electrical issues......

OK so last month my car stalled on me.......
put her in park hit the key and i was able to get off the highway
about 5 min later while @ a red light she dies again
turned the key and she started up drove about 5 feet and completely died


$80 for the tow truck to take me 12 blocks to a shop
$80 bucks for new distributor and wires
$80 for the labor

after about 3hr's I was off and on my way

I thought is was all sorta weird b/c i had just completed a
tomp tune up in June but what ever i didn't have the time

so here we are about a month later and the ****er died on me again this morning.....................

it's cold raining i just got a ticket for street cleaning i dont even what to look at the $$$ and now i'm looking at yet another tow charge later on tonight or tomorrow morning

So i figured i'd kill some time and post and ask for some info from all of you

wells heres some more info i know you'll all ask

91 3.1 with headers and cat back
tune up back in mid June
new injectors about 8 months ago
new belt tensioner about 6 months ago

car has been running good for the most part
but now i'm stuck trying to figure out weather or not i even want to keep her on the road as my daily driver or just park her someplace and forget about her till may/june

I love this car but man i'm just getting tired of never knowing weather or not she is going to turn on and or get me to and from wherever it is i need to go lol

hey i'm also looking for a good shop or mechanic in the NYC area that is familiar with these cars....... i'm tired of people taking guesses and wasting my time and money

 

This happened to me, It was was EGR the piece thats bolted onto the top of your passenger side header. Try that. The part is $230 but try and swap one with some one else who has the 3.1L before dropping that amount of money on something that might not be wrong. When was the last time you shot some trottle body cleaner into your trottle body maybe its sticking or has alot of carbon build up. Also put some fuel system treatment into the tank maybe your fuel injectors, or fuel filter is dirty and or going bad. Could be you IAC ( idle air control ) this is the part on the top of your trottle body that has a connection plug and like a small vacum line comeing out the back. I did all these steps and my stalling problem is fixed. I also have the 2.8L headers on my 3.1L with full catback and high flow cat.

Where in the NYC area are you so maybe I can name a shop to send you to.

 

ok i will double check the egr but i just replaced that whole unit almost 2 years ago along with all the vac lines

The TB gets cleaned with every tune up &

Stp gets tossed into the tank every 3 months along with the oil change

when i get home tonight i will check to see what if any codes i'm getting
and i'll post back then

 

Do you know if you have spark or fuel?

 

Could this be VATS acting up?

 

could you explain vats to me?

 

I was just about to ask the same thing


also skinny I'm right on the west side so if you know of anyone please pass along a number and or address

i'll check back in with you all when i get home tonight
Thanks again

 

vehicle antitheft system or somehting like that. If was put into f-bodies in 89 IIRC and reads a little resistor in the key to see if its the right key. With it acting up the car can either not startup sometimes or just shutoff randomly then crank right back up.

To the OP, is your security light comming on?

 

o so u are in the city i know nothing near there just out here in the suburbs of nj and a great shop near philly

 

ok i just got in and started the car
it's giving me codes 23 & 35 and
it seems as if i'm spitting out pure gas from the tail pipes

 

So your IAC and MAT. You probably should replace those and get your injectors checked out after they are replaced to see if you are still spitting out gas.

 

OK thanks can you guys think of anything else

the mechanic. i spoke with earlier said to try and pick up everything that need and any other parts i want changed that way it'll go faster then if he has to wait and order everything from his guy's so

I'll be stopping by the parts store and they'll have the car towed into the shop before going into work in the morning

so I'm just really grasping at straws now

I'm just going to have them do another tune up and I'll add in the mat
so if there is anything else you can think of please let me know

thanks again for all your help

 

Somehting else to consider before you replace the IAC is to clean it out good. If you havn't then it has probably got 16 years of carbon builup on it.

 

ok i just tried to replace the iac valve and it seems to be stuck in place

now much force can i use to pull this out with out breaking anything????

 

It srews in. Mine wasn't too bad. When I had to replace mine I took the TB off since I was going to clean that and just put it in a vice and took a wrench to it and it came right out.

 

DON'T don't Don't try to remove the pintle! The whole IAC needs to be replaced. If you've messed with the pintle it's toast. Sorry if I'm overreacting, but my impression is that you're trying to replace the pintle instead of the whole IAC.

 

well guys i had to call and cancel the two truck..............

