Hey all,

Having some troubles with my '02 Monte SS... This summer I was initially having trouble with some hard starting...it didn't quite want to go--but with a little gas, it would fire up in about 2 or 3 tries. I also had problems with it stalling on the road...when I would "kick it down" it would chug and didn't want to go any faster, and would sometimes stall. It was also shifting like a ton of bricks. So, I replaced the Mass Airflow Sensor....that fixed the chugging and stalling on the road, and the shifting problem...it runs like a dream when you get going, but it's still a pain to start. It's hit-and-miss though...some days it fires right up, some days it takes a little gas. Also, sometimes when I do start it, it doesn't want to idle, the RPM's will fall under 500, the lights go dim, and then it craps out. Other times it's just fine.

Any ideas? Throttle Position Sensor maybe? The plugs and wires are brand new...maybe a coil? Anybody else have this problem?

Thanks a ton!

 

Oh...I forgot to add...there's no trouble lights that are coming on when this happens...no check engine light, or service vehicle light or anything...it just plain old shuts down....thanks!

 

I had the same problem on another GM car as well as a BMW I owned. Take the throttle body cover off so you can see the entire throttle body. You will probably notice it is covered with carbon below the flap. Get some carb cleaner and clean it up. I always did this with the car running, but some do it while it is off. You can manually grab the throttle cable and work it back and forth to loosen the crud on the shaft which goes into the housing.

When the carbon builds up on the flap and the shaft, it confuses the sensors and therefore does not run correctly. It is also good practice to do this every 25K miles or so as a regular maintenence procedure.

In my case on both of these cars I had never gave any indication what the problem was.

Good Luck!

 

Didn't work... I ripped it apart, the throtte body was pretty clean--I still wiped off some stuff just to be safe, and I cleaned up the cables--which really weren't that bad either...still no luck. Any other suggestions?

 

checked your fuel pressure regulator?