sensor issue ?

[slayer5]

My wifes 2000 chevy metro is either stalling out or bogging out . But usually happens after a drive on the highway 15 miles or so on a hot Arizona day, then say shut off at a gas station, then, go to restart it and sometimes probs starting, but not always. Then, while driving , it will be fine then stall and fall on its face. You can floor it and it won't go anywhere, but it will idle ok. If its cool outside, no issues. I am thinking O2 sensor or temp sensor. It runs real good otherwise this recent issue. Any help or direction would be a great help.

[Metro Mighty Mouse]

Any sensor issue that bad should set a code, check codes 1st. If there is nothing useful in the codes then I would look for a spark issue under the hood, the heat can lower the resistance in the wire insulation and you may be arcing. My first take is fuel supply. The heat can make a weak pump worse. Problem should be less likely to happen with a full tank if that is the case. Check compression as well.

[slayer5]

OK I will get codes checked, look for spark issue, and try full tank of gas to see if pump is going. Thanks man...

[brivers]

Just went through a similar problem. Started out as, starting right up when cold but hard to start after warm up. Ten or fifteen tries to get it to start. Then one day some jackass was tailgating me on the highway, so naturally I just took my foot of the accelerator. Well, when I went to accelerate again, nothing. The motor was still turning because I have a stick. I guess it took about 5 seconds and it started running again. Always ran good except when abruptly decelerating.
I got no codes, so I had no other recourse but to start changing components one at a time in this order. Checked for vacuum leaks, checked egr, changed fuel pump, map sensor, fuel pressure regulator.
After breaking down on road, and having to wait until engine completely cooled off I limped it home. At that point, it did have spark and fuel pressure. Sitting still it would start up cold and rev up with no problem. After warm up, rev the motor hard and that's all she wrote. Would not start again until cooled off. I poured a little gas down the throttle body and it started. Now I'm thinking its the computer. I decided to check the fuel injector with an ohm meter. Meter reads completely open. I kept checking it as I started to remove it. After it had cooled off a bit I got a reading on the meter. I changed it about a week ago and haven't had any problems.
I can't explain why it would cut out during hard decelerating, or a hot start. My advise would be to have a ohm meter ready to check it as soon as it happens. This problem drove me crazy for about a month.
Two other things to check are, temperature sensor, and clean and tighten the small ground wires bolted to intake just below the throttle body on the fire wall side. They are the grounds for the relays.
Hope this helps you're diagnosis. By the way, this is a 97 metro 3 banger.

[Woodie83]

brivers has good advice for you, I've heard many cases of the fuel injector failing in this exact way. It starts out just occasionally, but becomes more and more frequent until the injector doesn't work at all. Might be more likely when you run it hard because of heat, I don't know.

This is assuming that you have a three cylinder. If you have a four then it couldn't be the injector, but it's still some electrical component that is getting overheated.

[slayer5]

Its the 4 banger... oh and I forgot to mention that the valve seals (smoke on start-up) have been that way for quite awhile. Would that be effecting the bogging out and sometimes hard start when its hot outside .I have read alot of the responses on these boards about the bogging & such....and mostly points to sensors like O2, or mass airflow. Which probly is a sensor. I will be doing the valve seal repair in a few months when the temp. outside comes down under 90 or so...LOL. The car has 168,000 miles on it, I will go through everything at one time. I have done the timing belt, water pump, and 2 fuel pumps over the years, along with all the basic maint. I think I can figure this out.... I'll let you all know how it goes soon.