My car has been giving me hell for some reason

[sidewayzisbest]

So many things wrong with my car this past months...

Well my car wont idle when i start driving i have to hold it with my foot ....sometimes and sometimes i dont have too.....(kind of scary trying to keep an idle and coming to a stop). And i filled up my car, well it looked like i needed to but only could fit 10gallons, and my fuel gauge doesn't even read half =(...It will go from 500-1200 rpm then it will cut completely off and my car lately doesn't want to start off alot...arg.

could this be a bad fuel pump? i just replaced the fuel filter.


Now my car has been really hard to start (autozone says everythign is ok) i replaced all the grounds and battery cables.. And it takes all the battery up at start off....i say this in the same thread cuz im not sure if that has anything to do with it or not.


if it doesn't make sense just ask im kind of aggrevated at this so im prob not making any sense

 

[grippper]

sounds like the iac valve.also try a new cap and rotor, wires and plugs. along with the new iac. you can get them at 50restro.com

 

[sidewayzisbest]

well i looked at the fuel pressure gauge and it goes down 3 psi when it starts to surge and 3 psi down when i hit the throttle... but i dont know if that eletrical not getting to the fuel pump or not =(


i have brand new or now about a month old msd super conductors, msd cap and rotor and autolites 3924's. Ill check and see if any of my friends have the iac valve that i can borrow and see if its that..

 

[sidewayzisbest]

uh oh........cleaning the iac

i thought i smell fuel so i start lookin around my injectors and i see a nice oil patch on my lower intake around the 3-4 cyc. And somehow it sprayed my fuel regulator.....i blew intake gaskets before but always just water came spewing out not oil........any ideas what caused this?
thanks

 

[icarus]

Well, that's something you'll have to investigate further. If it's a blown gasket, that would cause a vacumm leak which in turn would cause your horrible drivablity. Are the bolts torqued down properly? could have lossened from vibration. Just some thoughts.

 

[TheUser]

well...if you blew intake gaskets, that is most likely your idling problem since you have a vacuum leak there. Check around and make sure it'e coming from the gaskets. As far as your fuel guage, it's most likely the fuel level sender, which is in the middle of the tank.

 

[sidewayzisbest]

umm well i just took off the upper intake (wish that was the only thing i had too) and i looked at it and it looked like it sept thru the bolt. Its an ARP bolt and it is tight in there a coupel loosened less then a 1/4 of a turn but the one where it seems to be leaking is tight as anything... thanks ill c if i can get a clear pic

 

[sidewayzisbest]

umm if it was cuasing the idling problem shouldn't it do it all the time? My dad gave me idea just to clean it up and drive it a lil bit tomorow and take a look at it again but i dont know how it came out where it came out. Those bolts are tight as anything and it even sprayed over my fuel pressure regulator =(

and would that cuase the fuel psi to fall down when it surges or when u give it pretty good throttle?

 

[grippper]

check your screen under your pcv valve, if its full of oil replace it.mine was full of oil and it caused a bad idle once.i replaced it and it went away.just a thought.

 

[sidewayzisbest]

check your screen under your pcv valve, if its full of oil replace it.mine was full of oil and it caused a bad idle once.i replaced it and it went away.just a thought.

that looks fine

thanks though

 

[sidewayzisbest]

Do yall think it could be some kind of voltage problem??

i forgot to notice that my oil psi gauge will go past 0 when at idle

 

[sidewayzisbest]

think i figure it out the ground for the fuel injectors that goes to the back of the head then to the firewall has be cut somehow ill connect it tomorow and see if that fix's it

 

[TheUser]

that grounding strap is just to ground the motor, not the injector harness. I think if you didn't have enough ground, it wouldn't work, not create a surge. Maybe you should run some fuel system cleaner and see if that helps.

 

[HISSIN50]

i could be wrong, but i think the injectors are NOT grounded. they are supplied with 12 volts, and the puter pulses a ground to them to actuate them.

 

[sidewayzisbest]

oh i thought someone told me it was ...the strap isn't broken. The orange ~14ga wire that goes to the harness with the injectors connect to the head where the strap is. And thats the wire that got cut. Ill try to run some fuel cleaner also


thanks for the help

 

[HISSIN50]

oh i thought someone told me it was ...the strap isn't broken. The orange ~14ga wire that goes to the harness with the injectors connect to the head where the strap is. And thats the wire that got cut. Ill try to run some fuel cleaner also


thanks for the help

im not sure what you mean in this post. as i recall, the orange wire on the back of the intake is the ground for the HEGO. many dont have it connected (it gets attached to a bolt on the lower intake), but it should be attached to a good ground.

 

[sidewayzisbest]

ohh well this was attached to the head (prob same thing) and it was cut in half and only had 1 strand holding it together

 

[HISSIN50]

ohh well this was attached to the head (prob same thing) and it was cut in half and only had 1 strand holding it together

ok, i gotcha. i thought it went on a stud on the back of the lower intake, but it really does not matter. a ground is a ground. making the wire complete again is a good idea, though im not sure how much it will help you out.

good luck, Bud.

 

[sidewayzisbest]

thanks Hissin

The test that autozone uses on alternators (the one while its still on the car). Can those test the diode to find out if that is good/bad? Im starting to think its more voltage problems

 

[HISSIN50]

thanks Hissin

The test that autozone uses on alternators (the one while its still on the car). Can those test the diode to find out if that is good/bad? Im starting to think its more voltage problems

yep, it should catch a bad diode - not the diode per se, but that the system is not working correctly, in my experience. then when you bench test the alternator it can test for the diodes specifically.

FWIW, charging system should be around 12+ volts at idle (varies car to car, alt to alt). then at say 2K rpm, output should be 14+ volts.
dont overlook battery cables - if you are deficient in those (corrosion from the inside out in common), you can have problems. also if the battery wont hold a decent charge or has a bad cell (parts store test you want to do should check for this somewhat decently), you could hook up to a nuclear reactor and the battery would not show charging (with the bad cell).

parts store test is quick easy and free - i would do the same thing (and have done the same thing). good luck.