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pontiac probs.

blackk5350

blackk5350

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ok i have a 89 bonneville le.

past couple months i have been gradually loosing power. now it shifts funky and it feels like the power is not being put to the ground. it sometimes wont accelerate and feels like it just wont go. and now it will die when idle driving around a parking lot i replaced fuel filter and the tps and maf sensor. what is next. hopefully its not the trans, it only has 120k on it and ideas?

has spark and good fuel preassure also replaced spark plugs wires etc.

UPDATE

ok took it to a trans shop. guy said its fine. so tranny is out of the question. since driving it it will run perfectly fine at slow speeds and at slow acceleration but if you try to accelerate fast or put a load on the engine it acts like its missfiring BUT IS NOT!
replaced
tps
maf
fuel filter
coil pack
plugs
wires
converter is cut off so no blockage.

Revs fine in park(most of the time) just when it has a load on the engine


just checked the injectors with an OHM meter and they are all at 15.4-15.9 so all is good there. still has problem when engine is under load what next?
 
it also died twice while i was moving(driving in motion) today. then started right back up. dropped it off at my uncles garage for diagnostics. i did everything i could do myself see what happens!
 
My friend had an Olds about the same vintage drive him batty with similar problems..he blamed the fuel pump and pulled the tank & replaced it,and it seemed to cure it--for a few days,then it started acting up again..he suspected the new pump may have been defective so he returned it and installed the free replacement Autozone swapped for it,and again,a week later the car started losing power and eventually died and wouldn't re-start--he had already replaced the crank sensor and swapped "good used" map sensor and even tried another computer off an identical car to no avail,and there were no codes set,but the check engine ight did come on most of the time..

He had about given up on the car,when another guy we know who had many years experience running his own repair garage and worked at junkyards all his life,and sees what a lot of cars had for problems--he suggested he take the passenger side kick panel off and look for ground wires,and there was a gang of them attached to a "bus bar" kind of connector bolted to the body with female spades,that were al gangrene!..he cut all the wires and bundled them together and soldered them,then used a ring type solderless connector to join them all used the original screw to bolt them to the sheet metal body,after sanding it shiny..

The car started and ran perfectly after that!.....evidently either the computer or fuel pump (or both) were losing ground intermittently...

My friend went to thank the guy for his advice a few days later at the junkyard he worked at..unfortunately he had suffered a heart attack shortly after we last saw him and had been in Mass General Hospital in Boston for a few days..his wife said when she went to visit him,he had to go use the bathroom,and when he stood up,he had another massive heart attack,and died in her arms..50 years old!..:eek:..we lost a good friend and his knowledge helped many a mechanic in his town fix things no one else could figure out...
 
diesel4me said:
My friend had an Olds about the same vintage drive him batty with similar problems..he blamed the fuel pump and pulled the tank & replaced it,and it seemed to cure it--for a few days,then it started acting up again..he suspected the new pump may have been defective so he returned it and installed the free replacement Autozone swapped for it,and again,a week later the car started losing power and eventually died and wouldn't re-start--he had already replaced the crank sensor and swapped "good used" map sensor and even tried another computer off an identical car to no avail,and there were no codes set,but the check engine ight did come on most of the time..

He had about given up on the car,when another guy we know who had many years experience running his own repair garage and worked at junkyards all his life,and sees what a lot of cars had for problems--he suggested he take the passenger side kick panel off and look for ground wires,and there was a gang of them attached to a "bus bar" kind of connector bolted to the body with female spades,that were al gangrene!..he cut all the wires and bundled them together and soldered them,then used a ring type solderless connector to join them all used the original screw to bolt them to the sheet metal body,after sanding it shiny..

The car started and ran perfectly after that!.....evidently either the computer or fuel pump (or both) were losing ground intermittently...

My friend went to thank the guy for his advice a few days later at the junkyard he worked at..unfortunately he had suffered a heart attack shortly after we last saw him and had been in Mass General Hospital in Boston for a few days..his wife said when she went to visit him,he had to go use the bathroom,and when he stood up,he had another massive heart attack,and died in her arms..50 years old!..:eek:..we lost a good friend and his knowledge helped many a mechanic in his town fix things no one else could figure out...
Click to expand...
sorr to hear about your friend. maybe he is the answer to my prayers though. I may go over to my uncles and check it out. do you remember what year the car was by chance or model?
 
Sorry I cant recall the exact year,but I think it was an early 90's Cutlass ,it had a V-6,probably a 3.1 or 3.8?...anyway,most GM's shared the same chassis and problems,it'll be worth checking out those ground wires...I recall the guy saying some GM cars had a "body control module" hidden up under the rear deck (where speakers are mounted sometimes)..my friend tried swapping a junkyard one in,but that wasn't the problem..

I ran into another "weird" car problen,another guy bought a late 80's Olds off a junkyard that was "grandma's car",only had 45K on it and was like new..it would start & run perfectly ,then suddenly quit whenever it decided too,and refused to fire,it would just crank...it had spark,but he tried replacing the coil pack & module with a known good one because we'd seen them do that quite often--still did the same thing though...since the car was nice and low mileage,he didn't hesitate to throw about 200 bucks into it to try and solve the problem,so it could be dependable..

He tried replacing many sensors, and nothing changed--he got discouraged enough to almost sell the car back to the junkyard for scrap--but another mechanic we know suggested he try replacing the fuel injectors...we scoffed and said "what good will THAT do??"--well,he walked over to the car,unplugged the #4 injector and said "try it now"..the car immediately fired up on the remaining 3 cylinders!..he plugged the injector back in,and it stalled dead!..he told us if one injector shorts out,it kills the "pulse" to ALL of them!..(we had used a test lamp previously and there WAS no pulse when the engine stalled,but it would "come back" after it sat awhile,which led us to think it was the ignition odule)..

After the owner got some used injectors from the junkyard,and replaced the #4 one ,that evidently had an intermittent short,the car has run perfectly ever since..too bad he spent as much on un-needed parts as he did to buy the car almost!..
 
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