Hey guys ive got a strange problem here..ive got a 97 sunfire 2.2l with around 170k miles on it..ive owned it for around 4 months with no probs..yesterday i noticed when coming to a stop the car learching forward..then almost taking off.. it will accelerate completely on its own..up too about 20mph. the car is very difficult to stop but when i do hold the brakes down the rpms go anywhere from600 to 2000+ surging..when im at speed say 50+mph i can take my foot off the gas and it will cruise as if the car had cruise control..(which it does not)..if i put it in neutral or park it will re upwards of 3500rpm..any clue on this one..?? the engine light has been on since day one cause it was a motor swap apparently done by one of those non-professionals lol..any ideas are greatly appreciated as iam new to these cars.

Check for loose/damaged vacuum hoses and the like, also make sure there is enough slack in the throttle cable to allow the throttle to close completely.

Though it sounds more like the throttle isn't closing all the way, as a normal small vacuum leak generally won't let in enough air to allow the car to idle at 3500 rpm.

If none of those appear to the a problem, make sure the Idle air control valve is working properly (though again, I don't think that even that being stuck wide open would get you to 3500rpm).


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Sleeper style, they don't see it coming that way.

2 suggestions here.

First... driver mod. You're seriously one of those idiots like the ones that drive a Prius. If the car is accelerating on it's own in a gear why are you saying it's hard to stop the car? It should be as easy as normal to stop the car when it does this. However, you've proven by this post that you're a complete tool with the inability to shift the transmission into neutral when it does this.

2. You probably should have the codes checked in the thing, as it's probably got a good start for you to figure out what's wrong with it, rather than try to get people to take a random guess over the internet. How long will you drive the car when the low oil pressure light is on?

Apparently you're new to cars in general, BTW.





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

I believe he's saying that the first time it took him by surprise, not that he can't think to take it out of gear. it's probably a stuck throttle cable. If you don't know what you're doing looking under the hood to see if the throttle is closing all the way, take it to a shop. Yes, in fact, take it in to someone to have them read the code. And is there really any reason to be mean to someone who's just trying to learn something from the more experienced people?


-95 CAVfire SE Sedan 2.2L *Retired*
-99 Sunfire GT 2.4L
-85 Dodge Shelby Turbo TII Roller Cam Build *in progress*

Yes there is. Because idiots like this pollute the highway. And then come try to hit up the forums. It's probably also not a stuck throttle cable but rather something that the ECM has been trying to tell him about for 4 months. A stuck throttle cable would give him a constant RPM, not moving from 600 to 2000.

Apparently you can't understand what he posted. He said the car is hard to stop when this happens. Not that it happened once. At either rate, even if it did happen once he's an idiot for trying to stand on the brake pedal to get it to stop, like a Prius owner.

Besides, what does one expect to learn by trying to get people to take a random guess over the internet. When the tools to inspect the problem are readily available, often times for free?





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

hey guy..first i do have a clue in what im doing..and if i shift into neutral it redlines ..so i guess i should just let it sit at about 6k rpms at a stop light huh? ..hmm that is a great idea.. thanks helpful forum-goer

Well, now I know that you're full of @!#$. The car has a rev limiter on it so that when you're sitting stopped in park or neutral it'll rev limit at around 3800-4000rpm. At either rate, the fuel injectors are being shut down by the PCM to prevent overrevving. If your car is knowingly reving to redline on it's own, you're still an idiot for driving it, unless you just drive it directly to a shop and leave it there until the problem is corrected.





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

okay so i assumed it would go higher..yes it got to 3500 when i turned it off im not dumb enough to let a car rev out..

Sounds to me like you're just making things up as you go.





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

You're too far away (I'm in southern IN, and your profile says MI) otherwise I'd offer to take a quick peek at it for you but depending on your skill/comfort level, taking it to a pro is going to be your best bet.

Getting the codes read may give you a clue, or it may not. Be a place to start. Have you even checked the things I suggested?

Try those and get back with us. You can PM me about it if you want. SHOoff generally knows his stuff from what I've read on the forum, but I'm not sure why the asshattery here.

