92 Grand AM dying when put into gear and gauges going haywire at the same time

[T-bone32]

My 92 Grand Am, which has a 2.3 liter Quad 4 engine ...A few months ago, while going down the road it would loose power and try to die and the guages would go haywire, the needles bouncing back and forth and all of the warning light would come on (ABS, service engine soon, ect.). I'd pull the car over, put it in park..wait a few minutes and then it would drive fine for awhile.

Now, when I start up the car and put it in reverse, as soon as I take my foot off the brake, it dies. I can put the car in park and repeat the process a couple of times and it may or may not continue running. Or if I get it going, once I put it in drive it either dies agian..or my guages start going haywire agian. It doesn't do it everytime..but here lately the problem has become more frequent to the point I'm not sure I can depend on my car to get me from point A to point B. I think it may be an ECM problem but I'm not sure..Anyone have any ideas on what may
be causing this to happen?

[Hoags]

The first thing I would recomend is to have your battery and alt. checked. I had an alt. go bad and my GAGT did some thing very similar. If you happen to have an Autozone close they can check the bat. and alt. usually for free.

I hope this helps.
Welcome to the Forum... you will get a lot of great answers to your Grand Am questions here there are many people on the Forum that have gone thru just about every situation possible.

[Ridenour]

I'm with hoags on the electrical ideas. Deffinately check battery, alternator, and other common thing - battery grounds. Unhook the grounds from your battery to your frame, and use a dremel / wire brush to clean the hell out of the eyelets, the washers, and where they meet the frame. It may solve your problem.

[Hoags]

Good ideas Sir Ridenour, It may be as simple as a good cleaning at the contact points. I give that a go first besides it doesnt cost anything but time.

[Knifeblade]

If you can get to your starter solenoid, clean and tighten the wiring there also. Remember, there is an electrical path to the starter also, off the ignition key and related areas.

[vdel11]

I had a similar problem with stalling and bucking then it would go away only to occur randomly and at the worst times ie. in the middle of an intersection with fire trucks heading my way . It ended up to be the idle air control motor $41.00 after I replaced it the symptoms never reoccured. There were no problems with the gauges before or after.