My daughter has a '00 Sunfire 2.2L auto with 194,000kms (121,250 miles) and we have experienced a couple of problems with it. A couple of mournings ago she tried to start it but the engine would not start, would crank over ok and we could hear the fuel pump when the key was turned to "run". Tried banging on the fuel tank but still no go so today I took off the air plenum that connects to the throttle body and sprayed some carb. cleaner into the engine then cranked it over. It backfired once through the throttle body then started and kept running all day long.

Second problem: When sitting in neutral and reving the motor with the foot to the floor the engine won't rev past 4,000 and drops down to 3,500 then back to 4,000 and keeps doing this. Go to a lower throttle setting and alternates between 3,000 and 4,000 rpms.
I took it for a roadtest and held it in first and reved it to 5,500 before I shifted it into 2nd and ran fine.

After this test drive I changed the plugs as they were worn out and changed the wires also as they were suspect but the engine still has the same revving issue when parked.

So does anyone have any idea what's going on here? The temperature dropped here some after it snowed earlier this week so I thought that there may have been water in the gas to cause the no start.

Thanks, Greg

It's normal/park for the engine to not rev past 4000rpm. It's the rev limiter kicking in.... I guess to prevent idiots from revving high enough to blow the motor. (Or perhaps to prevent the motor blowing if the engine is accidentally shifted into neutral at full throttle, I dunno)

Bad fuel can certainly cause a car not to want to start. In an emergency, I put some fuel of an unknown age in my Cavalier, and it ran like crap and struggled to start until I filled the tank with fresh fuel.

I meant to say in neutral/park... I guess there is no edit feature for this forum, unless I'm missing something. Oh well.