I started the car and moved her so that she would be good for street cleaning until Thursday night and figured i'd just let her run for as long as she would after about 15 min of really really really crappy running i looked down and noticed that my temp gauge was bouncing back and fourth as if it was in a pin ball machine

i shut off the car and checked the radiator and she was empty and the cap was cover with this dark brown gunk????

about a year ago a friend of mine was playing around with my car repairing some work a local shop did wrong and we found the radiator was filled with this creamy light brown crap instead or the normal coolant

he say that some shops in the area used this **** instead of reg coolant to save themselves money..............

anyway we spent about 2 hours flushing the radiator until everything was nice and clear then for about another hour just to be sure

we rechecked in a few weeks later then once again @ about 6 weeks and everything seemed fine

I had the last shop i went to replace the coolant when they did my oil change and they didn't mention anything to me and my stupid *** didn't check

so now i guess it's back ............

anyway i just refilled the coolant and started the car
only to find out that now i've got smoke coming from my engine bay
and to be honest at this point

I just shut her down and walked away

 

hell come to think of it I don't even remember if i locked the doors/hood and set the alarm LOL

 

I've not been in a camaro for some time now, but...

I'm not aware of anything creamy and brown that is supposed to be in the coolant...how's your oil look? I know that oil and coolant will make a nice creamy brown. Does anybody else have any experience with a creamy brown coolant?

Where does the smoke come from? Does it come out of the exhaust as well? What color is it?

I don't have much experience with these 3.1's as mine was a 2.8, but I know the later 3.1L's were fairly well known for some kind of manifold leak. Also, on my 3800 II, I had somewhat similar issues and it turns out that if the coolant passages for the TB fail, you get high pressure coolant going into the intake and PCV passages. Then again, if the coolant routing for the 3.1 is like that of the 2.8, that's not possible

 

oil hum to be honest I haven't looked.......
the smoke was white and mostly toward the back near the fire wall

 

I just drained my coolent(first time with this car) and it was a nasty brown color. I always thought that the older the coolent gets the browner it gets. Dont know about the creamyness though. Oh and I would probubly replace the radiator cap.
I wonder if the smoke was when you started it back up it sprayed coolent all over and that was just burning off. Not sure.

 

the brown coloring in the coolant sounds like bad frost plugs to me...there rusting causeing the discoloration of the coolant.

 

Sounds like someone pourded some oil into the raditor. Seen this at the shop i use to work at. This young kid thought oil was the only liquid that went under the hood so when his dodge neon was overheating he poured oil into the raditor. Moron ended up paying alot and almost lost a motor. Which wouldnt have been nad because neon motors are crap anyway.

 

Lower intake manifold gaskets go bad all the time on the 3.1 and 3.4 engines and that can leak coolant in front and/or in back. A lower intake leak if left long enough could dump coolant into the intake runners and oil and cause some drivabilty problems, not to mention coolant in the oil destroys bearings. Try to locate the smoke/leak. Depending on what is leaking, you might find the cause of your drivability problems as well.

 

OK so heres the update



$95 tow into shop
got call 2hr's later stating car was running .......
i asked how much and what was wrong with it and he said
new plugs wires cap/rotor and she started right up $145 total

$25 cab ride and 40min later i 'm in the shop and she is running
so i started talking to the guy and asked him about the over heating and he said **** i for got all about that LOL LOL LOL LOL

so we shut her down checked the rad and of course it's empty so we fill her up with coolant and she starts smoking right away

so after about another 15 min of searching it turned out to be the rear plug between the motor & Tanny funfunfun

so it's now life 530ish and I'm heading back home with out the car
Yes another 25 cab ride

so the next day i go back to the shop and they just finished putting the Tanny radiator and everything back in and everything seems to be working fine

450 for parts and labor................

i start driving home and pull into a b/s jiffy lube type spot for an oil change b/c i know that ****er forgot to do it when i asked

i pulled off the oil cap and it smells like gas so i had them flush the system with that b/s $30 kit and tossed in some high mileage oil washed the car all for about another 95$ and drove home and just parked her


went out this morning went out to start her up and wouldn't you know it now my batt is dead

so now here i am with a dead batt dirty engine and gas mixing with the oil
oh year and please lets not forget about the ticket i just got for not moving my car yet again.........................................

 

hah i was right about the freeze plugs

 

Yes you were LOL


side note i just went out to the short and picked up a new iac motor $60 and a can of intake cleaner so if it's not to cold out later on tonight when i get home i'll try to clean everything out as best as i can

I just remember swapping this part out not too long ago but what the heck at this point it's only another 60 LOL

? how can i clean out the inside of the engine
when they flushed out the rad they said it was not that bad but that the problem is the junk thats already in the engine
so is there something quick i could do or do i have to have the whole thing taken apart

 

The product is called seafoam, you can put this into your engine oil but for only 500 miles than you have to change your oil. The seafoam will break apart all the dirt so when you change your oil it will just come out. But any high mileage old motor will have some type of sludge or dirt in it.

 

Patience my friend! We could've helped you diagnose it and you could've saved yourself ~$400. If it's your daily driver or you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself I can understand, but damn. I've always been on the other side of the wrench so I can't understand why people don't do their own work, but then again I'd be out a job .

If you flush your engine be aware that you might develop new leaks depending on the age of your seals.