I'm new to this forum and have a question about my 1990 camaro. It is currently in a shop back home. As I am deployed in Afghanistan right now. The shop had to by pass the pass key system to get it to start since I had to change out the steering column after I go the car due to it being broken into and the wires messed up. They have gotten the car so it starts and will stay running as long as you have your foot on the gas pedal. The issue they are having is it wont stay idling on it's own. My wife is trying to deal with this right now, the shop is telling her that there is a part that controls the injector on the TBI and that its missing and that it would be better to take the TBI off and go with a carburetor.
My first question is what part are they talking about? I thought once I got passed the pass key system that the injector would fire just fine since it's gotten the ohms needed to open that circuit.
My second question is would it be better to go with the carburetor instead? I live in Alaska and it gets really cold in the winter. I'm afraid that it wouldn't run right when it gets down to the negative temps that we get.
This car is a project but will also be my daily driver once I get home.

 

Tbi will handle the cold weather alot better then a carb. So keep it.
That shop should pull the codes, even if they use the paper clip method on a ALDL connector. Jumping the A & B terminals & watch the check engine light flash. This'll give them the codes.
The part thats missing sounds like a throttle postion sensor, should be available at any parts store. If they keep telling you to remove the tbi, I'd take it to another shop.
Thank you for your service.

 

Thanks for your reply. I have been talking to some of the guys I work with out here(we are mechanics) and we all came to the same issue. I still need to know what the real issue is as my wife has not really relayed the information from the shop to well to me. And this is the second shop it has been in in the six months. And again the shop is offering to buy it for what I have into the car so far. Makes me wonder what is really going on with getting it running again. If I have any more issues with this I'm sure I will post the question for some feed back for other camaro lovers.

 

Is it necessary to have it running while your away?
If not I'd stored till I could repair it myself.
When guys like us can point out what a shop hasn't done it's time take it away from them before you're asked to sign over the title to pay for all the things they shouldn't have done to it.
I guess you can see I have a very visceral opinion of shops, and mechanics, but mostly shops.

I have 5 automobiles:
1986 Silverado 5.0L
1988 IROC-Z 6.4L
1998 Eclipse 2.0L
2004 John Cooper Works Mini S 1.6L
2009 Chevy Cobalt 1.8L
The closest these cars have been to a domestic repair garage is for emissions testing.
The only thing I don't do simply because I don't have the equipment is valve jobs, and block cylinder prepping, boring/honing.

If the car where close to me I would handle the repair for you labor free. The least we can do for your sacrifice.

Regards, Raul.

 

Alright update. I forgot one piece of info on this the steering column I installed to replace the original one that was damaged was from another Camaro with an automatic transmission and I am running with a manual 5 speed. Is there something that needed replace and/or added to this to work correctly with my engine and tranny set up?

 

The only thing I can think of is the key release lever, mosts 5spds had them, autos have a linkage that hooks to the park/nuetral switch.