88 Caprice issue

Hello all, I have a problem with my Caprice thats is driving me nuts. It is a 1988 Caprice Classic Brougham LS.

Description of the problem:

Service engine soon light comes on and I lose what seems to be half the power of the car. It blinks on and off...when it is on, the idle drops and the car runs rough. When it's off it runs fine. When the light is on, it feels like the car wants to stall when it comes to a stop. Sometimes the light stays on for a good length of time, other times it just blinks on and off. It started a few days ago and seems to be getting progressively worse.

Any help, suggestions, input, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

Jordan

It might be the EGR system. My Service Engine Soon Light comes on every so often and my mechanic told me it was the EGR valve. I've heard they tend to get clogged with carbon after a while.

Ok, I jumped the ADLS port (or whatever it's called) and the car blew a code 41, which is a EST ground out/distributor sensor issue. Hopefully wiggling the wire will fix it, if not, looks like I may need a new distributor.

Lemme know if you solve it - my had an intermittent 41 too.

Mine was a corroded freeze plug that had developed a leak and was dripping coolant down onto the knock sensor....

dag - mine doesn't have a knock sensor

The code 41 hasn't bothered me in the past couple of days. The car has blown a code 21, however, which is TPS sensor. I am pretty sure that code is because the vaccum lines around the carb were all broken and crumbling away. I replaced them all so I guess I'll see if any more codes blow after that. The code 41 could also have been caused by incorrect vaccum.

Cross my fingers I guess.

If you solver your problem, let me know! My 88 caprice has frustrated me for over a year. It runs fine cold, after 5 min, it heats up and develops a hesitation every time you pull away from a stop. And when you come to a stop it idles rough and occasionally stalls. Not good. I put a new carb, new computer, replaced all vacuum hoses, no change. Only thing I found is when I went down to sea level ( i live at 4000 ft), the hesitation largely went away and the idle improved. So there are two things related to elevation, MAP sensor and BARO (barometer) sensors. Maybe that is of some help to you. But keep me posted if you solve your problem. Good luck.

I solved this problem some time ago, though it sounds as though you may be having a different problem.

My problem was that the plug going to the distributor was very corroded and causing a signal blib in the ignition system. I popped in a new distributor and the car has run like a champ ever since.

As a note, this problem also caused a false TPS code which cleared up after the new distributor was put in.

Hope this helps.