2000 LS sputtering

[georgefinn]

Just bought 2000 Ls V8 with 76000 while idling fine rev it up and completly bogs down @ 3000 rpm. Thought this was a limiter but also when accelarating between 40 and 50 mph engine and or tranny seems to sputter foward than even out. CEL came one and I reset computer by disconnecting battery for ten min. The light stayed off until I opened it up to 100mph and light came back on flashing until I slowed down and light disappeared again. After reading these threads a few possibilities seem to jump out but I was hoping someone would give me an order in which to attack this problem. Thanx in advance.

[el es]

well the only way you will know if you are having a misfire is to have the pcm read while the cel is on. Chances are you have a leaky valve cover gasket and that has allowed oil to ruin one or more of your coils.

without the DTC you wont know which coil is bad and thusly won't know which valve cover gasket to focus on. Further you now do not know which coil is bad and may have to replace all of them or face having to reopen the VC to replace another coil.

I would try to get the CEL to come back on and have the pcm read by autozone since they do it for free. A better plan can be made then.

[Mizery]

I have noticed a similar problem, too. Just like he said, around 40-50mph, if I press the gas a bit, the car sputters a bit, but if I put the gas down, it works through that and will accelerate. I recently had the valve cover gaskets replaced and there was no mention of bad coils, though they may not have been looking for them.

This site seems to be full of problems with this car, and everyone seems to have the same problems. Hard to believe they are just flukes when everyone has the same problems. I love the way my car looks, and don't really like many other cars out there, but if it's going to be a pain in the ass to keep running well, I'm thinking I should ditch it and get something that will run for a while.

[kjriedl]

We have a used car dealership and have had the same problems. With the car sputtering, if you wash your engine, water will get in around the coils and you may have to replace the coil packs. We have had 10 LS's. 8 out of the 10 we have had to replace the valve cover gaskets. But only in the V8's. Also if you hear a popping noise in the front end, check the sway bar links. That or the knuckles. You cannot just buy the ball joints. We drove one 150 miles to find out when we got back that they were about to fall out! After we replace that stuff, they are fine. No more complaints.

But we still love them and drive them all the time!!!

[el es]

yeah despite the problems they are great cars to drive.

[2000LSV8]

I just joined this forum because I thought it was rather strange that two soils and plugs on my cylinders in the last two months have had to be replaced...and I'm even thinking it is starting to misfire again when I am accelerating between 30-50 mph...I have 95,000 on mine and love the drive when it is fixed but this is starting to get costly and I'm wondering if there should be some sort of recall for this. Especially since the second time I experienced a misfire, I was going 55 mph on a major interstate and the engine completely SHUT DOWN. I was lucky and nothing happend, thank God, but this could be a serious problem. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I expect all other 6 coils to break soon?

[el es]

Hey 2klsv8.... sorry to hear about the problems. You could have bad valve cover gasket on those repeat offender coils. the shutdown may be related to other component failures so please be prepared to hit the hazzard lights.

I went through the problem June 04. It took the dealer 90 days with the car to fix it. If it shuts down again shift to N and just coast for a little bit. The try to restart the car in N.

The might tell you it is fuel pumps that is what they told me at first. The replaced the two pumps after 990 days of troubleshooting. The very next day I had the car back it shutdown again. I had it towed back and two weeks later they came to the conclusion they needed to replace the Rear Electronic Module.

[chevydrummer76]

My dad has a 2000 LS and he had a similiar problem with sputtering. It was an intake gasket which had a leak, and oil was dripping onto a spark plug I believe. He changed the gasket and plugs and it runs great now.