First off, the good news. I purchased a 1984 Pontiac 2000 Sunbird Convertible with the 1.8 (non-turbo).

THe bad: I drove it from Cleveland to Rockford, IL. The first 250 miles it ran fine. THen it began to hesitate occasionally - just little burbles. Aftere a while it was like the engine was cutting out at random intervals. I made it to Rockford okay and have driven the car another 100 miles since then, but the problem remains.

I have put on new plugs, wires, rotor, distributor cap, air filter, fuel filter, Idle Air Control switch, had an oil change, put injector cleaner and octane booster in it. It does run better overall, but the intermittent cut out remains. The check engine light has flashed a couple of times. When it does it returns code 22 (upon sticking in the key , it flashes 12 3 times and then flashes 22). I was told at autozone that it was the ICA but that turned out to be a waste of money apparently.

If anyone has an idea of what else it could be, please tell me. The Throttle Body Injector unit looks fine (though I haven't checked the actual injector. Could it be a fuel pressure regulator? PCV Valve? EGR Valve? Exhaust Manifold leak? Oxygen Sensor? Fuel Pump? I'm at wits end here.

Once again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well u have several options here.1st pull the vac line going to the egr off and drive the car,if no change that's not the issue.If it is better remove the egr clean it and make sure the pintal inside it moves up and down freely(use carb clnr) 2nd if the O2 sensor was a problem is would normally drop a code in most cases but, not always I would spend the 20 bux and replace it if it's been on the car awhile if it were me.A exhaust manifold leak to me would not create a running issue other than noise based on my exper.As far as the fuel pressure u can do a check to verify it should be 13psi it may vary between 10-13 and anything lower would mean u need to drop the fuel tank and throw in a new fuel pump (took me 3 hrs to do this on my cav total time).That's what comes to mind and if anything is incorrect or I left something off may others correct or add to this.Hope this helps.

Totall cuts out or wacky idle? I know my 84 had an issue with the coolant temp sensor and a strange surging idle...

I just thought that the MAP sensor mounted on the firewall might cause the problem with irratic idle too.It will have a 3plug wire and a vac line going to it.Using a multimeter and a jumper wire u can verify the necessary voltage.This may set a code or may not.To check it put a jumper from terminal A to terminal C connect the positive lead of the volt meter to B the center term and the negative lead to a ground.WIth the ignition on eng OFF u should get 4.5 -5 volts .Then start car warm up the readings should fluctuate with the eng rpm,if it does not not check vac lines and if ok sensor is prolly bad.The codes it may set are 33,34,63,64 if the code sets it may not always set if intermitent.I know this is just a longgg shot but,with ecms and running issues CODES do not always show while still having problems.

Quote:

Could it be a fuel pressure regulator? PCV Valve? EGR Valve?

Honesty, it sounds like a Vacuum leak. You may need to smoke your manfold.




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So anyways, I got it fixed - it was the Throttle Position Sensor. It sometimes bucks at high speeds going up grades, but up to 70 on flat grades and most other times as wsell it runs fine. Thanks for all the input.

Now I just hope it passes smog tomorrow (fingers crossed!)

Hi.... A code 22 is a Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) error code - signal voltage low. Doesn't necessarily mean the TPS is bad, tho - linkage could be loose/sloppy, or harness/connectors damaged or dirty.
Hope this helps....
Moe Whittemore