dying at low throttle

[supreme_1]

tonight my car died after say maybe 30 minutes of driving. i checked all fuses, checked for spark, and made sure all my harnesses were still connected. after being stuck on the side of the road for about 1/2 hour my car finally started after about 8 cranks. but after it started when i am at very low throttle the car bogs and nearly dies. the exhaust smells stink. not like its running rich, and there is no smoke at all. it smells like rotten ass and burning red wood. i am thinking maybe the exhaust system is clogged, but it does run good at freeway speeds and at higher rpms.

i am stumped as to what it could be since it does start.about a week ago i cleaned my iacv, my throttle body, and my maf. and my car has been rjunning good since tonight.

occasionally my intake falls off and i have to put it back, since i didnt buy the adaptor for it yet. and when it falls off it runs like crap. could it be that i got some crap in my maf and need to clean it again?

also my car has spikes in the rpm. when i start the car it idles at 1300 or so, and whenever it feels like it, it will jump up to 1200 or so after idling at 800.could my 02 or iacv gone bad?


my car has spark in all cylinders, and all my plugs look decent.can anyone shed some light on this?

[tt99ol]

check for vacuum leaks, they might not be apparent at idle plus the reason your car runs crappy with the filter off is air turbulence at the maf, the filter smooths out the airflow so it goes through the maf evenly, without it sometimes the air goes through the sensor part and sometimes it doesn't, this makes the computer change the a/f ratio alot so it runs really crappy

[supreme_1]

thx for the input tt.when my air filter falls off i imidiately pull over and put it back on. and have never had this problem. only tonight.

i checked for codes and it didnt throw any codes at all. i was thinking since i had gas (because i could smell it when it was cranking) possibly my coil isnt shooting out enough volts or maybe my balast is bad? i have an aftermarket mallory coil, which is ghetto rigged in place, and the inside of the terminal is all coroded. i was going to change my coil to another one to try it out and possibly pick up a ballast.

can anyone else help me out?

[tt99ol]

it probably is ignition then with the coil being corroded and all, just get a good stock coil if you can to try it out, also it could be timing, or your timing chain skipped a tooth and now cam timing is off, actually now that i think of it it could be your coolant temp sensor, the red one because when those go bad the fuel mixture and the idle move all over the place, it happened to a friend of mine then finally it wouldnt start anymore and only then did he get an ecu code, also check for bubbles in the cooling system as they will throw off the sensor also

[RedtopTech]

converter may be clogged. Put a vacuum gauge on the motor and bring the rpm up to 2500 or so. if the vacuum gauge drops near zero, there is a restriction in the exhaust.

[supreme_1]

redtop: which vaccume source should i tap into? any intake? i know on my carbed cars we have to tap into the carb baseplate to get the appropriate reading.

tt, off hand do you know the general location of the cts? is it on the waterhorn?or right near it?i have never checked my timing on this yet. i'll do that once it stops raining cats and dogs.

appreciate the help guys, anyone else got any helpful info?

[tt99ol]

cts is on the waterneck where the thermostat housing is, it has a red connector i believe

[supreme_1]

right on, i will look into that tomm.

is there any way i can test it to see if its faulty? or do i have to throw another cts at it?

[supreme_1]

so i started my car for the first time today since it died. lo and behold it started when it was totally cold.

so i let it idle for a couple minutes while i was looking for vaccume leaks with my carb cleaner. i found one vaccume leak. also when i looked at my 02 sensor wire it was totally cooked.

so i shut off the car to try and undo my 02 sensor wire to see if it was the problem. it started again and still ran the same.

so after the car heated up i turned it off to see if it would start again. and it just cranks and doesnt want to start.

so after the car cools down im going to try and see if it will start again.

from doing some searching i came to the conclusion that my cts is bad, my 02 is also faulty and i need to change the 02 wire thats cooked.im also going to try and clean the iacv again because my idle still bounces around.

does my conslusion seem feasible?

[jskateborders]

cts is on the waterneck where the thermostat housing is, it has a red connector i believe
I second that, because when your cts is bad, your ecu default is like -40 degrees celcius or something ridiculous like that. This will cause your ecu to dump fuel into your engine in an effort to warm it up. Wont run as good, will smell, and right after you turn the car off, the gas still in the cylinders will prevent it to start until it drys up a bit.

[supreme_1]

ok today i was able to change the cts, the engine runs at all times now. it doesnt run as well as it did before but it runs.

my rpm doesnt bounce around any more, but it is still running a bit rich but not to the point where my o rings or injectors are bad.

tommorrow im gonna try and replace the 02 sensor wire, and if i have time the 02 sensor.

[midnightouge]

I had the same problem, i just changed the throttle position sensor and that solved it. goodluck

[supreme_1]

i will look into that. thx

[wangan_cruiser]

start the engine then keep spraying carb cleaner then open the throttle a bit. keep revving so the engine wont die. then adjust the idle control screw up to 700 rpm.