ok guys, i'm having big problems with my car. i'm going to try my best to describe in detail whats going on so please take the time to read and help me out.
the car is a 2002 cavalier z24 with an auto tranny and 47,500 miles on the car. here's the deal...
about 2 weeks ago i get in the car and start it up. after driving about 45 seconds it starts shaking violently and acting like it wants to die. i stop the car, put it in park and look under the hood. everything looks ok. i rev the engine under the hood and it kind of sputters and then revs a little bit. i shut the car off, start it back up and it runs fine.
i didn't have anymore problems until today...
i'm driving home from work and i'm about 3/4 of the way home. i notice my "trac off" light is on. car is in drive, ebrake is all the way down. i decide to try to get it home. i get off the freeway and hit a stop light and notice the car is shaking bad again. the light turns green before i get a chance to shut it off and restart it. so i leave the light and get ready to go up the hill that leads to my apartments. the car shifts 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th all under 2000rpm's. as i go up the hill the car has a strange "whine". thats the best way i can describe the sound. it wasn't a growl, it was a whine. i end up pulling the hill at about 25mph.
i get the car home, its shaking. the "trac off" light is on but there's no check engine light. i turn the ignition off and back on to see if its throwing a code at me, nothing. i start the car and it seems fine again. i plug it in to an OBD11 reader and it comes up "pass, no codes." wtf? i decide to take the car to the dealership for an opinion (no longer under warranty dammit). the mechanic i talk to says it sounds like the transmission is going bad. they want $2200 plus labor for a new tranny or $750 plus parts to rebuild.
i call my dad and get directions to his tranny guy. i'm on my way to my dad's tranny shop(about a 15 minute drive) and half way there the car starts shaking. i pull over, shut it off, it gets me to the tranny shop. the tranny shop is closed so i take it to my parents house (about 5 mins away). right as i'm pulling into the driveway it starts shaking with the "trac off" light on, but this time the "check engine light" is also on. i turn off the ignition and turn it back on to check for a code. the check engine light isn't flashing to show me a code, its just on.
while i'm driving the car has the weird whine to it. it also shifts EXTREMELY hard. from 1st to 2nd it shifts hard enough to take the whell out of my hand...thats just under normal acceleration. with the exception of when i pulled the hill, the car is shifting really high. the engine revvs up to 3300rpm from first to second and up to 3500 from second to third.
any help is much appreciated, if you have any questions or don't understand parts of that just ask.
please, i'm not in a good mood. i don't want any morons telling me i should have put this in the tranny section. i'm not sure if its a tranny problem or not so i put it in the general maintance. i'm also going to double post and put this in the regional forum to see if any of my local cali guys can give me a hand or maybe help find me a trans for cheap if thats what ends up being the problem.
thanks for taking the time to read and for any suggestions/advice/problem solvers.
brian
GO PATS!!!
It sounded like it could be a bad O2 sensor until you mentioned the "whining".
DId you take it to Autozone when you were at your parents house to get the code read (or do you have one of those tools).
A code will only come up in the Scanner tool when the CEL is on. So if you scanned it without the CEL on, then it wont come up with anything. I guess it could be the transmission since you are saying hte traction off light is on. I know if there is a problem with the transmission, usually it shuts the traction control off.
See if you can get a scan while the CEL is on, and I'll tell you what the code is (unless you have a service manual already).
i had something similiar happen to me...
it was my IAT sensor and the car was going into a limp mode...
try putting a new IAT sensor in its like 8 bucks, wont hurt will only help...
an IAT sensor huh? can anyone else back that up? for only 8 bucks i might as well try it before i take it to a shop. i can pick up an IAT sensor at like krakgen right? i'm hoping i can fix it myself cuz i really don't like leaving my car with people i don't trust.
GO PATS!!!
ok...i figured the IAT sensor is only a 15 dollar part so i went and bought it. i put in the new sensor and took the car for a drive. its not shifting as hard as it was yesterday, when it gets in the higher rpm range where it needs to shift it doesn't have a whine, and the "trac off" light didn't come on. yesterday when i shifted from park to drive the car immediately lunged forward like i wasn't hardly pressing the brake, today it didn't do that...granted, i only drove it for about 5-8 minutes so i'm not completely convinced. can anyone back up that it could possible be THAT easy?? my tranny shop is closed until monday so i have until then to see if its not the tranny. i'm driving the car back from my parents house to my house for about a 20 minute drive to see if it still acts up. let me know guys...thanks
brian
GO PATS!!!
Noobs that get intakes forget to put the iat sensor back in. They have the hard shifting problem like you said. Also if the iat is not plugged in the car will idle terribly.
