So heres the background, Car goes into the garage for some body work. Nothing is messed with, only thing that can be bad from that was sanding dust but air cleaner was always on. 2 months into it, I decide to start the car and it idles like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DwsxXNyG_4

After troubleshooting a bit, I unplugged the map and tps sensor and it fires up perfectly. The only thing is that it smokes alot of course. In some instances plugging in just the tps would cause it to stall as well. As for the Map just plugging it in via power and not the vacuum side causes it to idle rough for a few seconds then back to normal?

I recently replaced the fuel injectors and weirdly enough it started up fine and behaved normally, even with both the tps and map sensors plugged in. The next day it was back to it and would only run fine without them again. I also replaced the IAC with a known working one I had sitting around in the garage.


Any suggestions on what can it be before going out and buying random parts that not be causing the problem? Any ways/ideas on how to test things that might be causing the problem would be great.

 

Have you scanned for trouble codes?

 

I am borrowing a neighbors scanner tomorrow, since the bulb that flashes the check engine light apparently blew out so getting codes the old way is not possible and to fix that removing the steering wheel is needed.

 

No, it's not. I had the gauge cluster out of my old 91 a couple of times. You need to lower the tilt column all the way, then you can lean and turn the cluster out from the right side. I may have even loosened the two column to dash bolts a little to give a tad more clearance. It's tricky, but can be done. Kinda weird that a check engine light burned out. Maybe a previous owner "helped" that along if the car had chronic problems that he didn't want a buyer to see?

 

I don't have a tilt steering column anymore. With me bypassing Vats before and needing a new column due to my father loosing parts to reassemble it, I picked up a column from an 87 and just modified the connections to make it work. As for the bulb it was working before going in for body work and now it doesnt so who knows what happends there. Since I recall it turning on randomly when accelerating at steady rpms.

 

do you have a digital volt meter? if so, turn the key on and hook the leads into the tps with it plugged in to the sensor. i cant remember the wire colors off the top of my head, but when done properly, you will find about a half volt when the trottle is closed. slowly open the throttle and watch the dvm. it should smoothly rise to about 5 volts. if there is any spot that it doesnt move smoothly, or there is no voltage reading at all in one spot, then its the tps. since most of the driving is typicly with only part throttle, that part of the tps can wear out and cause issues, usually with just idle or normal cruising/acceleration. now you said it smokes a lot with the tps and map unplugged? what color is it? is it constant, or only when revving?

i know of other cars that have an idle hunt (typicly called the honda hunt), and its generally a dead spot in the tps, which will cause erratic iac operation

 

Yep, Thanks I will try that today when im home.


As for the smoking, it might be caused since I dont have the o2 in yet but its white. I am gonna replace the bulb in the cluster and get some codes off it again.

 

if its white, its not good. that is coolant burning off. does it smell sweet? there are a few places coolant can enter, the easiest being the intake gasket and head gaskets. now from the sound of the idle, it could be the intake gasket. that will cause the idle to do that because the map is reading high pressure (low vacuum) and is commanding the iac to close, thus causing the idle to jump around like that. the intake gaskets arent expensive nor hard to replace

 

Well the car stopped runnning completely a few weeks ago, before without Tps and Map it would start up after using half of the bat in cranking and run enough to move it around the garage for body work. Then after it was parked again in a few weeks with working Tps/Map it would not start even with them unplugged before. Starting fluid would let it start for a few seconds then die right away. After just doing some random troubleshooting, I replaced the Cap & Rotor due to wear just to be safe and it would want to start but would give up and stall.

I just went straight to the fuel pump being the problem, So I decided to eliminate anything being a problem up front and took off the Throttle Body and cleaned it and rebuilt it with a rebuilt kit. Everything looked and tested out in working order. A few days ago I decide to say screw it and check the FP, 9 hours later and a few broken Panhard bar and brace bolts and the tank is out. Running the pump directly from a power source in a bucket of gas revealed it would give out a very weak stream. I also noticed this when replacing the Fuel filter and it would not even have enough force to bend the stream at all. Which is when I noticed and realize it might be the FP. I got ahold of a working FP and bought some replacement rubber lines and plan to put it back together today and get the tank back up today as well. I also forgot to add about getting codes off it, after replacing the cluster bulbs, only low tps voltage and low vacuum map code were given of course due to running without both when it was last running.

Anyways random question, As I said the panhard bar and brace bolts were rusted and gave a tough fight to come off, and required me to torch them and hammer them off. So far the only place I found to purchase them was online from Spohn which would be around $30 for the 3 bolts, Anyone have an idea if they can be acquired locally?

 

We have a place here called Prime Fasteners. They have every grade bolt, nut, washer, snap rings ect. that I have ever sought out.They are very reasonable on price. I would look for a place like that close to you. They have been my savior quite a few times. Good Luck!