know. Thanks.

Save

1BAD02RT

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 7, 2008

Fuel pressure has been checked and is fine! I checked the fuel pressure this past weekend and at idle was around 40psi (book lists 38 as spec) and with throttle or vacuum line pulled it jumps to 50psi. So the fuel system is ruled out as the culprit.

I wanted to do the coil check but didn't have another set of hands for that. The FSM says to hook a 1.5V battery acroos two pins ans using an analog ohm-meter on two others. It does advise to do this test under 10 sec. to avoid burning up the transistor.

DO you guys know if it is possible to have a "miss" but the car runs smoothly at higher rpms, and turns out to be a bad distributor? I don't have experience with distributors, so a little insight as to how they actually transmit power would be great! My mechanic thinks that the spark plug wires could have been loose and the spark having to jump to the plug may have damaged the coil. Is this possible? Thanks guys.

Val

Save

1BAD02RT

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 18, 2008

Can't anyone dignose my problem? I figured out if the car sits for a while (overnight sometimes, and longer periods of time) it will not start. It is either getting waay too much fuel from the computer or the fuel injectors are leaking into the cylinders (which is more common??). Would you advise replacing the ECM or injectors first? I have done pretty much everything I can based on the FSM......the only alternative is to have the dealership take my $70 to diagnose the problem, and they said unless they repair it in house, they will not warrant the diagnosis as being correct.

Once again, low-rpm stumble/cutout and the car floods if sitting for 10 hrs. plus. (Have not narrowed it down to leaking injectors or the computer sending a "full spray" signal to the injectors)

I am still trying to find out which sensors signal the ECM to open the injectors.....

Save

MarkSpyder

· #6 · Apr 18, 2008

1BAD02RT said:
DO you guys know if it is possible to have a "miss" but the car runs smoothly at higher rpms, and turns out to be a bad distributor? I don't have experience with distributors, so a little insight as to how they actually transmit power would be great! My mechanic thinks that the spark plug wires could have been loose and the spark having to jump to the plug may have damaged the coil. Is this possible? Thanks guys.

Val

I thought "RT"s were V6s? :dunno: Just note that the V6 doesn't have any coil packs like the I4 does (to my knowledge). You either have a distributor OR coil packs. Anyways, I do believe it is possible to miss at low RPMs and then have it run "cleanly" in upper RPMs. That happened to my V6 a month ago. I'm 99% sur it was from a spark wire that was not seated properly @ the distributor (it had not "clicked" into place). I was throwing a P0300 (Random Misfire).

Your mechanic (any), Google, or someone here can tell you what the white powder on the spark plugs means. That is IMPORTANT and needs to be figured out. Prepare to pull and clean all of them or just replace them because they are so cheap (and then u KNOW the issues are not related to the plugs themselves). Disregard replacing them... just saw you already did that.

With all of the "weird" issues happening at once I would start like this:
1) Check battery terminals for corrosion, solid contact, etc. Disable any/all aftermarket electronics during testing (pull their fuses or power wires).
2) Take battery to advancedauto (or wherever) and have it LOAD tested.
*Some of those electrical related problems could be caused by low voltage or current from the battery. Maybe one of the internal cells has gone bad. Might be a good idea to have the alternator checked while they look at the battery (battery damage could equal alternator damage or vice versa).

Seeing you are in a pinch for ideas I'll throw some guesses out there:
O2s in the wrong exhaust bungs?
Try disconnecting the O2s at the harness and see if the stumbling goes away.
*I always though the front/primary O2 sensors estimated the AFRs and then based off their readings the ECU would add/cut fuel via the injectors based off of the values stored in the ECU's ROM tables (like settings, software, etc). I could be wrong though...

Some may want to know:
-How many miles on engine?
-How long since last major services?
-ANY SES CODES? If so which codes are showing up?

See less See more

Save

1 - 6 of 6 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month