Thread: i seriously need some help guys

To put my level of frustration into perspective, I want to go out and kick a dent into every body panel in my car and drive it off a cliff. Here is this link that I was reading and this guy is having the exact same issues that I am having. http://www.grandprixforums.net/losin...oad-49670.html I messaged him and he said that he gutted his cat and it fixed his problem. The problem with that compared to mine is that I don't have cat. I have headers with catless dp. I just replaced the front O2 today and bought an extension harness instead of my at home harness extension and an O2 sim hoping this was the issue. 150ish dollars later and no progress. I have had the car for less then a year and drive it daily to work 6 miles and maybe put 1000 miles on it. Since I've had the car I have:

Fuel pump was recently replaced just before I bought the car.
Missfire- replaced plug
Fixed a missfire on cylinder 4- bad coil
Right after that had random missfires- bad plug wire, bad maf, bad map
Replaced all the vac lines

Just after fixing the random missfires, I put on a ported throttle body and ran good for a few days then had this issue. I put the stocker back on with the screen and fixed it a lil bit. Recently I drove it on a 3 hour round trip with the sc belt off and it slowly worked this bug out. It was pulling hills good and cruising at 85 with no problems. After I got back I put the belt back on and low and behold the beast is alive again. It ran good for a couple weeks and I did a diy tps adjustable mod. It ran fine for a couple days after that and now the same issue is back, I have to creep the throttle to get it to 35 because any more it just bogs and chugs. Getting it to 55 is even more of a problem. When its cold it runs fine till it warms up. The guy I messaged with the thread pointed me towards the crank position sensor. Also my tach needle bounces when the key is on before starting, and my mpgs are at 14. Oh and I re gapped my plugs before the 3 hour trip to .550 from .600. ANY HELP IS WELCOME!!!

Has the crank sensor been done to your knowledge?

Hey 4th, no not that I know of

Then that very well may be your problem. My tach used to jump before i changed my crank sensor. It doesn't now that i replaced it.

K so would that also fix my driveability issues also do you think? I'm looking at 50 for the sensor and the puller

It could help ya. My car would randomly die cruising down the road. Hasn't done it since I replaced the crank sensor.
Ya the sensor was like 50 or whatever....but it cost me 100 to rent the puller...but i got that all back after I dropped the puller back off.

sounds like you have a maf sensor about to go out on you. Does the car stall sometimes too?

Ok ill give it a shot. Any other suggestions?

No. Just the performance degrades. I tried unplugging it and it still was bogging and hesitating even worse then with it plugged in so I think the maf is still good

Interesting actually. May eliminate somethings on my side depending on what the cause of your problem is

You say your problem is the same as this guys problem. I quickly read that guys post and would rather you type out what your problem is.. because I often find when people type out their problems, they put some clues in that "other" people didn't. This is often how I can pull a good diagnosis out of my butt. It's the subtle little things you might say about how it's behaving.

The other guy had a clogged cat, which clearly isn't your issue. So if you are cruising along and not throttling or maybe going up a hill.. see there's too much that can factor into it and we need that info to properly help you.

When were your plugs last changed and what brand/model are they?

Ok bill here ya go. Driving lightly it loses power, push the throttle further it bogs even more and almost acts like it wants to cut out till I lift off. Runs best at cruising rpms with very little throttle. Car would accelerate underboost one min while cold, the next it is instantly on its face barely able to maintain the speed limit. Also when it acts this way and I push the throttle further, my mechanical boost guage freaks out and the needle spikes on the pressure side and swings back. Its very hard to maintain 55 and struggles to accelerate from a stop to 35 and struggles to 55, I have to play with the throttle ever so slightly just so that its accelerating slowly but even slightly more it bogs. If I turn it off and back on it resets for a min. My mpg's went from 22-14 or 16. Before I turn it off when I park it shakes and idles rough and the rpms flucuate up and down till it almost dies. If I restart it, it will run and idle fine and that's just restarting it right after it was shut off. It would seem to me that it would be a sensor of some kind cuz it runs fine while cold and is in open loop.

I'd say start with the cheapest. Plugs and wires. Might be a bad coil or something. Maybe an ICM. Who knows. I'd just wait to see what Bill thinks lol.

See that's the thing 4th, it doesn't run bad all the time, just after warm up. If it was something with the ignition system it would be running bad warm or cold. I had an issue like that with a bad coil and bad plug wires. Then I had random missfire issue that would only come up after warm up which turned out to be a bad maf and then a bad map in succession. I tried unplugging the maf the other day to see if it went out again and it only made it run worse. I am baffeled and I have had this issue for months now and it has slowly got worse.

Oh also my commute is six miles one way to work and all flat with mostly light city driving and a couple miles on the highway

i would describe my problems when my MAF sensor went bad exactly how you did... all three times it happened.

Instead of throwing parts why not use a GM service manual? It has the step by step process of what to check in your situation. This keeps you from throwing parts at a car and changing parts when they are good to begin with. Sounds like with the money you have spent it could have gone to a shop and have been repaired by now. Your issue could be a dozen different things, but with out going step by step and eliminating parts you are looking for a needle in a haystack.

Are there any codes being set?