Though he is right about the neutral rev limiter, typically (GMs anyway) won't let you redline the car in neutral or park.

Surging with your foot on the brake and the car in gear could just be transmission slippage -- you're effectively powerbraking there and that's hard on things. Or it could be the IAC TRYING to reign in and find an idle (which it can't do if your throttle isn't closing all the way).


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Sleeper style, they don't see it coming that way.

well took it to the shop..they got the codes po107 map sensor and po507 idle control system..they think there is a hole or crack in the intake manifold..but im not shelling out 800 parts and labor they said it would cost..they sprayed the intake from under the car with that b12 ish..and it sped the idle speed up dramatically..which is why they said a crack or hole..this car maybe done for

Junkyard dive dude,
They only made a couple million of 'em :p

Check the classifieds here too, or fleabay, intake mani on a 2.2 can't be that expensive used, and probably just a couple hours with hand tools to swap out.

If the rest of the car is in decent shape, it's not that bad a fix. Granted, if it's a typical $500 beater, then yeah...



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Sleeper style, they don't see it coming that way.

Try cleaning your throttle body, pull out the iac sensor and spray it out with carb cleaner.

look over the intake manifold yourself, if you see a crack or whatever in it as mentioned go to a jy and grab another one. simple hand tools. clean the throttle body, make sure the cables to the tb are in proper working order. you should be able to get this problem solved cheap with basic hand tools if you know how to turn a ratchet.

...well then, just go down to your local junkyard and take what you need, they put the 2.2 OHV in EVERYTHING. Manifold swaps are irritating but not difficult. Or, find some broke mechanic(I would do it cheap if you were close) and have them do it. Driving it like that will trash your transmission really fast, revving the motor up while stopped....and you can't blow your motor up in Neutral, so use that to stop instead. And get that fixed....soon. Again, a manifold swap is fairly easy.


-95 CAVfire SE Sedan 2.2L *Retired*
-99 Sunfire GT 2.4L
-85 Dodge Shelby Turbo TII Roller Cam Build *in progress*

john guelff wrote:...they sprayed the intake from under the car with that b12 ish..and it sped the idle speed up dramatically..which is why they said a crack or hole..this car maybe done for

So your have a crack / dry rotted vacuum line. I highly doubt you have a hole in your intake manifold.

Also, your car in neutral or park WILL not rev over 4,000RPM or what ever the PCM limit is. I can not remember off the top of my head. Your car will not blow up either.

If I was to guess, I would guess your vacuum line going to your MAP sensor is dry rotted and cracked.....along with other vacuum lines.




PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

well i know we had a eco doing that here and it was bucking at random and was crazy. we ended up swaping the throttle assembly out(with the two sensors came as a package deal) so once we swapped them it was fine. i was tossing a high idle check code constantly. car only had 14k too. it would wanna accel all the time and at lights the brakes were holding back 2200 rpms. we took care of this quickly and id say swap out the tb and sensors. given its a 97 they are a dime a dozen in the yards.

Intake manifold gasket is another thing worth checking

Check connections at throttlebody and the brake booster line. I recently had a issue with mine coming off the throttlebody and when I would engage the clutch it would raise rpm's up to 5g...... it was getting too much vacuum, also had zero brakes, not fun, but easy fix.

I have 2 intake manifold from a 99 Ln2. Pay for shipping and 1 is yours if you need it.


"Oil Leak ? What oil Leak ? Oh, Thats Just The Sweat From All The HorsePower!!"

Do you have any floor mats in the car?

Ridge wrote:Do you have any floor mats in the car?

Bwahahaha, exactly what I was thinking...



Paying someone to install parts and bragging about it being fast, is like watching someone bang your wife and being proud to raise their kids.

I heard there was a recall on toyotas for this, because people were jamming the floormats up under and driving into @!#$

LOL @ the floormat comment....I think almost anyone here is smart enough to avoid THAT, but....check it anyway


-95 CAVfire SE Sedan 2.2L *Retired*
-99 Sunfire GT 2.4L
-85 Dodge Shelby Turbo TII Roller Cam Build *in progress*