Hello Everyone...

I am having a bit of trouble with my car...again. This past saturday, I changed my 02 sensor for the first time ever. What a difference it made...it was like i had an extra 20 hp....felt like i had a whole new engine...i had power i never felt before. The feeling was great, and i was happy. Along comes Monday...the guy at work heard that i changed the 02 sensor, and asked if i had cleaned out the intake with carb/f.i.cleaner. I said no. To make a long story short, i had him do it, and it killed the new 02 sensor that was in there. I made him replace it, with a new one. So here is the problem. Before the new 02 sensor was replaced(2nd time), the car ran like s**t b/c of the gunk that killed the first 02 sensor i replaced sat. So the new one gets put in, and now, its running ALOT smoother...BUT....hesitations left and right. On a cold engine, it hesitates very very badly....i could floor it, and it goes nowhere....and a couple seconds later, THEN kicks in....and it does the same when the engine is at operating temperature. He told me, along with someoen else to wait a couple days or so till that stuff blows out of the system...it will probably get better. Also, on cold startup since this incident, the car stalls alot. 4-5 times i started it today. All i know is that this past saturday, the car was running so good after i changed the 02 sensor the first time, that i could jump naked into the artic ocean with the penguins. Now, I am back to square one. After the "cleaning" of the intake with that carb/inject cleaner took place, i got a code 44-lean mixture on left side....so thats what tipped me off to the new oxy sensor...after we replaced it, the 2nd one didnt give a code yet. I did reset the compter and drove it alot today...still no code. Could it be that the new 02 sensor collected the remnants of what was in there and that went bad too? Or is it that the car just needs to get the rest of that crap out of the system? Or is it something else? Its acting like it acted once before..when the relay to the MAFS wasnt working...no power to the MAFS...but once it starts moving, it seems ok for the most part....anyone with any idea what to think, do, replace, destroy? Thanks. The car 305 TPI with an auto tranny if that helps. It also has 123,500 miles on it. Suggestions?

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1986 WS6-Equipped 5.0 TPI Trans Am
180 Degree Thermo
Manual Fan Switch
Random Tech High-Flow Cat
Two Chamber Flowmaster Muffler
Megs Custom 4.5" Stainless Steel Rolled Tips
1999 Grand Am GT In-Dash CD Player w/Equalizer(fits like '86 original)
5% Tint On Rear, 35% On Sides

OTHER RIDE:
1998 C5 6Spd. Corvette Coupe
Silver w/Gray Leather Int.
12/14 Options
Stock(for now)
Best 1/4th: 13.5 @ 104.4MPH

 

where did you spray that carb cleaner at? before the MAF? hopefully he didnt somehow spray it directly into the MAF and mess it up somehow. there was really no need to do that, wont do a thing.

 

No...he sprayed it into the intake...took the air cleaner assembly off first....he didnt put it through the MAF. I just want this car running rihgt again....no more of this sputttering and hesitating.

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1986 WS6-Equipped 5.0 TPI Trans Am
180 Degree Thermo
Manual Fan Switch
Random Tech High-Flow Cat
Two Chamber Flowmaster Muffler
Megs Custom 4.5" Stainless Steel Rolled Tips
1999 Grand Am GT In-Dash CD Player w/Equalizer(fits like '86 original)
5% Tint On Rear, 35% On Sides

OTHER RIDE:
1998 C5 6Spd. Corvette Coupe
Silver w/Gray Leather Int.
12/14 Options
Stock(for now)
Best 1/4th: 13.5 @ 104.4MPH

 

Have you even bothered to check anything else yet? If not, i would:
#1 look at teh front of the engine to make sure he didn't knock the wires loose off teh CTS, TPS, or IAC.
#2 I would check/set the TPS
#3 set minimum idle

Actually, now that i think of it, i would also pull/clean/replace the plugs as well. There's a good chance that you fouled a plug(s) while running that intake cleaner through. As a good practice, you should also check your plug wires and cap/rotor too.

Basically, before you start going nuts replacing parts and guessing, you want to make sure all the little stuff is gold. Or else you're just wasting your time, energy and most importantly, money.


