I picked up a 89 Sunbird GT vert this past week as a freebie while selling a car to a gentleman. The car has the 2.0L turbo and auto tranny. The gentleman I bought it from said that the car ran and drove fine but the transmission was shot. When I tried to load it on the trailer it wouldn't start. I got the car home and put in a battery and replaced the plugs. Fired right up. Thought everything was good to go. Nope. When you rev it in park, the car with stutter, shake and miss for a few thousand rpms then pick back up and do alright till red line. Put the car into gear and it wants to die as it bogs down and feels like it's low on power. When it does move, it almost feels like the parking brake is stuck but I have verified it is not as it rolls freely when in neutral.
I don't believe that the transmission is actually bad. I'm thinking that something else is going on which is causing the car to act like a dog. So far I've replaced the plugs, plug wires, dizzy cap and rotor as well as the coil. I also unplugged the sensor on the transmission which did nothing one way or the other. After running the car for a while today, two plugs are completely black two are getting there. Seems to be loading up on fuel? I'm new to four bangers and everything I try seems like I'm taking a step backwards.
I am pretty tired long day.Have you checked with the car soley idling the exhaust pressure coming from the tail pipe at the muffler.My quick take is either your cat convertor is blocked up causing a boat load of back pressure due to it having a air flow restriction.A simple way to find out is cut off the cat (do a clean job) then check how it runs.Being the plugs are building carbon would indicate either a air flow restriction or one or more of the injectors are failing and dumping fuel.As for the park brake feel while in gear a block exhaust system would cause the car to shake,idle crazy and foul plugs.I do not think the torque convertor is failing as the car has not been driven or moved enough to put that into the mix.I am def tired and Frank a j guy on this board probably could either correct,agree or add his opinion on what is going on.A clogged cat convertor can cripple a car to make it do what your ride is doing in my opinion.With a 1989 I bet it has the original cat and is clogged up.Either way I would get under the ride check it's condition as it probably is the original and cutting it off and checking can't hurt.I would update that along with the muffler.
Unplug the blue TCC plug on the radiator side of the trans and try that, could be the convertor solinoid is locked up.
Doug in P.R.
92 Pontiac Sunbird LE, 2.0, AT, Red / Black with Grey 155K miles. Hurricane Maria Survivor ! ( It takes a licking and keeps on ticking ! ).....in Salinas, Puerto Rico!
Little bit of an update. I replace the ICM in the dizzy and it seemed to help quite a bit, it's not spitting and sputtering when revving now. However, it does seem to rev up fairly slow. I don't know if this is normal or not. I started unplugging sensors and seeing if anything changed. Unplugging the MAP made the car bog down like crazy. Seems to be good. When I unplugged the IAC the car did literally nothing. Once again, don't know if that means anything.The senor below that which I assume is the TPS sensor did nothing as well once I unplugged it.
I believe I found out why the car feels like the parking brake is on. The driver's side drum was pretty damn stuck. It would roll with a lot of effort on a flat surface but add in the slight incline that my driveway is, it barely pushes. I'm not exactly small and this thing took everything I had to move it. I started with the rear of the car since when I drove it down the street, any little pressure would cause the right brake to lock up. Right brake spun around just fine though it does need adjustment. Driver side would not budge and took a good 30 minutes using a three pound sledge to beat it off.
Kinda of stuck at the moment with the car as it's pouring down rain for the fourth day in a row and I'm not paying Autozone prices. Gonna have to wait on Rock Auto I guess.
On one of my days off I will link a site that walks thru a step by using a multimeter and some jumper wires to check certain sensors to ensure there real condition.I had yet another 12hr day and just wiped out.If the rear shoes are worn down enough I would probably just update the rear brakes entirely spring kit and new drums if it were me.Make sure your wheel cylinders are not leaking as If they seem junky I would go ahead and do those as well.
Those ICM's are a common area of troubles - but thankfully - a cheap fix!
A sticky E Brake cable can cause rear brake woes as well. You can spray penetrating fluid up and down the cable periodically to help lubricate and free it up.
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Car is still acting stupid. I went out and purchased a fuel pressure tester and I'm getting around 35 psi. Should be good there. I got out the multimeter and checked the resistance of the injectors themselves.All of them are reading around 3-4. Now, the manual says that it should be somewhere around 12.5 at the injector. All four injectors can't possibly be bad, could they?
Dug into the car some more. My wires on the dizzy cap had to be one off for the car to start and run. Just now realized I had put them in the wrong spot in the first place. Got the timing light out and check the timing while running. The mark on the balancer is crazy off. By crazy off I mean four inches towards the back of the car. I put the timing mark on the 10* BTDC mark and pulled the dizzy cap. It's pointing at cylinder four. I tried to pull the distributor off and spin it around 180* but it wont go back in like that. What the hell is going on here? Am I going to have to take the cover off just to see if the timing marks align like they are supposed to? Maybe the balancer was taken off and put back on wrong at some point in its life? I'm so confused with this turd.
I would like to explain some details on timing and a few comments.However I am wiped out after working on 1 car for 6 hours.Sipping some adult beverages and chilling.When I am not toast tired I will ask or add some thoughts Friday if I can.I will say I would not have yanked the distributor if you only miss placed the wires,I know too late to change now.
Lots of work done on the car today. I verified that the timing is correct. I was looking at the exhaust stroke, not the compression stroke. Didn't bust out the timing light and check it by jumping the pins under the dash though. Double checked fuel pressure and I'm sitting at 32 psi consistently no matter the RPMs. Replaced the TPS, MAP and IAC and nothing changed. Replaced the 02 sensor as well. Still doing the same thing. Fine at idle, runs like crap when in gear or mashing down on the throttle. I did move it about today and it kicked a code 44. When completely in the throttle, and it not moving anywhere, it's lean popping like crazy. You can definitely hear it. Car doesn't want to take off very fast but as long as you're easy on the throttle the transmission shifts just fine. Speedo is crazy off though. Reading 120 mph doing about 15.
I've officially named the car the SunTurd. Got the fuel rail off and had the injectors cleaned. Nothing with the car has changed. Only thing that I did find out is that when you unplug injector 1 or 2, the car doesn't miss or stall. Unplug 3 or 4, the car dies. Don't really know what that means. Any thoughts?
Module time?
Doug in P.R.
92 Pontiac Sunbird LE, 2.0, AT, Red / Black with Grey 155K miles. Hurricane Maria Survivor ! ( It takes a licking and keeps on ticking ! ).....in Salinas, Puerto Rico!
Bumping this thing up. Had to take a short break while I worked on my daily driver. Happy to report that my 09 G8 GT put down 663whp using a TVS1900 blower. I just started working on the car again today. I did a compression test and it was ran 145-147-150-148. Numbers seem good. So, car still will barely move under its own power. Unplugging cylinder 1 and 2 does nothing to the car. Unplugging 3 or 4 will kill it. I moved the injectors around so I'm thinking it's not an injector issues. Noid light also showed that they were firing. What other sensors can I replace? I did the map, iac, tps, o2, icm. I don't think there's anything else that controls the engine. Maybe the timing belt jumped or something. Like always, any help would be appreciated.
Ben
