Wasnt sure which forum to post this in.
I have searched all over trying to find other people with the issue and have not found anything so it does not seem to be common.
I have a 2003 sunfire 2.2 manual with about 200,000km on it.
I have had issues for a long time where sometimes when I stopped and just have the clutch in the car will stall if I dont keep giving it some gas, other times it would do this and not quite stall but idle at 500. Normally idles at 1000.
It only happened every now and then so wasnt a huge deal and usually if I pulled in somewhere and turned it off for a few minutes it would go back to normal.
This has been happening a lot lately as well as a more serious issue where sometimes the idle will go high and idle around 2k, then after a while it will literally start climbimg and go all the way up to redline without me even touching the gas. Example it happened once when I was in a drive thru, just sitting at the window with the clutch in, no gas at all and idling normally at 1000 then out of nowhere in probably 2-3 seconds it climbed up to red line and I had to shut the car off.
Most of the times when this happens if I turn off the car for a few minutes it will work fine, other times it wont and it will still be red lining without touching the pedal.
I dont know much on the mechanic side but I have been taking it to a really good mechanic in my area that my family knows so I get a good deal through him, so far he has replaced pretty much the whole throttle body, some kind of solonoid and a few other things I am not too sure of. The fuel pump also blew a few months ago so that is brand new. I will be taking it back to him soon to continue trying to find the issue.
It is really starting to get annoying as I always have to be watching everything close in case it happens so I can get out of traffic instead of ramming someone or something.
Anyone else have issues like this happen before?
check for vacuum leaks (the boost leak test way)
2001 Olds Alero (LD9)
650 whp / 543 ft-lb
@turboalero
Idle air controller is bad....that or your Throttle Position sensor is bad.
But since the throttle body has already been replaced im not sure whats going on, did he use all new sensors? or re-use the old ones?
Cause IMO that is 99% a Idle Air Controller or Throttle Position Sensor issue.
Could be a vaccum leak...but if it was it would be all the time, and it would hiss like a SOB under the hood if it leaked enough to rev the engine to redline.
beleive it or not... Front 02 sensor will also cause this problem...
check the following
Idle Air Control (IAC) Valve
throttle position sensor (TPS)
Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor
Front Oxygen Sensor (o2)
Also make sure you don't have any sort of vaccum leaks around the Evap lines running to the TB/Manifold, as well as around the fuel injectors running in to the head.
EVILution (KGM Godfather) wrote:Idle air control valve.
I agree. My car would do that when I had the IAC step size set to small. As the engine would warm up the idle would climb. After you shut it off and restarted it put a bunch more steps into the IAC to crank it back because it was warm, so the idle went down to normal. A bad IAC it could cause relatively the same issue.
i find it amusing that SHOoff has nothing better to do but follow me around & be an unhelpful dick in even cross-forum. - Jon Mick
Everything listed above has been replaced now.
I dont know too much about cars but I have a good mechanic working on it, just looking for other ideas myself.
Sounds like the next thing he wants to check is some sensor for the coolant and possibly flash the computer.
