97 grand am prob

I have a 97 grand am 2.4L and my wife was taking it to work on the highway when it started running bad, the check engine light came on and the car started to surge, losing power and it eventually cut out. I went to help and it would start but it would clank and sputter and die. The only way to keep it running is to hit the gas and keep the rpm's over idle speed. It would then run smoother but the rpm's will not remain constant, and as soon as I let off it will clank and chug and die. The car is not drivable or I would take it to get the codes checked. Do you have any ideas as to what it might be?

please help

Welcome to the forum luke. There's really many culprits that could be causing this, but it sounds like you've got some severe misfiring. Here's some probable ones.

Spark plugs - make sure they're clean and unfouled

Coil packs - one of them (under you IDI panel) may be bad

Injectors - may be gunked up / clogged bad - an injector flush would do wonders, or you might just try like 2 bottles of really strong injector cleaner in your tank

fuel filter could be clogged

the fuel pump could be going south

TPS, IAC, MAF are other possible culprits, but start with ride's ideas first.

I would suggest start with the fuel injector cleaner, run it through on a 1/2 full tank or so, even if ya have to sit there and play with gas pedal for a few.

^ ^ Oh yeh those also, but deffinately TPS. I'm suprised I forgot to mention that - TPS is a big known causer for stuff like that.

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0e/56/b8/0900823d800e56b8.jsp

Not too hard to find out if it the TPS, if ya have a voltmeter.

Thanks for the help guys,

It turned out to be only the spark plugs, however they are contained in a special plastic cover that I never saw before. Cars are getting more and more complicated. It costed more than anticipated because it required the replacement of the plastic gm part. Thanks a lot :headshake GM.