Ha all, new guy here looking for help, hopfully some good ideas come my way. here we go................sorry for the novel, just wanted to give as much info as possible. thanks in advance.

my 96 pontiac money pit/sunfire with 2.4 has a weird hesitation. Its like its running out of gas. usually happens around 2500 rpm. It seems like if u accelarate lightly it does it and if u accelarate hard its fine. well kinda. sometimes u can drive it with no problems, other times it acts up. I just bought the car it has 220 000 km. I just replaced the head gasket and the valves as when i got it it had a burnt vavle because it had a bad plug the previous owner could not get out. no check engine light, plugs r new, found a couple of bad orings on fuel rail have been replaced. think i need to replace the coolant temp sensor as the fan doesnt come on, but the fuse, relay and motor r all good.

yes i replaced the fuel filter...lol

o aswell when it warms up to temp it idles at 1000rpm and u hold it at 1500 rpm its hesiates aswell, not all the time.....................kinda seems like it is goen to died but it has never stalled out on me yet....knock on wood....all vacum lines r good.

when i have the radio on car not running it cuts out,like turns off for a second and then u have to turn it right down or it will do it again right away...lol but when its running it seems fine, havent really turned it up while driving latey to busy listening to the car....lol aftermarket radio, possible security thing messen with me?????????????

o and one more thing to my novel, i checked the fuel pressure and it reads 44psi with key on
40psi after sitting for ten mins
40psi idling
in the haye manual it sayes to pinch the return line if u have low pressure and if the pressure goes up its the regulator.
but mine dosent have low pressure so i would assume i can rule that one out.

Today I pulled the air/oil seperator and throttle body apart and cleaned them out. I also changed the cam sensor with another one that I had from an other head....will take for test drive tonight.

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o and I also thought of changen the coolant sensor, since I think its notworken properly. The fan dosent come one, fuse, relay and motor r all good. I have read that that might do it aswell.


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here is an update....got the wife to take us( me and the car) out for a drive since I don't have a licence. I unplugger the o2 sensor just for kicks and it was doen the same thing....very spuratic tho not at any perticular moment.....it seemed to do it more when she would let off the gas just a hair.......so we drove around for abit and stopped at tim hortins for a cafine fix and headed for the highway......here is the weird part.....it never did it again....good in a way but really weird....i quess I will hop it has fixed it self.....
the other thing is the check engine light never came on and the o2 sensor is still unplugged ...hummmmm......banging head now.....


it doesnt seem to do it at any sertin rpm, temp or what ever. pulled plugs and they are all looken good light grey ish. It still does it and im going to head to the local pick and pull next week. copy and pasted my posts from another forum where i had no help, one guy sugested injectors.

any thoughts would be great, thanks in advance.

Check plug wires, if problem persists it may be your coil pack or Ignition control module. I currently on my third junkyard replacement, and second set of new wires. My car did the same thing, When I would barely get on the pedal it would sputter a bit, but still run fine, then I would gas it a bit and it would go away. Check those and while you have the car out again got to a parts store and have them check the engine light just in case, if you have a misfire code its almost definitely a spark/ignition related issue.

thanks dave..........is there any way of testing the coils or module on them i wonder, the 96 doesnt have wires. i quess i should check out other forums for test procedure on that ...... ive heard that u can use dodge neon coils and then add wire, should look into that more to. i assume that people do that caz there more reliable may be???

just have to keep trouble shooten, yester day i put about 80 km of city dri ven on the car and it only did it twice so it is defintlly intermitent

First signs of a bad fuel pump, or perhaps clogged injectors.

It could be a Mime in the trunk...


My wife's 2003 Ecotec 2.2 liter Sunfire:
* 2 1/4 inch in and dual 2 inch out muffler Trans Am muffler
* 2 1/4 piping to a very long 2 1/4 inch resonator
* 2 1/4 inch catalytic converter
* an AEM true cold air intake NOPI edition
* 8 gauge ground wire kit
* Toyz front strut brace
* Russell stainless steel brake lines all around.

thanks mike..............im hoping the fuel pump is stong, i dont know any history on the car but it seems like its been taken care of well. so far the 750 bucks i paid for it was worth it, new tranny and clutch and the engine still has 195 - 205 psi compression with 220,000 km. thinken its been rebuilt or replaced. can i pull the injectors apart to clean or do u have to replace???????