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Ed Maher - Moderator @ The TPI & Carb Boards
92 Z28 Convertible - Quasar blue / Tan top
305 TPI A4 2.73 - 14.8 @ 93.1
Stock except ported plenum and dual cats
-=ICON Motorsports=-

- Definitely prototypes, high powered mutants of some kind. Too weird to live, too cool to die

 

yeah, like ed said, you might wanna check all 8 plugs and see if you have a bad one now. on a fuel injected car there is really no reason to spray that cleaner in there, since the fuel is injected right next to the cylinder. the egr residue wont hurt performance. also might wanna just go ahead and replace the plugs anyways since its pretty cheap to do.

 

OK....I HAVE checked all my sensors....the wires are all tight on there...tps is fine, iac is fine...everything. The tps was just recently set, and i think that should be fine. As far as the plugs, thats one thing i have not looked at at all...no time between work and school. If i was to get a set of plugs, what would be best? Bosch Platinum's? I dont want to get some crap ones. Oh, and the cap and rotor were also replaced recently. Wires shoudl be fine, but like i said, everything happend direcetly after this junk was sprayed into my engine. Today, i noticed that the car was generally behaving better, but still, i want it like it was this past saturday...hopefully, this stuff is just blowing through the system and when its all out, i'll be back to normal. Thanks for the help guys.

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1986 WS6-Equipped 5.0 TPI Trans Am
180 Degree Thermo
Manual Fan Switch
Random Tech High-Flow Cat
Two Chamber Flowmaster Muffler
Megs Custom 4.5" Stainless Steel Rolled Tips
1999 Grand Am GT In-Dash CD Player w/Equalizer(fits like '86 original)
5% Tint On Rear, 35% On Sides

OTHER RIDE:
1998 C5 6Spd. Corvette Coupe
Silver w/Gray Leather Int.
12/14 Options
Stock(for now)
Best 1/4th: 13.5 @ 104.4MPH

 

At the minimum i would pull the plug for #1 cylinder since it's easy to get to and see what it looks like. Since all the sensors check out, and your parts are fresh i'd lean towards cruddy plugs. Especially since it seems to be getting better to you. It makes good sense that the funk could be burning off the plugs. If the funk was bad enough to detroy an O2 sesnor it is bad enough to foul plugs and even leave a permanent potentially conductive coating on the plug giving you misfires.
Personally i have always run regular old AC delco plugs in my cars and have never had a problem with them. You can waste money on fancy plugs if thats your thing, but in the end they can only hurt you. Thats right, even something as simple as a platinum plug can cost you performance. The platinum tip retains more heat than a standard copper plug, thus making you that much closer to detonation. Fancy gimmick plugs also accomplish effectively nothing xcept lightening your wallet.

 

Amen to that. Good ole AC plugs work the best for me, I tried a set of Autolite platinums, couldn't get as much timing out of the car. They were junk, a few went bad real fast. Waste of money, Bosch +4s are a joke.
bsa

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"If they do not run, Then they will die." - Stonewall Jackson
#3
'87 IROC, 355 TPI, Converted to SD, 700R4, B&M Megashifter, 3.42, Trick Flow Twisted Wedge Heads, Edelbrock Intake, Accel Runners, Comp Cam, Crane Gold rockers, Lucas 24# injectors, Edelbrock headers, Flowmaster 3'' exhaust, Mallory Ignition, Shift Kit, Corvette Servo, 2,000 Stall Torque Converter

1991 RS, 305 TBI, T-5, Bone stock daily driver.

[This message has been edited by irocbsa (edited October 10, 2001).]

 

Hey guys thanks for the responses....I too, have learned the hard way about parts other than AC DELCO. I have never had a problem with those. Hopefully, this weekend maybe, i could look at the plug and determine if i need new ones. Yea, the crud that was in there blew out my AC DELCO o2 sensor real quick. So i am guessing you guys are hitting it on the head. Thanks again. By the way...if the plugs dont help, what else should i look into?

------------------
1986 WS6-Equipped 5.0 TPI Trans Am
180 Degree Thermo
Manual Fan Switch
Random Tech High-Flow Cat
Two Chamber Flowmaster Muffler
Megs Custom 4.5" Stainless Steel Rolled Tips
1999 Grand Am GT In-Dash CD Player w/Equalizer(fits like '86 original)
5% Tint On Rear, 35% On Sides

OTHER RIDE:
1998 C5 6Spd. Corvette Coupe
Silver w/Gray Leather Int.
12/14 Options
Stock(for now)
Best 1/4th: 13.5 @ 104.4MPH