alright guys, ive noticed that my car has some "interesting" idles lately and i tried a trick my friend told me about

pumping the break to raise the rpm and then stopping... unfortunately this caused my car to bog out and die. what causes this? im sure its not enough power to somewhere.

my plugs are relatively new
ac-delco platinums about 9K miles old
wires are factory as far as i know. nothing else has been changed.

is it time for wires? and maybe something else?

brand new battery
2200ohv cavalier y2k
new gaskets about 400 miles ago
rough starts occasionally in the cold
not to many other problems ever with the car
new suspension


any thoughts?
what kind of maintenance should i be looking into now that im at 100K miles. (99,426)
trans just flushed, coolant flush soon, fuel filter replacement soon,

What do you mean by "interesting"? too high? too low? high>low>high>low?

Maybe a sensor is going out? do you have a CEL on?

pumping the break to raise the rpm?
uhmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

Where you giving it gas and pumping the break at the same time to raise the rpms at a lower speed?
I'm confused, I think your friend broke your car

if you press on the break it pulls some power and your RPMS go up.

Either way, your car is broke. Compression check if there is a lack of power. Check your hoses, fuel injectors, fuel pump and filter.

ya im sorry. im not driving when i do this.
i did it in park, and pushed the brake "hard" and then let go
and the rpms go down to about 250-300 and then jump back to 700 and after that they go back to 550 where my car has been idling recently.

how do you do a compression check? im kind of a rookie. hoses look and feel fine, fuel injectors are a ? right now, fuel filter will be replaced soon like next week.

as for the interesting idle, yeah higher lower, rough, higher lower, rough... thats pretty much the order... its all in a relatively small window of rpms

Sounds like a vacuum leak to me... and considering the brakes are boosted using vacuum from your engine.... I'd say your friend's "experiment" caused one of your rubber vacuum lines to crack and break. The J-car rubber lines suck to begin with... but abusing them like that is a good way to kill 'em and quick

lenko. would you know where to look and what to look for? do you think they would be expensive to replace?

Depends if it's important to you to have an OEM replacement, or if you're ok using a piece of vacuum hose. If you can find the leak and fix it yourself, it's easy. Just start examining all your vacuum lines off the throttle body, see if any are cracked or blistering.... replace as necessary.

Mind you, it's entirely possible it's something else too... not just a cracked hose.

yeah. i actually found a mysterious "fluid" running down the parking lot today... it was coming from the drivers side of the car, thin fluid almost like water, couldnt get enough to smell it, or test it. but i also couldnt find where it was leaking because it was so dark.
no check engine lights. or anything like low coolant, or the abs light... none of them lit up... and i didnt have a scanner available.

my dad gave a few suggestions
timing chain
power steering leak
brake fluid leak
trans fluid leak
HOWEVER. all fluid levels are well within the "good" range. except power steering. i havent checked that in a couple weeks.
i think im going to take it back to my friends shop tomorrow. just to have them check it all out also.

any ideas as to what it could be. please give me some leads. this is bugging the hel*l out of me. and i am about to just drive the car into the ground and be car-less for a while.

and my A/c noise, has been getting louder with RPMS. which is why i thought of the timing chain. and sometimes i cant get it to stop by "turning on the a/c" it just jingles a lot at idle.... a lot more when im accelerating, and then slows down and dies off when im off the pedal.

I believe if the timing belt was broken, the car would not even start.
power steering fluid and stalling I don't think are related.
Does the car stall with the AC turned OFF?
Does the car start consistently but stalls all the time?
check spark plug cables, just in case one of the cables is not sparkling 100%
with the engine running, take some spark plug cable pliers

and remove one cable off the spark plug and spray a little bit of cleaner to the tip of it and see if is sparkling.
if is sparkling normal, the plug is good; then install it back to the same spark plug.
remove the next cable using the tool, spray a little bit of cleaner to the tip of the cable and check if is sparkling.
if is good, then install it back on and go to the next plug.
I had a car who was stalling a little bit and it was because one of the spark plug cables was not sparkling.
you should check the actual spark plugs when the car is cooled off. Remove all 4 plugs and do a visual check

i will do that. as for your questions

the car stalls whether the a/c is on or not. i believe the two problems are unrelated.
it starts well all the time. sometimes it shudders upon first "push of the pedal" and then catches itself and never has the problem again for that drive.
the plugs are only 9k miles old, but i will check them also.

its so disheartening to see all of my work not performing to spec. after the paint, bodykit, and interior work... i want to build up the motor for "medium" power, but i dont want anything to be not running 110% before i add something to it.

the timing chain was just because of the "bearing noise" i really have no clue where the idea came from....

is the check engine light on?

no lights at all... i was hoping it would be that easy...

