'93 achieva dies after driving for a while

[jeniveeve]

I've got a problem. My Achieva dies after I drive it around town for more than an hour. It only does it when you're not giving it gas. If you put it in neutral to stop, it wont die....sometimes... but as soon as you put it back in drive, it turns off. There isnt any jerking or sputtering... it just turns off, as if I simply took the key out. HELP!!

[computerdude14]

Originally Posted by jeniveeve

I've got a problem. My Achieva dies after I drive it around town for more than an hour. It only does it when you're not giving it gas. If you put it in neutral to stop, it wont die....sometimes... but as soon as you put it back in drive, it turns off. There isnt any jerking or sputtering... it just turns off, as if I simply took the key out. HELP!!

heh, remind me never to get an achieva.... ever lmao. it seems that they are more trouble to keep running than it is worth having all together. at any rate, theres several things that might be causing such problems. and a lot of the problems with these cars seem to be related to the same basic components it seems, heh! so, as you may or may not have seen me suggest in my other posts to other people's problems, start out with the simple things, such as checking for decent spark.

First of all, pull out one of your spark plugs, and connect it to the spark plug wire while resting the "sparking end" against something metal on the motor, such as the exhaust manifold or the head, etc. then have someone else crank over the motor while you watch for spark from the spark plug. If your ignition components (such as the coil packs, plug wires, plugs, etc) are still in good working condition, then you should see either a bright bluish or white colored spark from the spark plug. If you see any other color such as an orange or yellowish colored spark, then most likely either your coil packs are bad or possibly either bad plugs or plug wires, but most likely suspect would be the coils, especially if you have a higher milage vehicle. (from what ive heard from other people on here, the coil packs tend to go at around 110k to 120k miles). If you happen to have a nice blue or white spark however, then you should start looking at most likely a fuel related problem. My first guess in that situation would be the fuel filter being clogged up and such, or maybe even the fuel pump might be starting to give out (although that seems highly unlikely if it only does it after driving around a while). if replacing the fuel filter still doesnt fix it, try cleaning out your injectors, providing that your car is fuel injected. I'm not exactly sure on what the procedure is for removing the injectors and such to clean them, but its possible that even just adding some of that fuel injector cleaner stuff to your gas tank might help if by chance your injectors are getting clogged. just a thought though. if all this still doesnt seem to fix it, then i apologize in advance. As i think i said at the beginning of this post, all this stuff is simply my best guesses at some possible causes for your problem based on my mechanical knowledge of the gasoline engine, as i am also a small engine mechanic, so some of the principles are the same, some are different. let us know how it all turns out. peace

mike

[madymc]

Just fixed the same problem on a friend's car. Turned out that the torque converter lockup solenoid was sticking. I just unplugged it for the time being since the car was only used for short trips and local driving. The car shifted fine until the fluid got warm. When you came to a stop the car would die. It would start right up but die when put in gear. As soon as the tranny cooled down it would shift fine again. Long trips will over heat the fluid with the solenoid unplugged and cause damage. This may be your problem too.