2000 intrigue

[jasonm658]

how many fuel filters do i have? where are they? what is the stock plug and gap? thx in advance jason.

[LittleHoov]

Should just be one fuel filter, its on the driver side, sort of behind the wheel. Just follow the lines coming out of the tank, you cant miss it. Its a biggish metal canister looking thing.

Stock plugs are platinum, mine had NGK in it when I changed them at over 100000 miles, but I dont know if they had been changed before. I gapped mine to .60 per the Chiltons manual.

[jasonm658]

Originally Posted by LittleHoov

Should just be one fuel filter, its on the driver side, sort of behind the wheel. Just follow the lines coming out of the tank, you cant miss it. Its a biggish metal canister looking thing.

Stock plugs are platinum, mine had NGK in it when I changed them at over 100000 miles, but I dont know if they had been changed before. I gapped mine to .60 per the Chiltons manual.

cool, thx. i put in bosch platinum, so i guess those are ok and not the problem.

[LittleHoov]

Actually they very well could be the problem. Bosch as a company has said that their spark plugs do not work well in engines that use a waste spark ignition system, as the Intrigue does. Many members of the 3800 community as well as other GM engines have had trouble with Bosch spark plugs. What sort of troubles are you having? They might just be your problem.

[jasonm658]

Originally Posted by LittleHoov

Actually they very well could be the problem. Bosch as a company has said that their spark plugs do not work well in engines that use a waste spark ignition system, as the Intrigue does. Many members of the 3800 community as well as other GM engines have had trouble with Bosch spark plugs. What sort of troubles are you having? They might just be your problem.

well, its a long story that ive posted a few times already, but here it goes. several months back i had a light come on(pcs? not sure tho, been awhile. it was right under the mph guage, 3 yellow letters). after a day, it went away. then my car wouldnt start about once a week. did that for about a month. when it woulf fire, it would die right away. i would have to hit the gas and gkeep it revved for about 5 secs, with it sputtering whole time. once it smotthed out, i could let off the gas and it would run fine. the only time i get a service light, is while its sputtering, so i cant do a scan on it. also, while its sputtering, im guessing im reving up to about 3k rpms, but all my guages read 0, and every once in awhile, they will spike all the way around, even mph, then bounce back. so i changed the plugs. they looked very black and burnt, prolly original.(car had 60k miles when i bought, has 120k now and ive never anthing cept change the oil.) car started right up, but then 3 days later, same problem. sop i pulled the plugs and they were pretty black. those were the really cheap ones, dont remember name. so i went and got the bosch, and it had same problem first start. pulled out, and fouled already. i took it to the dealer and told them all of this. he called me next day and said it has been starting fine, but the pcm is bad. they quoted me 300 for the new one to be put in. i took the chance that they were right, and went to autozone and ordered one for 110. 3 days later same problem. of course dealer wouldnt do anything, because i put it in myself. then shortly after this became an everday problem, then it got to the point it wont start at all sometimes and even did the exact same thing last time i drove it.
ive been driving my 69 internation daily now, and with 8 mpg, its killing my budget so i need to try something. i just lost my job ontop of all this, so i cant afford to take it back to the dealer at this time. unless you have a better idea, i was going to change the fuel filter and plugs. if that doesnt work, i will have to let it sit till i get the money to go back to the dealer. also, the last time i staerted it, while it was in that rough sputtering mode, i noticed alot of smoke from the tailpipe.

[jasonm658]

i just went out and checked, and the original light was PCS. it hasnt come on since then, but still could be part of the problem i guess.

[canatto]

Is the battery in good condition? When was the last time you put in a new battery? Just a thought since you didn't mention.

That 8 mpg is un-believable. Are you serious? And you don't get service engine light? Anyways, I heard a leaking fuel pressure regulator can harm the mpg badly.

[jasonm658]

Originally Posted by canatto

Is the battery in good condition? When was the last time you put in a new battery? Just a thought since you didn't mention.

