2000 malibu sputtering on hills/inclines?

[honeyswife]

We have a 2000 malibu, had it for a year now and just started having some problems with it. Replaced breaks, resistor on the a/c, fuel pump, water pump a week later. Now it has been sputtering on hills and small inclines for a while and we tried the regular tune up, spark plugs, fuel filter, air filter, oil change and rad flush, and adding fuel injector cleaner. It was running at full power for a couple weeks and now it seems sluggish again and doing the faltering thing up hill unless you really lay on the gas pedal. I was told to try supreme gas, we normally put in regular. Could this fix it or could it be something worse like the fuel injectors? I would of never got this car had I read all the bad points of it before hand. Any help would be appreciated.

dawn

[nagel83]

that does not sound right... i have a 2000 as well... and i havent had problems with mine like that???!! how many miles? what kind of gas do you use?? i know that the octaine in the gas makes the cars click when they go up hills/inclines the more octaine you have in your gas the less you will have that problem

[Js808]

a 2000 Malibu should have no problem running on 87 octane fuel. Octane in fuel is there to decrease the temperature that the fuel combusts. If you have a high compression engine (10.1 or higher)then you would need to run a higher octane fuel. Why? Because the higher the compression, the more heat is created in the compressing of the fuel/air mixture and can cause detonation. Detonation is the fuel combusting on its own without any igintion from the spark plug. This is often done before the piston is at TDC (top dead center) so it can cause severe internal damage. Don't change fuel. I would check your fuel pressure regulator. Going up a hill is putting more demand for fuel on the engine and if the pressure regulator is malfunctioning, you're not getting enough fuel and would cause it to spit and sputter.

[psychobadboy]

i have a 2001 malibu and had to have the resistor replaced on my a/c also.

i wonder it that's a common problem...

[JTrujillo86]

Yep...that resistor is a bi***. So is the entire head unit for the HVAC system. I had both replaced on my 97.

Jeremy

[donsixtyfive]

I started having the same problem two days after buying a 2000 with 61k on it. Check engine light came on also so I went to Autozone to have them read the code free. Turned out to be a misfire on #2 cylinder. Noticed the Plug wire was a little loose so refitted it, problem solved.

Hope this helps.

[crazycooter]

my 2k is in the shop right now for the same exact problem with the surging at about 2200 rpm. i took it in about 3 months ago for the same problem along with the gas guage having to be replaced. here's a quote from the dealer from then:

scanned pcm, no codes stored. fuel pressure ok. road tested, monitored fuel trim and pressure, ok. no misfire data. checked coil towers for corrosion, ok. checked connections, ok. only felt surging uphill at about 2k rpm. this is normal torque converter operation and cannot be changed. customer can manually downshift to 3. installed latest pcm software.

what's funny is that it seemed that the problem was not as prominent after the softwware update, which i had to pay for. today, the service rep tells me this:

this seems to be a prominent problem with the malibus and gm is pursuing the fix of flushing the injectors, intake and replacing the mass airflow sensor.

we will see if this works, if it does, i will post it.

[DaYtOnAt2]

check for micro-arcing at the ignition module or or coil packs. all looks like one unit. best if checks when it's dark out and may have to have someone "power-brake " it to put the engine under a load to see it... good luck.

[CmdrKiley]

Hi,

I own an 01 Olds Alero 3.4 l (same platform and drivetrain) with a similar problem described. Not only does it occur trying to maintain a 40-50 mph speed uphill, but during slight accelerations between those speeds. If I perform a hard acceleration, it does not occur.


(reference related link for Alero http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/t309217.html)

Anyone had any success resolving this problem?

[tp109]

I am also experiencing the surging issue when going uphill or inclines. I have no other problems with the car so far, a 2000 Malibu with 59K. Is this a common problem?

[LanceT]

Could be as simple as a vacuum leak. After a recent shop visit where the water pump had to be changed I also elected to have a look for possible causes to the surging. One thing that was done was to change the PVC and the grommet it goes in, in the rocker cover, it was original equipment. This helped for quit a while then the hose on it came loose and I had the surging back. Reason I mention the vacuum leak it is the ONLY thing I have ever done or had done that has made any improvement to the problem. It is an annoying problem but doesn't seem serious. I have 200K now on my 2000 Malibu.

[2001malibuowner]

I had this problem on my 2001. Octane 89 gas made the problem alot less of a problem. I finally figured out what it was.... a bad egr valve. you can order them off the net for $60 and they're just 3 bolts. something anyone can easily change themselves and save a few hundred. After I replaced it the problem went away but the engine was still running a little rough. I figure I did something wrong. Turns out a spark plug wire was loose.