Ok i my car has this off the wall problem. It will drive for a few days fine and then i can feel the throttle back off and my gas pedal feels like funny. then the check engine light comes on and the car will say at the rpm i was going at the time. I cant go faster or slower unless i pop it into neutral and it will go back to idle. If i slow down and try to hit the gas the car will spike to about 1000 rpm and die and the car will chug along. If i shut the car off when im having this problem and start it back up the car will run fine but the car will still fall on it face unless im accelerating. i can shut the car off 3 or 4 times and the light will go off. This problem it very random but is becomeing more frequent. the check engine light code comes up as a throttle malfunction. So any clue what could be wrong? I thin k it might be my computer going bad but i really am clueless.
my car is a 1996 pontiac sunfire 2.2 auto
I have a 2002 with a 2.2 that is doing this exact same thing. I havent pulled the codes yet but this description is right on. Any ideas?
I would check the TPS sensor 1st.
If you have access to a OBDII scanner you can watch throttle position ( 0- 100% ) to see if it has a dead spot but it could still be bad... find stored codes (if any ) if possible.
If you don't have a scanner just go to a local advance auto or autozone. They'll scan it for free.
"In Oldskool we trust"
parking lot scanners generally wont show TP percentages.