I find it strange that the radio acts up too. Does it seem to give you more trouble when other electrical things are running?





i find it amusing that SHOoff has nothing better to do but follow me around & be an unhelpful dick in even cross-forum. - Jon Mick

no it only does it when the car is off, might be the deck.

any thoughts on my other issues......lol radio is the least of my worrys.
it seems most suggestions I get i ask another question to see what i can do to futher my trouble shooting, but no reply.

thanks tho for checken out this post.

MAP sensor rubber hose may be dried out.. my 99 had those symptoms last year. 2 dollar rubber hose cut to fit fixed my problems

Tim Clarkson wrote:no it only does it when the car is off, might be the deck.

any thoughts on my other issues......lol radio is the least of my worrys.
it seems most suggestions I get i ask another question to see what i can do to futher my trouble shooting, but no reply.

thanks tho for checken out this post.

I was just curious if if it was giving any troubles electrical wise. Sometimes the junky GM batteries like to leak out and tear up that ground wire on the bottom of the battery tray.



i find it amusing that SHOoff has nothing better to do but follow me around & be an unhelpful dick in even cross-forum. - Jon Mick

thanks anzcav.....check that already. mine look s all good.

You can have someone do a thorough ultrasonic cleaning and new gaskets for the fuel injectors.
I read all the horror stories, plus my own losses going to the bone yard to get 'cheap' replacements.

I would get them cleaned good first.
I believe Pep Boys does a 3 point fuel service for $99.
They clean the TB and intake runners, plus treat the injectors which includes fuel treatment in the tank.

I tried the Seafoam, it seems to make the car run smoother.
Add 1/3 in the fuel, 1/3 in the oil and 1/3 in a vaccuum line going to the tb.
That is if you do it yourself.

I have not done the IV looking thing to feed the injectors, I let a shop do that. That is what you would need the most.


My wife's 2003 Ecotec 2.2 liter Sunfire:
* 2 1/4 inch in and dual 2 inch out muffler Trans Am muffler
* 2 1/4 piping to a very long 2 1/4 inch resonator
* 2 1/4 inch catalytic converter
* an AEM true cold air intake NOPI edition
* 8 gauge ground wire kit
* Toyz front strut brace
* Russell stainless steel brake lines all around.

THANKS MIKE... im up in the great white north......CANADA....NO PEP BOYS HEAR. seems like a fuel system cleaning is around $150. ive heard from some people it works great but other people say it does nothing. i guess its like anything out there, some say ya, some say na...lol

worth a try tho, just need the funds now, just stsrted trade school so my car fund has gotten smaller for the time being.

my problem is still baffleing me, havent got the funds for a fuel system cleaning, or able to get my hands on a code scanner. woundering if the coolant temp sensor is sending a bad reading to the pcm. my fan doesnt come on so im going to replace it to see if it helps. yes i checked the relay and fuse and motor. right now i have the fan on a switch.

any more ideas, its like its running out of fuel, as noted above the fuel pressure is good.

azncav wrote:MAP sensor rubber hose may be dried out.. my 99 had those symptoms last year. 2 dollar rubber hose cut to fit fixed my problems

Ditto.. I had the same issue. I replaced a IAC motor, TPS and almost a MAP sensor. I took the hose off and it was dried out brittle and falling apart. a 5-6" section of 3/16" hose will fit it. Try that first, it's probably the cheapest option. Go from there. GL.


99 GT Convertible Black on Black / Z24 Seats / 17" MR7s 235/45 Potenza G009s / K&N

well its been two days with no problems...... i think i found the issue.

i had a thought that the valve seal needed replacing. thinken tthat oil was getting in to the cylinder when it sat over night or fo a short time after it was warmed up, a bit of blue smoke if u stompted on it..... and i mean a bit, no smoke screen or anything. so i bought a bottle of barshal no smoke stop leak and dumped it in..................... walla......

no issuse, well the bogging is gone, but still get a bit of smoke when u stomp on it at high rpms......ya its stock but it still has some jam so i do it every once in a while.

so thats that, i have some suspention issuses to deal with first but, new valve seals are in the near future.

thanks to all for ur help