Ok, first, let me start off by saying that I will NEVER go to a Pontiac dealership for anything ever again. I went in 2 days ago to have my tranny fluid changed and my power antenna replaced. I come back, and my battery is dead, and I need a jumpstart to get away from the dealership!!! WTF?! I drive back to campus and let the car sit for an hour and a half until my friend asks me to drive him to the infirmary because of food poisoning.

Now usually, when I start my car, it immediately comes to life and starts fast idling at about 1000 RPM and steadily makes it's way down to 650 RPM while I am in neautral. Now when I start it today, it starts weak, at 400 RPM, climbs to 800 RPM, and the needle stays moving up and down at the 600-800 RPM range. also, everytime my RPMs drop, the car starts to vibrate as if it's about to stall, then the RPMs will surge back up again. I tap the gas three times to rev the engine up to 3k RPM, and the engine now idles normally at 650RPM while in Park. I just don't get it!!! It's alike going to a hospital for a check up and coming out sick!! Can somebody please tell what's going on here?!

-Fred

 

The drained battery is something I would have been pretty upset about too. A good way to shorten the life of the battery is to let it drain to nothing.

Since your current problems don't really seem related to the tranny or antenna I'd say they are a coincidence. However I have caught a reputable shop sabotaging my mothers car (loosening the valve cover so it leaks oil and then "mentioning" that there is an oil leak that needs fixing). If you think they did it but don't have proof don't go back again.

The problem you describe sounds like a clogged injector or two... have you been running the tank dry? May also be a vacuum leak.

 

Haven't ran the tank dry frequently. The night before I took the car in for repairs, the tank was low enough that the gauge was in the yellow area. Filled up same night though. Come to think of it, I do remember that the next morning, I had to crank the engine twice to get it to start and it did the same thing only not as pronounced. It started with RPMs low, then slowly climbed up and was stable again. I'll start checking my vacuum lines as soon as I get the car home... but I still can't figure out how the battery could have drained to the point where the car wouldn't even crank up during the two days it was at the dealership??? How the can that happen??? Is it some fluke with these cars? did the power antenna replacement have something to do with it? Thanks for the input.

-Fred

 

Just curious, which dealership in Broklyn did you bring it to?

My parents go to the one on Nostrand Ave near Brooklyn College....haven't had any problems with them.

 

Well, normally, I go to the one your parents go to as well. It's called Plaza Automall, but I go to college in Long island, so I had to bring my car to the nearest dealership to my school which was King O-Rourke. I know the guys at Plaza Automall, they're really good, but they charge WAY too much for labor. Normally, I do stuff myself, but I go in when I'm stumped about something or I don't have the facilities to do it myself. First time I went to this dealership in LI and now my baby's all screwed up. Should've done it myself. and I will in the future. I just don't have time because of midterms. You'd think that since they're a dealership, and the fact that they charge obscene amounts of money for labor, they'd get things done right without screwing up other stuff.

 

Think about this: I took my car to the dealership to have routine service done. When my car was returned to me it was filthy, the hood was scraped, and they had broken a vacuum line so the car did not idle.

 

I hate that, you take your car, your baby, your child to a place where they "Specialize" in fixing YOUR car, and they dont do anything but screw it up. You THINK your doing the right thing for your car...but your just screwing it up. Its better to take it to a friend who works at a shop or something. Buy the parts there too, dealerships are too expensive.

 

Fred, the food poisoning thing kinda cracked me up. I don't miss college cafeteria food AT ALL. Hope your buddy is OK. He should stick with stuff they can't mess up like potato chips and soda pop.

The idle thing.....I recall seeing someplace (shop manual?) where the ECU/IAC has to "re-learn". I think the IAC pintle has to recalibrate itself. Apples and oranges, but my '92 Lumina does this every time I disconnect the battery or when the ECU loses battery voltage.

Disconnect the battery for a minute or two and then re-connect. Start the car and let it idle until it comes up to temp (let the fans kick on a couple of times). This should fix it.

 

Dang sorry to hear about your luck!! Nothing worse than getting screwed by the people that are supposed to symoblize the best service for your car. If I pay the higher price to go to the dealer I want it done right and then some!!! I had a simalar prolem with my Camaro at the Chevy dealer in Reno NV. The ponitac dealer actually helped me out after I had the Chevy dealer take the car to them. I now live in LAs Vegas and fond a good shop and they did a good job for me the fisrt time I took it to them and the second time they goofed. Turns out two diffrent mechanics worked on the car so now I will only let the one touch my car and all is well ever since.

 

I had them do the fuel pump on my 89 GTA. They left the fule tank strap bolts loose, one of the bars that crosses the rear loose and bent my exhaust pipe! After calling them and leaving message after message, I never got a call back. Can you imagine the safety implications that would have happened if I didn't go under there to check out the job?????

Dealer : HUMBERVIEW CHEV OLDS in Toronto, Ontario.

Peace

 

Yep, it's definitey true I'll never trust them dealers again. Sometimes it just seems that the mechanics just border on the edge of incompetence. This is all work I should've done myself but becuase of midterms, I've had to refer to their so-called "expertise." Well, never again. Now time to try to figure out what the hell is going on with my car!!

 

I am relatively inexperienced, but when you disconnect the battery for a while, doesnt the computer reset itself? Wouldnt draining the battery do that? And if its getting less pronounced, could the computer just be finding the appropriate settings again? Just a possibility from a newbie.
Matt

 

Hey! I work at a pontiac dealership. I know that they love to hire real questionable people but, we never hurt for work that bad the intakes love to leak on there own 3.1-3.4, 3.3-3.8 mostly the 3.1 and 3.4 they puddle up on top near the trans. and those blazers oil lines are always leaking man the list could go on forever but, the point is if they are making work for them selves then screw them and never go back!

 

The only thing I go to a dealer for is to get part numbers, since they usually have a nice computer with pictures on it so I can be sure that's the part I want.

Then I go to gmpartsdirect.com and order them for half-price.