Aight, here's the skinny.

My car is a 90 Grand-Am, 4-cylinder fuel injected, automatic.

It's been actin funny recently, and I'm wondrin what's goin on. Basically, it's acting like I am losing a cylinder when I pull away from a stop. I don't gun it, I just drive normally. It "loses" the cylinder about 1/2 way through 2nd gear, it seems. it really feels like i'm runnin on empty as far as gas is concerned, but it does it no matter how much gas is in the car.

Spark plugs were replaced a year ago, wires weren't. I checked for sparks under the hood to see if the wires were bogus, but I didn't see any.

The motor mounts are questionable, as it has the typical "shake" of the GrandAm/Calais models, namely when stopped and in gear, and the shaking goes away once you get above a certain RPM. BUT, the power loss occurs well after the "shaking" stops when leaving a dead stop.

Also, water in the gas doesn't likely, since there isn't any tell-tale POPs that I've experienced when that happens.

Any advice would be appreciated...


WORDS WORDS WORDS!

10/10/2006 9:44:18 PM

bump

10/11/2006 6:29:29 PM

Which four cylinder is it? The 2.5 or the 2.3?

10/11/2006 6:38:00 PM

does it only do it accelerating from a stop or does it do it in similar load/throttle positions in other gears? and do you get your gas at the kangaroo?

[Edited on October 11, 2006 at 7:59 PM. Reason : fuck kangaroo's off grade moisture filled gas]

[Edited on October 11, 2006 at 7:59 PM. Reason : god damn i cant spell]

10/11/2006 7:59:00 PM

hmmm... don't know bout the 2.5 vs 2.3...

and it mostly does this odd stuff only from a stop or at an increase in acceleration, ala goin up a steep hill.

And no, no kangaroo gas for me

10/11/2006 9:14:00 PM

Does the car have true spark plug wires you can see? Then it's a 2.5. The valve cover will be black and say "4-Tech"...

If the car has no spark plug wires you can see, and the valve cover is ribbed aluminum with the words "Quad 4" then it's a 2.3.

My guess is that you have a bad wire or two. I'd bet money on it. Also, if you had the plugs replaced with cheap ones and you drive a lot, then they could be worn out as well.

10/11/2006 9:23:53 PM

the 4 Tech would be on the air cleaner dan you know it all

10/11/2006 10:58:12 PM

I do recall the words 4-tech, so I guess that would be the 2.5 liter. And yeah, I can see the spark plug wires, though I did have to fish around to find em.

10/12/2006 9:48:33 PM