Alright, so I got my 1996 camaro 3.8 base (and it has 156k miles) back in November, and up until now I haven't been able to do any work on it, because of money issues. But now in able to work on it. Here are my problems. My recent problems are this, my belt tensioner is lose, so my belt keeps slipping off, and recently cut my vaccine line out and also my oil pressure Guage sensor out of it's spot. Since my belt keeps getting lose it just cuts cords. After it cut the sensor out, my car just randomly stalls out while in driving. Ive noticed that my battery's positive side post bolt was stripped so I mean I replaced that. But thats not the cause. I don't know if I need to replace the oil pressure sensor to stop it from just randomly stalling or not? Cause I don't want to have to shell out 90 bucks for it. But I'm going to replace the belt tensioner Once I get my jack and stands to drain the coolent. Now another problem is I believe my spark plugs are the orginals still in it, and I was just going to change them while I was doing the belt tensioner. But the reason why I brought my spark plugs up was because my car has always had a hard time starting up. And I'd alwas have to rev it up in the morning till it idles normally. Then I'll start driving and everything then when I get to a stop light its real rough, idle revs up with out my foot on the gas, and the car shakes till I start going again. The check engine light is on so that is why I was going to do the spark plugs but my buddy says it might be my fuel pump. And if it is. I have no idea how to do that. So I mean if anyone would be able to help me by telling me if I do need to replace my oil pressure sensor for it to stop stallin out on me and if it might be my fuel pump, I'd be very thankful.

Also I'm sorry for my lack of information and bad grammar, I'm on my phone and its hard to keep up, also sorry for my lack of knowledge on cars. I know how to do a few things, but not most....

 

before you do anything check the code.

 

Very little chance your stalling is cause by the oil pressure sending unit. Your check engine light is telling you something is wrong with your fuel injection system. The computer will tell you a code that can help you figure out what it is. Most parts store will pull the codes for you. Its a lot more likely that your stalling is caused but the injection probelm not all the other things you mention.

I know spend money on your can is a pain but if you rely on it you need to keep it maintained. When something is not right you need to fix it right away. You need to keep track of this stuff. You run you plug wire until the car misses you will over heat your coils and possible your modual, Thats 100's of buck. running a car with a check engine light on could cost you a cat. Many of the expensive repairs I see could have been avoided by quicly fixing a small problem as soon as it shows up. Many of the cars that head to the junk yard are cars that are not maintained. They end up in a mechanics bay and the machine is telling them its going to cost thousands to fix all this stuff and it ends up in a junk yard. Then the own is calling the car a pc of junk.

 

The tensioner is what, one or two bolts -- it's a no brainer to fix -- do that first. Then get the car scanned and post your codes here.

 

That is one sick puppy of a car. Change the tensioner first, as Liberty mentioned, so you stop breaking things, and then get the car scanned. That is a terrible way to keep your car.

 

The tensioner in your car is also the coolant manifold for the heater hoses. They do not come apart so dont just try to find the little arm. The heater hoses are also special and you turn the plastic retainer to release them from the manifold. DO NOT CUT THEM!! They are not serviceable as small rubber hoses they are one expensive complete unit. Also when you take the tensioner off there will be 2 little plasitc elbows that go into the intake. These little guys are a PITA and cause many 3.8L headaches. After you get them out make sure to check in the holes they go in for debris and possibly broken off parts of the old elbows. DO NOT reuse the old ones. New ones are only like $3.00 and most tensioners come with them any way. Use some RTV or bearing grease on the O-rings of the elbows to prevent coolant leaks.

OK as for the stalling... the OPS does not cause that and if you removed it how are you keeping the oil in the engine?

Get the codes checked, that will give you an idea on what is causing the problems. If you think that your plugs are OEM then get some new ones (Iridiums are worth the money but at least get platinum, standard copper plugs are not made for this engine, I know they are cheap but dont buy them). To change the plugs with the least amount of skin lost and sanity lost remove the heat shields from the manifolds, then the plugs are easy to get to. You should find little metal shields on some of the wires. Remember which ones have the shields and return them to the plug boot when you reinstall the wires. These little guys are worth their weight in gold since they protect the wires from the hot exhaust manifolds.

Hard staring is not likely the plugs. The rough running could be. But hard starting is usually a symptom of clogged injectors, clogged fuel filter, or low fuel pressure. Low fuel pressure can be caused by the fuel pressure regulator or the fuel pump. One is cheap and the other is not so look up on the forum here about testing your fuel pressure (it is posted at least 100 times) and test that before throwing parts at the car.

Massey