Cutlass Cuts Out/Stalls

I just copied and pasted my post from a different forum...

"1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 135,000 miles 3.1L V6 automatic... For a long time, my sister would drive and it would give out for a second, not stall, when she accelerated but this would not always happen. It became worse and would sometimes stall now after it gave out . What I mean by giving out is that it doesn’t sound or feel like the engine is running for a second and you have to let off the accelerator to let it recoup or if you don’t, it will stall. But like everything else, it doesn’t happen all the time, sometimes if you just floor it and let it roll for a second, it will “catch” and peel out no matter what speed you are going. Also, sometimes when the car starts up, the idle is very high and will stay there and return to this speed every time you come to an idle, other times it is normal from the start. The high idle does not indicate when the stalling happens either, anything will happen when ever it feels like it. It has happened hot and cold, easy driving and hard driving, low speeds and high speeds. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks."

but now, I checked for codes and got code 43 which is the knock sensor. Could the knock sensor be causing this, I can't imagine how it could stall the car. Either way, does anyone know where the sensor is located exactly, it is only suppose to have a single wire coming from it and all sensors I find have more. Thank you for any help you can give me.

Check for a vacuum leak, could be a small crack that is causing the idle issue. As for the "stalling" the knock sensor will reduce timing to stop knock in the engine. Called knock retard or KR. If the knock sensor is bad and reading false knock or too much knock it can produce too much KR and cause the car to stumble like you said. The knock sensor should be located on the back of the engine, firewall side. It is hard to get to but it can be done.

Sounds like a problem i had with a 90 grandprix...same engine. My problem was a cracked circuit board in the ECM. Sometimes a slight bump in the road would make the car hiccup or shut off completely. I replace many parts before i gave up and took it to my mechenic. He found the prob but it took a while as he was baffled by it too. Hope this helps.

p.s. As your car is running....gently tap on the ECM and see if it makes any changes.

POI

I used to have the same problem with my cutlass, and the problem with mine was that when the battery is disconnected, the computer in the car doesnt know how to reset itself, so it screws everything up, and reseting it is really easy. First the car has to be cooled down. you start it up and put it in drive. hold the brake down and let it idle in drive for 5 minutes. after 5 minutes, put it in park and turn it off. wait 30 seconds before turning it on, and once you turn it on, let it idle in park for 1 minute, and then put it back in drive and hold the brake and let it idle in drive for 5 more minutes. after that is done, turn it off, and let it cool down for 10- 15 minutes before starting it up. Its something to do with a fauly computer chip and if you do disconnect the battery a lot it gets annoying having to do it all the time, but it works