if you're able to drive the car ounce with out stalling, then I don't believe is the cables because if one cable was bad it would stall every time you drive your vehicle.
maybe your injectors are dirty?!?!?
that's another one to check. maybe you should add fuel injector cleaner to your tank.
Your throttle body is probably dirty too, replace air filter, Idle Air Control Valve?
what else?

brand new air filter. changed 3k miles ago. throttle body never touched. IAC, never touched, fuel injector cleaner- has been a while... maybe since june/july when i actually had money... lol

ill check all of this out tomorrow if i have time. im going to run the car back over to my friends shop and have myself and them take a look at all of these ideas. hopefully something or all of them work. otherwise we get into the more expensive fixes.

checked everything that i could today.

i think the leak is from my newly replaced upper coolant hose. im going to keep an eye on that.

the plugs were snuggly in place, and all appeared normal when i looked at them. but the top piece was coming loose, so i tightened them up.
the wires will be replaced just because they are factory wires. and they had some junk building up on them

my power steering fluid was low (topped it off)
coolant fine, but added a little bit to make it perfect.
brake fluid was full (not overfull)
trans fluid was full and clean
oil was full and clean
my battery had a little bit of corrosion. i cleaned it and put it back.

the car still feels "odd" it ran a little better today, im still babying it.
ill run it to the shop another day, they were busy all day today.

one of my rattles was from my passenger fender. it was loose from the accident. ill get around to fixing that when it bugs the hell out of me.


nothing else has been tested. yet. but the car still has a lack of power. 99,545 miles on the odo.

does it feel like is forced?
clean the injectors, if that doesn't fix it then it might the motor getting old and losing compression
have you ever heard of "Restore lubricant"?

http://www.autoplusuae.com/products/restore/index.shtml

RESTORE, engine restorer and lubricant, with CSL is a revolutionary new engine treatment. In new and older cars, it restores whatever compression and power are lost and maintains the engine in top condition for 2 or 3 times its normal life.
Why ?

Simply, because an oil additive, by definition, is a product which is added to automotive oil in the crankcase with the intended purpose of modifying the oil characteristics such as viscosity, detergency, foaming, etc ...
RESTORE is not an oil additive in this sense. It is rather an engine additive because it acts on the engine itself playing a double role :
The CSL particles fill scratches, grooves and other worn out areas between the piston and the cylinder wall in the engine.
The CSL particles provide maximum natural lubrication due to their percentage of lead. This, even under very high temperature.
The action of RESTORE reduces friction and rebuilds metal surfaces, which restores lost power and reduces oil & fuel consumption.
It works effectively wherever friction and wear cut scratches in metal surfaces, such as cylinder walls, cranckshaft and bearings.
• Restores compressions.
• Restores horsepower.
• Restores mileage.
• Restores engine life.
• Reduces oil and fuel consumption.
• Reduces pollution.

also check out Lucas Oil Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer


if the fuel system is clean, ignition and spark plugs are good, intake and air filter are clean, what else could it be?
port and polish the cylinder head
http://www.aircooledtech.com/port_polish/
One of the best ways to get extra ponies out of your motor is to port and polish your heads. Anyone who's been in the motor business for any length of time will tell you that one of the best ways to increase horse power in just about any engine is to (among other things) port & polish (P&P) the cylinder heads. How far you go with porting really depends what you are trying to accomplish with your motor and how you plan to drive it.

So what is porting and polishing?? Porting and Polishing (P&P) is the removing of material from the intake/exhaust ports as well as the combustion chambers for the reason of improving flow both in AND out of the combustion chambers. Stock heads are made from cast aluminum and if you look at the intake and exhaust ports, they are a very rough and have lots of sharp edges.

I used restore ONCE, back in umm... march i believe... i didnt notice a difference, but maybe i will give it a shot. lol

i want to P+P but i ned to find a place that will do it, and find a wallet that has money in it.

hopefully i can figure this out before my trip back to south carolina, i wouldnt want to break down or anything like that *knock on wood* on my way. because they would just try and rape my bank in that situation. and i dont think my dads colorado would enjoy pulling my car along, or trailering it.

im going to get my upper coolant hose again... so i can replace it again... the one i have now sprung a leak... the old one cracked and was leaking.... man this has been a rough month for the cav.

oh yeah. I would worry more about the coolant hose than a P&P
Question,
how long did the upper coolant hose last?

the new one? not even three weeks
the old one, 98K miles

maybe you got a bad hose. I would get some of these clamps too.

i am going to grab a new one. i think its a combo of the hose and the weather... really really cold isnt to great of a place for a new hose.

you have ever had overheating problems?

the temp gets pretty high occasionally, but no overheating. highest ive seen it was the 3/4 mark with the middle or slightly above being the average.