My Car
^^^i'm not a noob (to the org or car modding). the intake has been on the car for almost a year with no problems and the intake before my current one was on the car for 2 years with no problems...
moving on, i put the new IAT sensor in and drove the car home. it was shifting as smooth as it normally did. it was shifting where it was supposed to and not drawing it out to make the engine whine. all the sudden the trac off light pops back on. i pull over and its shaking again. i turn the car off, start it back up, light is off. i go from park to drive and the car jolts. after that it made it all the way home with no other problems shifting fine again.
i talked to my wife's uncle who is a transmission specialist and he says that the inconsistancy of the problems makes it sound more like a sensor(or two or three) are going bad, not the transmission. another thing he said might be the problem is the line pressure is too high. according to him, if the line pressure is too high it would be because the sensor thinks the car is up in the higher rpm's which would cause it to shift hard.
i'm out of ideas, i'm tired of screwing with it. i'm still up for any suggestions or comments, but i'm just going to take it to the tranny shop on monday and have him run a complete diagnostic check on it. i'll update once i know whats up for future use for someone else...thanks guy. keep the comments and suggestions coming.
brian
GO PATS!!!
I wasn't calling you a noob, I didn't even know you had an intake.
My Car
yeah sounds like its the IAT to me , or the plug for the IAT , the wires usually brake inside the connector , and you have to go to GM and get a new connector
they are around 20-25 bucks , and have about 16" of wire with them
what happens is the IAT goes open , and tells the pcm the incoming air is -40 deegrees out , so the car thinks its supper cold , so the trans up-shifts quickly
and if the motor was shaking badly its usually a connection going open and closed , causing the pcm to see -40 , and acutal temp in a split instant , which confues the pcm , and causes it to stumble cause it goes from very rich to very lean in split second
id replace the connector end either way cause the new 1 will have better wires
and tom referenced the newbies , because its common for them to forget to plug it in when they do a intake , and they will post with out searching
well i hope its just the IAT problem
if it is i rock haha
Hmmmmm....
I actually had that problem with my Corsica. It would bog down towards stoplights, and I didn't have a tracion light on it, but mine had that same whine but also it would shut off sometimes and never throw a code. It also had extremely low shifting points.
I went on for days by doing the EGR, IAT, IAC Valve, all the goodies, then I checked, and I saw that I had a vaccum line that was unplugged by the charcoal canister.
Check your vaccum lines, it's free, doesn't cost any money, and if you can, get someone to rev the motor up while you listen to see where the "whine" is coming from. My whine was from a vaccum line, it didn't hiss like a normal vaccum leak would.
It also could be some odd sensor that eff's the entire car up. GM loves doing that. If that's the case, I don't know how to help you there.
OK...i know everyone is probably getting tired of this thread, mainly because 90% of the posts are from me, but i thought i'd finish it up...
i took it to my tranny shop on monday. the owner personally drove the car to see what it was doing. he told me, "because your car is at the doctor, of course its not going to act like its sick." DAMMIT!!! he says while he drove it, it didn't do anything "abnormal." he then put it on his diagnostic machine and it came up completely code free. he says by the description of the problems that i'd told him, he was 95% sure it wasn't a tranny. sounded to him like a sensor. he recommended that i change the TPS (throttle position sensor). the TPS tells the computer how far down the throttle is pushed. if the sensor says i'm at full throttle when i'm not, it'll shift hard. if it says the throttle is all the way closed when i'm cruising at 45mph, it'll bog down and try to go to idle RPM's.
i leave the shop and drive to pepboys (like 5 mins) and the damn car starts acting up. pepboys tells me the sensor is a dealer specific part.
dealer charges me 50 bucks for the sensor, i put it in. car is fine. nice clean shifts, no bogging down, no dashboard lights, and no shaking. i couldn't be freakin happier.
all in all
tranny shop test drive-$0
tranny shop diagnostic test-$0
crappy chevy sensor-$50
knowing your car is ok and you don't have to shell out 2k for a new tranny-PRICELESS
ron and steve (and anyone else in the moreno valley area), if you ever have tranny problems, go to MY TRANEE SHOP on heacock and sunnymead. ask for danny (owner). great guy, and if he thinks he can save you the money by telling you how to fix the problem yourself, he will.
thanks for the help guys
brian
GO PATS!!!
P.S.- anyone looking to buy a problem free 2002 cavalier z24 with 47000 miles?
GO PATS!!!
MiKeDiRnTRuLeZ wrote:Sparks wrote:P.S.- anyone looking to buy a problem free 2002 cavalier z24 with 47000 miles?
I'll trade ya a problem-free 1990 Camaro RS with new cam waiting to go in and 1LE al. Driveshaft for it 
you do the the install work, gimme the camaro, and about 6 grand and we'll have a deal.
how many miles does your camaro have on it by the way? mine had 106k on it when it died so i was just wondering.
GO PATS!!!
Oh,
mine has a little over 125,000 on it and still runs perfect with no leaks or anything.
How about you install it, ill give you the camaro and $20, and call it a deal?
