1994 sunbird le

[percmind]

OK, here's the deal. My car starts and idles fine, but when I give it gas, wether it's in drive or not, it wants to bog down and stall out unless I put it in N or Park and rev the engine until it stops bogging. Then it will idle just fine again. The check engine light doesn't come on at all either. Anyone have any suggestions? I need this car ASAP.

[Madcat455]

Pull out a couple of spark plugs and look to see if it might be running rich... does the car blow any black smoke out the exhaust when it does this?

[percmind]

I pulled a spark plug and found that the car is running rich. There is no black smoke coming out of it.

[Madcat455]

Safe bet that the bogging is because of being rich.. now, it could be rich for a couple of reasons:

1: Faulty Oxygen sensor sending incorrect "lean" readings to the ECM causing the ECM to compensate with more gas.

2: Bad TPS sending incorrect throttle position.

3: Bad plugs or wires not delivering "hot" enough spark, could also be a bad coil pack, but since the Ignition module and coil pack are one unit on this car... you better hope that's not the cause ($375).

Bad Fuel injecors could cause it, but the chance of all of them failing at the same time is remote.


My old 94 Bird had a bogging prob. after running a tank of bad gas... after 3 clean tanks, it was still there. New plugs solved the prob.

If its been awhile since you've replaced the plugs & wires, I'd start there since a bad sensor would likley cause the Check engine light to come on... unless you have a bad ECM.

new plugs would be a nice and cheap way to eliminate a potential thing.

on a side note.... do you have a Temp. Light or gauge.. If you have a gauge, does it seem to be running warm ??

[percmind]

I have no problems with the temp gauge. It's running cool. The person I got the car from said it's been at least 17,000 miles since the plugs and wires had been changed. I know that it's approx. 500 miles overdue for an oil change.