Hey. I have a 1988 2.0 Cavalier. About three months ago it was only running on two cylinders and I narrowed it down to being a bad ICM. After that got replaced the car didn't really get driven at all until a few days ago. I put it back on the road to go back to school and after driving it for about 10-20 minutes, it started running really rough and died. Then when I started it back up it died a few more times. I left it for a little bit and started it again later on and it was fine to drive home. Then the next day I drove it and after about 10-20 minutes the same thing happended and it took some more dieing and turning the car back on and then it was fine for about 2 hours of driving. I'm thinking that it might be a clogged catalytic converter because when the ICM went and it was running on two cylinders, a lot of raw fuel was getting dumped in and I know just driving it about 5 minutes to get home had the cat glowing red hot. It seems like the exhaust note changes after it stops dieing too, like there's a leak that opens up and suddenly the cat doesn't effect it anymore. After the first day of driving it and the exhaust changed, I did notice a spot a little bit before the cat where there was a leak so I cut it at the leak and put in another small piece of pipe, but it seems lke it may be leaking again. Any thoughts or suggestions would be great.
Even if you are in an emissions area, wouldn't '88 be exempt by now?
1989 Z24 Convertible - Dust Covered
2006 tC - Dust Covered, but driven more
I'll probably just punch it out for now if I can and see how it goes. It's gotta be a 1983 or older vehicle to be exept from emissions testing in MA and it's due for another sticker in 3 months.
ZlineDavid wrote:Even if you are in an emissions area, wouldn't '88 be exempt by now?
No it would not thats only for cars made before 1960 something (Cant remember the exact year).
My car--->
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2569452
I still haven't gotten around to doing anything about the cat, but I've noticed that it runs kind of crappy with in the first 10 minutes of starting it up and then lets out a insanely loud backfire and runs like a champ after that for as long as you want. Any input on this?
Need to look at the injectors. One or two might be sticking slightly open. This would account for the excess amount of fuel. If you pull the plugs they will tell you what cyl. are running rich.
brien
89 Z24
Would that just go away after it backfires though?
Yes it could. The backfire could be caused by the excess fuel igniting on the exhaust stroke.
brien
89 Z24
Alright, I'll have to take a look at the plugs and see how that turns out
You don't live anywhere where they test your cars do you?