idling question

[bighead]

Okay... 1997 Cav, 2.2L, Manual trans. ...When I lay off of the throttle at highways speeds, about 2 seconds later, I feel the car hesitate for a moment and then everything is fine. Problem is worse at 30 mph... seems like I have to keep the RPMs high or it will spudder... I keep it in 2 or 3rd and ignore the shift now light..those are annoying

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

TS

[Cavalier2000]

how many miles do you have on your car

[bighead]

144k...give or take a mile or two

[Cavalier2000]

have you ever cleaned your injectors, gotten a new fuel filter or anything to that nature

[bighead]

no... but i am going to replace the fuel filter.. On the way home, my check engine light came on. I'm thinking a sensor is going/gone.

[94century]

Try the TPS, or idle control solenoid. both can be checked on the car with a digital multimeter.

[Classicrocjunkie]

When you let off the gas pedal on your car, the car goes into a lean mod for a few sec and then flutters between lean and rich with is stoich or an equal amout of A/f. If you sit in your car in idle, you should be able to feel your car flutter back and forth between lean and rich. Maybe not depening on how much you have done to your car. I can feel it and see it now.... lol. But i would prolly check your injectors and fuel filter. Even your spark plugs.

[jonsonton]

That's great that your light came on. It might be easier to daignose. I would try auto-zone and have them hook your car to their scanner, free, and check what code(s) you have. Then go from there.

[bighead]

i'm thinking it's getting too much fuel.... anyone agree? The repair starts Saturday Morning...I'll let you guys/girls know how it goes....

[bighead]

Ok, a success..sort of.

I changed:
Plug wires...0xygen sensor...fuel filter...Oil
I tested the TPS with a Voltmeter..It checked fine.

I pulled the plugs...They were clean..No build up..no gunk.. On the connector end of the plug, it looks as though there was arcing from the wire to the plug..As if it weren't making a good connection. Which would make sense because the wires were OEM. Thank god I had access to a lift or this part would have sucked...really bad... Pull 1 wire, snake it around find it on top...Up and down.. up and down ...u get the idea

The fuel filter was a pain... Since the car has 144k miles on it, and it was obvious the fuel filter had never been changed, everything was corroded together. The Quick disconnect release was inop, so I used some brute force to get it dislodged. No worries, the new filter had the proper replacement seals.


Oxygen sensor was pretty straight forward...sat right there in front..done in 5 mins...

oil... 8 mins..only because it was the first thing I did and I wasn't quite awake...


Car runs awesome..

The "sort of" part is because I don't really know what the problem was...but it works now, so does it really matter?

Thanks for all the ideas and advice....

[Cavalier2000]

i had the same problem chaing my fuel fliter man, but after i changed it i go like 5mpg more and a little more power, not much. and that was at 100,000