Lately my car has been running like garbage...VERY rough idle(only sometimes, but often), sometimes NO power at all, in gear ill be cruising then randomly it starts bucking and shaking like crazy, every time i give it gas i get ridiculous hesitation, the car get very Low idle and stalls alot on my when cruising.....When the idle is rough, it sounds like it's misfiring, but revving it sounds fine. When it's idling low, vacuum is at 10, when normal idle is about 20-21, i have gauge in the car, idk if that means anything though
Plugs are fine
Wires look Ok
Here's whats throwing me off, driving home tonight it ran the worst ive ever seen BUT the dash lights come on and not with bumps...just randomly ill get the E brake light, ABS light, Air bag and No seat belt lights on all at once, they'll blink on and off randomly
No check engine light, car is Obd1 1995 2.2ohv m/t
Jbo..help me out =(
Maybe a bad ground somewhere or corroded connection to the ecu. Normally when the ecu goes, it is either nothing at all... or after the ecu is warm, it craps out. I had a similar problem with my 300zx a while back, and it was a ground going to the ecu... I know they are two COMPLETELY different cars, but figured I would share. lol
It may be a bad coil pack, but it's just the random dashboard lights that throw me off, like my abs is messed up so that light is whatever, brake light could be low fluid.....but why are the air bag and seat belt lights coming on lol
idk where to start looking, where is our ecu? is it in the bumper near the horn? idk
it is behind the passenger side fender. You can see it from behind your passenger headlight.
steve white wrote:Yeah, the best way to get at it is from under the car, you will have to pull the plastic under the passenger side of the bumper, just infront of the wheel off, and reach up and undo 2-3 little bolts. It should slide right out
I got one for you...did a few tests tonight....ran great during the day...got rough idle and stalled on my once.
at night it runs ever worse
my test was to check altinator because my head lights were dim....basically the altinater charges, but when i load the car, the engine misfires and rough idle and just runs terrible
running without load charge was 13.5-14 ish
i put load, it dropped and came back up...after 20 seconds, engine started missing and acting terrible
took off the load, charge stayed fine, after 30 seconds or so, the engine smoothed out
when i say load, i mean headlights, fan, blower motor, radio, wipers, fog lights....all that stuff
my dad says it's putting out the volts but not enough amps to handle the load....sound legit?
I still dont understand the air bag, both brake lights, and no seat belt lights popping up randomly...also had a CEL pop up but its obd1 and i wasnt near a shop or home to check it out
my dad said it might be the ecu not getting enough power, that's what messing up the lights on the dash
But it idles fine, i put load on the alternator, then it runs terrible...i take the load off and it runs fine..maybe ive got 2 problems at the same time, that's possible
still happening...alternator is good, battery is good....plugs are good, had them tested and looked at
Check your coils, quit wasting your time on petty things.
How do i check coils?
Also why would the dash board lights be going crazy?
I say faulty user control, considering the owner.
Run a wire from the negative battery post to one of the 3 bolts that holds the top of the strut in place. See if that makes any difference.
Jeff E. wrote:Run a wire from the negative battery post to one of the 3 bolts that holds the top of the strut in place. See if that makes any difference.
Today i took out a bunch of things that i "ghettoly' wired....i also saw the battery's ground wire goes from the battery to the transmission, but there is also a ground on the battery tray which broke off, i fixed that also, cleaned the terminals....
i ran it and drove it for maybe 15-20 minutes, saw nothing wrong....it started to rain so i cleaned up and went inside...for now it seems ok, ill keep posted
Runs Alot better....stalled on my once though right when i got home and shook a big once ...so it's not completely fixed..idk what it is
Check your muffler bearings.
Canooter Valve tends to go bad on that year 2.2 also.
Never heard of that one, but it i have a feeling the stalling and bucking were my MAP sensor, the plug broke a while ago where it dont snap into place, looks like it moved out a little...pushed it back in, did a new ground for battery...no problems yet =)
Keep an eye on how hot the exhaust gets, it will wear the canooter valve out prematurely, when those go, you have to use a left handed monkey wrench and that is a PITA if you are a righty.
i dont think my exhaust gets that hot.. lol im not buying that gauge for it...its stock 2.2
Yep def a canooter valve. Happens when you don't check the muffler bearings.
One last thing, make the turn signal fluid is full. It tends to get low on your car.
HardcoreXSunfire wrote:Yep def a canooter valve. Happens when you don't check the muffler bearings.
One last thing, make the turn signal fluid is full. It tends to get low on your car.
especially with those black headlight covers. your going to have to remove them to check the level. iirc the canooter valve is 24.99 at autozone in the ricer isle
I´m just having the same issues with my Cavalier 99, it has the same symptons than yours, but my problem is happening with the a 2.4L engine. I had change MAP and O2 sensor, I had change the coil pack and also had took out the catalitic converter but nothing changes.... It has been twice that by night suddenly started shaking I stopped open my door and seen a red glow under the chassis!!! The catalitic converter was glowing!!! that´s why I took out thinking of doing this may helped me out solving the problem, but still hasný a change. Since I had never check the canuter valve, I´m gonna do it now and let you know asap what happened. At the moment I took it at service and the mechanic in charge told me, that probably my ECU is dying and that I would have to change it, but first I want to discard any possiblity yet.
Kind regards, Aleke
If the ECU is dying, can I repair it by re-programing it?
Kind regards, Aleke