That 8 mpg is un-believable. Are you serious? And you don't get service engine light? Anyways, I heard a leaking fuel pressure regulator can harm the mpg badly.

lol, i guess i didnt make that very clear. i need to get the intrigue fixed cause ive been forced to drive my 1969 internation truck. it has a 392 6.4 lr in it. it gets about 8 mpg. intrigue has great mpg, just doesnt run.

[jasonm658]

Originally Posted by canatto

Is the battery in good condition? When was the last time you put in a new battery? Just a thought since you didn't mention.

That 8 mpg is un-believable. Are you serious? And you don't get service engine light? Anyways, I heard a leaking fuel pressure regulator can harm the mpg badly.

ive never changed the battery, but it cranks fine, and takes a charge.

[kmohr3]

I'd get a fuel pressure guage on it and make sure the fuel pressure is in the 40 pound range, and not real high. If the fuel pressure is too high the car will run too rich - enough to foul out the plugs and run rough. (I've seen VW's spike up to about 100 PSI - they run good until the car starts to get warm, then they run rough and stall).

I'd check wire connections, harnesses, etc., too. Especially the wire to coolant temp sensor. High temp sensor resistance will make the engine run rich.

Is this a 3.8 or a 3.5?

[LittleHoov]

I just thought Id mention that the gap in the Chiltons is .60 and the gap in the owners manual is .50. I went with the manual and gapped mine at .50.

When you asked I grabbed my Chiltons and so I gave you the .60.

Mine were already gapped at .50 when I bought them, so I just went with that.

[jasonm658]

its a 3.8 . plugs on mine were gapped to 60 when i bought and they said it should be 60. when i get the new plugs im going to try .50 first and see how it does. the autozone here only has bosch and "cant remeber, but its thier brand". so im going to try napa.

[canatto]

sorry, I was scanning the post quickly and missunderstood the 8 mpg part.

I used to experience the same hard-to-start condition usually at first start in the morning with my other car, a 97 Ford Contour, when the battery was on its last leg. The juice was good enough to turn over the engine but the voltage was not high enough for the ignition control to work properly due to the heavy cranking current draw. The engine would crank fine, sputter, and then either fire up finally or keep turning over until I stopped cranking -- I never crank for longer than 5 seconds or so. If it fired up it would run perfectly as if nothing had happened. If it did not, the cylinders would have been flooded with raw gasoline and the plugs fouled. I would floor the gas pedal for the first few seconds at the next attempt of starting the engine in order to purge the cylinders. The engine control computer would detect the wide open throttle condition and hold off the fuel injection to allow the purge until I let up the gas. Then the engine would usually start, probably partly because the oil had been somewhat got delivered around during the first attempt of starting and the engine became easier to crank for the battery this time.

My Trigue is a 2000GLS and the OE battery went last year. I didn't really experience hard-to-start condition, maybe a couple of times. Then one morning it wouldn't crank anymore. I did have the compass in the rear view mirror mysteriously going into calibration mode by itself from time to time for a few months beforehand, which I later learned a sign of weak battery. In your post you said you had the guages going crazy, that sounds like basic electrical problems like battery or battery connections that are in worse than normal conditions.

To my knowledge car batteries are usually good for 6 or 7 year, at least for areas that have Canadian winters. So if the one in your car is the factory one you're on bonus.

[jasonm658]

so i took back the fuel pressure guage and got the one that fit. the problem is its older than my can so i dont know what the presure is supposed to be. her is what it read.
key on, not running 40 psi
idleing 35 psi
revved to 2500 rpm 33.
now this is all while it was running fine. after shutting it of and restarting several times, it didnt start. i checked presure and was same, had wife turn key on while i gave it gas from outside and read guage. it kept sputtering and dieing till finally it had 0 fuel pressure. turned the key off and on several times, then pressure came back and was able to get it to fire. also, my fuel pump is running when key is on accesorie for a few secs, then will run for a few secs again when the key is turned on. i dunno but it seems to me the pump shouldnt run with it on acc.

[jasonm658]

i changed the ignition switch, all seems good now.