Hi guys,

I'm getting married tomorrow and now have an automatic 01 Cav that isn't able to take me to the ceremony!!


I should start out by telling you that I keep my RPM's high whenever I drive... I guess I just love hearing the sound the short ram intake makes...

Tonight I was driving around and after the first 2 miles, noticed the acceleration was a DROP sluggish. After another couple of miles I was on the highway and was running close to the end of second gear with high RPMs. It didn't shift when it was supposed to and I got a bit nervous so I let the RPMs down and the car started to shake. When I slowly went back on the gas again it shook more then it already was shaking and VERY slowly, it started to raise the RPM's and speed. The car stalled on me twice towards the end of my turn around back home towards the end of the drive, both times the RPMs were really low as it was while entering a driveway (though I was idling a few times during red lights and it didn't stall then). The problem occurs regardless of which gear it's in (including neutral and park). The car had half a tank of gas, the temp gauge said the temp was normal, all fluid levels were ok, and there didn't appear to be any leak when I examined the ground directly underneath the engine. The check engine light goes on (in a blinking fashion) when the RPM's are low, but the light did go out a couple of times when I slowly got the RPMs back up. The TRAC OFF light stays on the whole time. The acceleration doesn't increases when I push down further on the gas and will just accelerate at that same sluggish pace with the RPMs going up just as slowly. There is a smell coming from the engine bay that I can't identify (my friend said something like burning rubber) but there is no smoke at all. The belt is still there and not squeaking at all. My guess is either a bad fuel pump, or maybe I blew a piston (I really hope not). I am getting an ODBII scanner ASAP, but wanted your opinions guys. HELP!!!

Congrats on getting married. I would first get the cel code scanned, I am pretty sure that will correct one problem.

CEL blinking equals a misfire.

My guess, is your bad at guessing, your saying fuel pump, than new engine which is it.

So your saying it isnt shifting into second gear? This will be accompied by a PO732 code = 2 nd gear ratio incorrect

It will be hard to raise the RPMs, and the car will shake badly when missing.

I would start by finding out what cyliders are missing, and fix that first.








- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new

i think i'm bad at guessing too. i just figured maybe there wasn't enough gas being fed which is why it's bogging. upon further inspection this morning and raising the revs in park, i heard some popping out of the exhaust, so i'm guessing it's a misfire... what kind of repair is necessary if one of the cylinders are goin screwy?

Well tons of things can cause a miss.

Start with plugs/wires, if that doesnt fix it, it could be an injector, injector wiring, bad coil, and internal engine problems. Could be a few other things though.

I would start with plugs/wires, if that doesnt fix it, take it to a shop dont toss parts at it.




- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new

My cavy poped when the camshaft or crank sensors were bad, running rich. check it at autozone for the OBD test.

alright, finally back from my honeymoon and can report that the OBDII code it threw was P0300 which apparently indicates random/multiple misfires... it's condition is still the same after trying to reset the CEL (ie: it still ran the same and the code came right back on after driving a few feet). my reader gave me a bunch of other things onscreen that I wrote down but don't have with me at the moment. some of them were:

4 INC
02 HTR
CATALYST

anyone mind telling me now where to start looking first?

check both o2 sensors,cat could need to be replaced,I'm leaning towards o2 after cat.



15.2@89mph 2.171 60ft. 9.830 1/8 R.I.P. "LULU"

The car won't be misfiring like that if an O2 sensor is bad.... I'd start by pulling the plugs and looking at them. If any of them are damaged, do a compression test to see what's going on.

No sense in randomly replacing parts when you have no idea what's going on inside there.

what are the o2htr and catalyst codes for then?And it doesn't hurt to CHECK the o2 sensors,I changed plugs and the car still ran like crap,ended up being the o2 before the cat,car was running way too rich,BUT like Lenko said don't start randomly replacing parts.



15.2@89mph 2.171 60ft. 9.830 1/8 R.I.P. "LULU"

Could be a plugged cat. But it could also be a chip out of a piston, and there's a smashed plug, and pieces of the piston blocking that cat....

The moral is.. check the easiest stuff first, make sure you've got good compression and then work your way down the pipe. Definitely check stuff before replacing it... but most people (even me) don't have the equipment to check O2 sensors and so on...

replace the 02 and 04 coil. it comes up as a random misfire on the scanner. but just to verifiy run the car in park. open the hood. pull of number 4 plug wire while its running. see if there is a difference in the engine. then pull of number 1. se if there is any difference. if not, its simply a bad coil. 2 - 5.5 mm bolts and 15 minutes and its fixed. hope this helps.

taylor was right. bad coil pack. good call sir!

BIGGSZ24 wrote:what are the o2htr and catalyst codes for then?And it doesn't hurt to CHECK the o2 sensors,I changed plugs and the car still ran like crap,ended up being the o2 before the cat,car was running way too rich,BUT like Lenko said don't start randomly replacing parts.

You know people on this site amaze me sometimes.

For one when someone says check the O2 sensor it isnt that easy.

You need a scan tool that can graph waveforms. Besides the guys at work, I dont know anyone who has a scan tool that can do that.

I have never in my life seen a bad, or replaced one, they are non wearing parts.

When you check a rear O2 your looking for the rear O2 to mimic the front O2, if it does, the rear is bad.

The front is bad when it is reading the same all the time, slow to respond, the sensors are suppoused to change 8 times a second.

Just because you have an O2 code doesnt mean the sensor is bad.

If the car is running lean or rich all the time, the O2 will say as such and most people will condem the O2 sensor when it isnt the problem.

I once had a car when a Wal Mart got stuck in the intake tubing, had an O2 code, well I was doing a few usual checks and found out the bag was causing it to run rich, because the bag was blocking off air flow.




- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new