My cav just shit out on me yesterday, maybe you can help me. it all started a week ago i was driving down the road, went to give it a little gas, it bogged down and as soon as i let up it caught back up to where it was supposed to be, so i changed my fuel filter, put some fuel injector cleaner in it, which seemed to of helped it out. so yesterday i was driving threw town and it started doing it again so i took it home, pulled in my neighborhood and thats when it got messy, i could give it any gas, just idlepulled by my drive way, gave it some gas to get up on it it died, so i started it back up and gave it gas again, once again it died. now it just turns over and wont start. this has done this once before and when i took it to chevy they said i had a bad fuel injector(test+labor+part=530.00) im not going threw that again, so i was wanting to buy all new injectors and put them in myself.
1. does this sound like a fuel injector problem?
2. where can i get good injectors(high performance?)
3. they that hard to swap out?
4. anything else i seem to be forgetting or should know?
thanks for all the help
-jb imp:
Sounds to me like a clogged catalytic converter! My dads g/f's car did the same exact thing! It started then died right away, then it wouldn't start at all! It has to be that or the fuel pump!
when my 94 z24 cav 3.1 manual was stalling like you explained, it was due to bad build up in my egr valve. built up carbon can cause the engine to not "feed" right. Anyways it was like $130 but since then i havent had any idle or stalling problem, runs like a beut! The fuel pump probally wont do much, plus i think you said you already replaced that... so did i and it still stalled and such, then i replaced the egr valve, its $130 i believe and maybe 10 minutes of your time...
its not a fuel injector. it could be any of those things but id check up on ur knock sensor because thats what happened to my car. alot of these things that go wrong with these cars all have the same symptoms.
When i turn the key slightly, you can hear the fuel pump kick on, wouldnt this mean its working? as far as the egr valve and the coils, how do i test those?
thanks for the help
jeremy
if it's happening after "driving through town" it's likely that the catalytic convertor is bad. As it heats up, it restricts exhaust flow and chokes the engine from behind. Generally it's only noticable when the car is hot, until the convertor is SERIOUSLY bad, then it chokes the car all the time. Most of the other suggestions here (I've had each of those problems in the last year so I'm speaking from experience :lol: ) will show up even when the car is cold.
In my case, the cat going bad was actually a result of the car running rich, which I resolved by replacing several sensors (they needed it anyway) and the fuel regulator. I also replaced the coils and ignition module last weekend because the car had been stuttering and misfiring on accelleration. So even if it IS the cat, you may have an underlying problem that caused it to die.
egr valve, take it off and make sure that the pistons move freely, other than that, not much you can test
coil packs - it's posted elsewhere on this site somewhere, but you test the resistance across secondary windings (the terminals that the spark plug wires attach to), it should be about 5.8k ohms or so, my new coils tested at about 6.2, and also the resistance across the primary windings, which the previous post says should be about 0.35 ohms, though all mine tested at about 2 ohms. I did have to use cheap paperclips to test the primary windings though so that might account for the difference in my readings.
as far as testing the fuel pump, you can check fuel pressure at the fuel rail, I dont remember exactly what it should be, but the number 45psi comes to mind, perhaps someone else can correct me on that
This exact same thing happened last week and it was my fuel pump that had died. Was driving to the mall, idling along and then hit the gas and the car stalled. I had to idle home (about 5 miles). Had the fuel pump replaced and it runs good now.
well guys thanks for all the help. my cousin came by to check it out, he told me to start it it and i said it wouldn't, tried anyways and what do you know it starts. let it sit there and idle and it seemed to idle fine, shut it off and now i cant get it started once again. there r no codes displayed as far as i know, check engine should blink like 3 times or something? if this might help in diagnosing the problem, remember boughed down after driving for a few hours, then when giving gas it died, started back up, gave it gas, died again then wouldn't start, 5 days later it started and sat in driveway and ran for 15 min, seemed fine. turned it off and couldn't get it started again. this shits really fucked up
Well my friend you can have several problems most of which can be taken care of with a really good tune up. When was the last time you changed your spark plugs? Something you can try do to to check your coil packs are working properly is to unplug the boot from the spark plug end and hold them with some insulated pliers and have a friend start the engine while you hold the boot close to a metal object on the car. If it sparks in a good steady rythym with out missing then that side of the coil is good. Do the same with the other plug on the same coil cuz every coil has two plugs. If you find one plug to be faulty replace the coil it goes to.
Another thing you might look into is that your timing chain might have slipped. In my old 2.0 cav the chain slipped cuz the plastic tensioner broke and I couldn't get it started for shyt. Just cuz you can hear your fuel pump working doesn't mean it's working well either. Make sure you always run your car with at least half a tank of gas as running it near empty will cause the pump to heat up and wera out quicker. It uses the gas to cool it down. I'd also cut the cat out and replace with a high flow one. To check if you need a new egr valve locate it on the plenum and press up on the diaphragm of the valve and if it moves then it may still be good. Also do this when the car is running and if your car stumbles and begins to die out then it is good. SO yeah you can have any number of problems it's just a matter of trying to find out which one it is good luck. imp:
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could
be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
J-Body Automobiles Forum
A forum community dedicated to J-body owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, engine swaps, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!