Hey guys. So the bird stalled on the way to work a couple weeks ago.. Would start, but die again immediately. Had it towed and the MAF replaced.

Since, she has seemed to run fine, until tonight... drove it home from work, stopped by the store. When I was leaving, pulling out of the parking lot at idle speed, it started lurching forward and the gas pedal was completely unresponsive - then it died completely in a very similar manner to the incident that caused me to replace the MAF. I tried starting it and it would start, but die immediately after just like before. As a side note, I had a half tank, but the gas gauge maxed out (This happened with the earlier incident as well). After about 5-10 minutes, I tried starting her again and to my surprise she stayed running. I was only about 2 minutes from home, so fearing it would die again, I quickly drove home. Let her idle a bit in the driveway and everything sounded pretty normal.

A few things to note:

• 89 Firebird, L98
• MAF just replaced
• Needs an oxygen sensor replaced
• Was told it's running rich at the moment
• Throwing an EGR valve code atm, could this be it?
• 160k on the car/engine

Any ideas? I would really rather this not happen again, you know? Thanks in advance.

 

Since both the fuel level guage and the fuel pump share a common ground, I would look there first. There is a connector near the rear seatback area that is relatively easy to get to, I would check there first. Make sure the black wire has a good ground connection.

 

I literally have every symptom you have.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...h-problem.html

My post. I haven't replaced my maf yet but ive replaced my egr. Definitely want to see the result here. NOTE IM STILL GETTING EGR CODES AFTER REPLACING IT.

 

Hey Neal, will keep you posted. Plan to try a straight up EGR delete soon, with replacement being plan B.

eseibel67, will crawl back there soon and check, thanks. She gave me no reason to believe anything was wrong today after two 15 minute drives to and from work, though.

As a side note Neal, something about your post jogged my memory - something I read on a vette forum while researching EGR replacement:

"Also,the 86 got the egr temp switch on the back of the intake manifold.These become brittle and break and throw a egr code check engine light but no driveability problems.The cure is a new switch.Its located on top of the egr cross over feed tube from the passenger side exhaust manifold.Be sure the mechanic isnt overlooking this simple fix and assuming the egr is the culprit."

Note, I'm not sure if this is relevant to our cars (is yours the L98 as well?), just assuming it might be something to look into regarding your EGR codes. Quote is from here.

 

That is atcually a possibility i havent considered but like you said it wouldnt solve our idle or dying problems. My car does the same bs where it lurches then just cuts off, however it does this crap like for one day out of a month, and the rest of the month it just idles bad. Sadly my car is only an lb9 however that just means me and you more than likely have the same problem.

AND IVE DISCOVERED SOMETHING! The fuel pressure INCREASES (BEFORE it reaches the fuel rails) every time the car does this sputtering idle! Maybe theres a clog in the fuel system?