99-3.8, Engine stumbles at Times

It just started a few days ago the car runs perfect and at times the engine stumbles or mises for a second and recovers and at times the engine stalls when I am stopping at a light. The engine light is on steady any ideas I do not have a code reader. If any one living in Markham ( Toronto) I can drop buy and rent your code reader .

You should be able to swing into any auto parts store and get those codes read for free.

It used to be one of AutoZone's advertising pitches, but I just saw a post recently where one store refused to scan a car, but most stores should help you out. Theyre hoping youll come inside and buy whatever you need to fix it.

if you can get over to whitby or missisauga princess auto has a simple OBD2 scanner on sale for $39 bucks. Best investment you will ever make if you plan to own more cars in the future. Here in canada we dont have autozone and i dont know of any place that exclusevly offers free code scans...although you can try partsource. You will likely end up paying like $30 bucks or something stupid at a dealership or garage in the GTA..my guess is a slight misfire, and the cure will likely be new plugs and wires..but dont go throwing money away fixing parts you dont know are broken definatly get that code scanned!

Dealers here in the states charge from 50-100 dollars to plug your car into their scanner.

Surely their must be some place that will do it for free, although I do agree that a cheap scanner is a good investment, Ive more than gotten my 25 bucks worth out of mine.

http://www.partsource.ca/doityourself/do-it-yourself.asp

im pretty sure partsource has a free code scan service now that I think of it....pretty much every city in ontario should have a partsource. Give them a call. I think wal-mart sells an obd2 scanner for ~100 bucks...and you can just return it after using it :lol:

A code reader is not the answer here, a full scan looks at the whole picture such all sensor inputs, misfire counts, o2 activity, fuel trims, no one does a comprehensive scan for nothing. Rarely does getting the code point to the root problem.

I read another posting on this forum where a guy was having the same problem and it seems that replacing the Crank sensor was the fix. Next question where is the Crank sensor located on the 99-3.8 thanks

Usual spot, r/s of the crank balancer on a bracket,.

Usual spot, r/s of the crank balancer on a bracket,.

Can the sensor be removed with-out removing the crank balancer

Im pretty sure you have to remove the balancer to get too it. Id get the codes scanned before I did anything else. Might save yourself a lot of time. Id be pissed to spend the time and money changing the CKPS only to have the car still do it, and find out my TPS was screwy or something.

Im pretty sure you have to remove the balancer to get too it. Id get the codes scanned before I did anything else. Might save yourself a lot of time. Id be pissed to spend the time and money changing the CKPS only to have the car still do it, and find out my TPS was screwy or something.

and its happened to all of us :banghead:

I found a guy that has a those standard scanners and he is willing to read the codes for $10. I notted the moderator said that I need a full scan vs. a simply error reader. So will I be wasting my $10 or should I take it and pay for a full scan.

Well, you have a check engine light on, which can be read by any basic code reader, and I think if you look/call around, youll find somewhere that would do it for free.

A full scan might be helpful, but you dont even know what the check engine light is on for at the moment, which might be all you need to know.

As far as wasting your 10 dollars, thats kind of a gamble, because you dont know what its going to tell you. But its hard to lose when the price is free, Im sure somewhere will do it, even in Canada.

Id say the car itself is pretty good at narrowing down an issue...and if you say the engine light is ON then that means you have a code that is stored and will most likely guide you to the peoblem once you know it. When i got my car it had a terrible shudder, felt like the transmission was about ready to fall out! Threw the code scanner on and i had a cylinder 3 misfire caused my a cracked plug wire...easy fix. Some people would ignore that engine light and send the car off to a tranny shop, I see it all the time!. A simple code scan to start, and that should help you out with your problem. the next step would be to go to the stealership and get a full diagnostic scan with a real time read out of sensor data. I would much rather pay 10 bucks and get a PXXXX code "tps sensor low input" or something like that and your fix is a TPS sensor away...

Well I paid the $10 the guy lived 1-block away. The code was P0102, i made sure my air filter was clean and I cleaned the Mass air Flow Sensor ( it looked clean) I will see if this fixed it. I guess the next step is to try a new Mass Sensor. I wish I new a guy with a 99 3.8 in my area I could have tried his one way of not wasting cash. Will keep you posted unless you think the P0102 may be cased by something else.

An update, I did try to clean the Mass sensor and it made it run worse, even though I was disappointed I was also encouraged that I was on the right track. I went to our local bone yard and to my surprise, I found a 2000 Impala with the complete engine I removed all the sensors just in case and once I replaced the mass sensor that was it the engine is running perfect. I guess spending the $10 to have the code read was well worth it. Toronto Guys if you want my old Mass sensor it’s yours maybe you may be able to clean it and make it work. Thanks to all for your input.

Make sure both seals are in place for the map sensor/pcv valve.