Help..3800 Running Rough

[jefferylackey]

ok, one more time... someone please help.. i love my bonneville, i miss my bonneville... so, i've checked the fuel injectors, they're fine... still got this problem... kinda missing at idle... but will not accelerate. if you barely push the gas peddel down it will pick up speed and will get to 65-70 and cruise there without a problem.. but as soon as you try to accelerate by pushing the gas peddel a little too far, you're in trouble. i've checked the tps with a ohm meter but i'm thinking of replacing it out of desperation. i've also read about the fuel pump strainer collapsing... someone please help, i'm desperate... thanks. jeff out.

[Juice21]

I am going through the same problem with my '92 Bonneville SSE w/supercharger. Thanks for listing everything that you have done. The only thing I don't understand is the TPS that you checked. What is it?

By the way, I don't know if it's a coincidence or what but I just put a new battery in today, and it ran better today than it has in a long time. Still misses when I give it too much gas but wasn't nearly as bad.

[puffdaddy]

I have been fighting the same problem on my 95 Bonneville. I thought I had it fixed until last night. I too had a bad coil pack and replaced it. A week later I checked the others and one of them was bad also. I ended up replacing all three. It ran great again until last night. It acts like one of the coil packs has gone again. I will check it this weekend to see. Not sure if the coil packs were root of the problem or not. If I find out anything more I will post again.
04/22/07
Turns out that the original problem I had was just the coil packs. One went back then another and so on. The new problem was one of the spark plug wires was laying on the exhaust manifold in the rear of the engine and it was shorting out. I pulled the slack out of it and the car is running great again. Will replace that wire to prevent a future problem.

The history of my problem is as follows: 1995 Bonneville with 205K miles on it
It started running rough when trying to accelerate. When running at slow speeds or cruising it ran OK. I thought it was the Cat. convertor but it checked out OK. When I checked the coil packs they were reading 6.25 Kohms, 9.5 Kohms, and 6.2 Kohms. I thought the one reading 9.5 was defective so I replaced it. Ran better but then started doing the same thing again. I then thought it might be the fuel pump. I didn't always hear it when I turned the key on. Bought a pressure tester and found that the fuels pump was OK. I had already replaced the spark plug wires so I had the ignition module tested and it passed so I replaced the plugs. No help. Tried to have the coeds read at Autozone and got NO-LINK so they said they thought my computer was bad and the car was running in a safe mode. Bought a new computer and it didn't fix it. I rechecked the Cat. convertor and when I accelerated the vacumnn went to 0. Had that and the resonator replaced but it didn't fix the main problem. I finally decided to check the coil packs again. The new one was readin 9.2K and one was readin 6.2K and the thrid one was open. I put the one back on that I had replaced and it was running great. I bought another coil pack and put it on where the one was reading 6.2K and on the way home it started running bad again. Checked them again when I got home and the one that I had replaced first and then put back on was now open. Put the one that was readin 6.2K on and it ran great again. The next day I replaced that one and it ran great all week until my trip and that turned out to be the plug wire. Moral of the story.....if one coil pack goes bad replace all three because the others will soon follow.

[jackpinesavage]

Check the TCC solenoid on the Transaxle. What is does is locks the torque converter at highway speeds for better milage. If it is not unlocking at lower speeds it will buck and caugh and spit and generally run as you discribed. It will also snub the engine when you come to a stop light because it is like not pushing in the clutch in a manual tranny. Diagnosis is tough because the damn thing works when it wants too and sometimes just half way. Running too much with it bad can kill the tranny. The way to test it is to just unplug the connector. That way it will never engage. (gas milage will go down on the highway) If that cures the symptoms, then it could be the solenoid, or the connector, or the wire, or the ground, or the computer sending the signal wrong. It could also be dirt or junk in the valve body ports that are controled by this solenoid. Actually if the transmission oil is low this could effect the function of the lock-up mechanizm.

Good luck

[jefferylackey]

Another strange thing is that when i start the car. it is idiling at 2000 rpm, it normally sits at 1000 rpm. when you rev it up it will return slowly to 2000 rpm. instead of dropping to 1000. uncle thinks it the crank censor but i replaced that just last year. when it went out last time, when the car would get hot the engine would die until the car had cooled down. one day it died on me at the dollar store. it was 98 degrease outside and i wanted a coke. i bought a nice cold coke, took a few drinks, poured the rest on the crank censor and it started right up. i wish this problem was that easy. i'm down to trying 2 things. replacing the throdle position sensor or pulling the gas tank and checking to see if the pick up screen has collapsed. someone earlier mentioned something about a traney sensor but i don't know where that would be located...ever since i bought the car, when you let off the gas and the car is coasting you can kinda feel the traney breaking but it breaks in pulses, you can see the tachometer dip when it breaks, it's weird, feels like i'm tapping on the breaks lightly about every 3 seconds. car has done this ever since i bought it, i changed the traney fluid but this didn't help.