hey guys

i have a 96 sunfire 2.2 with 180 000kms on the engine and having a problem with it spiddering.i been haveing this problem now over a few weeks now and its starting to drive me nuts. i hooked it up to a code reader and told me it was the oxygen sencer and replaced it with one off my 96 cav 2.2 and another guy told me it would be your coolent temp sencer and i replaced that with one off my old cav and it worked for a little while untill a few weeks ago. i am kinda thinking its my fuel filter cause i owned the car now for 2 years and never replaced it nor a guy told me it cold be my charcoal canaster that could be clogged up or something. tonight i was driving around and it was pretty bad ... i keep on the gas a little and then slam on the gas and it gets spuddery , also when i stop the car is also really missing and spuddery but not to the point that it wont cut off or nothing.


i dunno what this can be.

do anyone know what this is or can tell me what to do with this?

"spuddery"........are you talking about a car or a potato?

Have you replaced or checked the plugs or wires? Simple things like that generally cause "sputtering."

2.2 97 Cavalier......the "Crapalier"

Potato in the tailpipe? Sorry - couldn't resist...

Certainly change the fuel filter, and for what they're worth, if the wires look to be more than a few years old, I would replace them along with the plugs.

Since it's missing at idle, I would suspect the ignition first. Fuel delivery problems usually surface first at higher RPM. I usually change my fuel filter every 2-3 years, and every time I've been surprised at the improvement in performance and economy. Proper fuel pressure makes a lot of difference, especially at colder temperatures.

At least if you get these out of the way, you know you're good there for at least a couple more years, and you've eliminated some fairly inexpensive stuff as the potential cause.

After those, I would next suspect a coil - but don't jump to conclusions until you try the simple stuff first.
John

i changed the plugs with ac delco there today and no differance and also the wires and no differance. i am gonna change over the fuel filter but i realized when i took off the egr valve that was alot of black carbon build up there soo i went and unbolted the egr valve and sprayed trottle body cleaner in and cleaned it out a bit , the car is idleing decent and alot better then what it was.

would this cause my problem also? a neabour gave me one off a 96 grand prix 3.8 and looks exactually the same but unsure if i should install it or not. any idea if it will work or not??

as for the "spuddary" yes its quite funny when you look at it but i didnt know what else to call it

Odds are that the other EGR valve won't have the same flow characteristics - unless it happens to be the exact same part number. If it's not exactly the same, I wouldn't bother trying it - you're just likely to have "new" issues.

Perhaps you're onto something there. I would continue to clean the valve and the passages. Make sure that the valve seals when it's closed - if not that can definitely cause problems. I would invest in a new gasket to ensure that you have no intake leaks.

I hadn't though of the EGR valve - I forgot that some of these cars used to come with them. My 2002 doesn't have one. Hopefully no potatoes in there either.

The fuel filter is probably still a worthwhile change, when you get a chance.
John