i have a lumina apv with the 3.1 TBI (i know thirdgen blah blah, but there were TBI 2.8s and this can help them as well as me. That and this forum is by far the best out there.) and its having a strange power loss problem. ok, here goes...

Sometimes (almost completely randomly) it loses power, idles badly, and has almost no power. It barely makes it up to speed. Then out of no where boom it comes back, several times during even some small trips sometimes. and when i drive long distances (40 miles or so) the power almost never comes back.
When its doing this the temp seems to drop. And about half the time when i hit a nice size bump or pothole its like a 50/50 shot of the power coming back.

this is confusing the hell out of me. Help!

 

Ok, i really don't know anything about this, but i just wanted to say something because no one else did. Since hitting a pothole or bump might bring it back, it could be a wiring problem, and when you hit a bump it jiggles back into place. like i said i really have no idea, but im just throwing this out there.

 

i really dont think so as it becomes more problematic when i drive longer distances and the cycle begins anew when it cools down.

 

pull a code off the ALDL.

 

this is why i like carb. these odd problems don't happen. damn computers.

 

i would trade ya a carb for anything with a computer any day the computer is your friend have you checked the conections to your injectors i had a tbi formula once one of the injectors shorted out going down the dragstrip i ran a 22s quarter not pretty

 

ive checked most of the major stuff like that, yes. im going to take a better look at all the little things tomorrow multimeter in hand.

my camaro is carbed and if anything goes wrong its for a very obvious reason. i like that. i only like the computers for fuel economy and cold starts. otherwise, i prefer the simplicity and performance of the good ol' carb.

 

If it's carbed, why are you here? And it's not usually a good idea begin asking for help with "blah, blah". I hope you find your electrical problem.

 

you should read my whole post before replying...im not asking for help on my carb'd camaro, im asking for help on my lumina, which is a TBI 3.1.

i was mearly saying i prefer carbs.

 

A good place to start would be a full tune up. I don't know about the pothole thing, but the intermittent power sounds vaguely similar to one time when I had a clogged fuel filter. You might make sure you don't have any damaged spark plug wires, too. Sometimes a good complete full tune up makes weird problems disappear, even if you can;t pipoint the exact cause.

Not a gurantee, but a starting point.

 

while I do need to finish the tune up, i found the problem, it was a bum injector. The injector when working emits a terrible stream as opposed to a spray it should have. and i guess the bumps were freeing the plunger inside.

 

Glad you fond the prob