ok so I have a 90 ls with stock motor. The other day in the middle of a 30 min drive on highway I noticed the car was making a sputtering sound. I kept driving and then .drove 30 min back a couple hours later, cars still running poorly.
The car has always had off and on idle issues but its been pretty decent lately. But the next day the idle starts dipping Down to almost 0 ands the car will die if its in neutral and I’m not giving it gas at all. Still been driving around but it sucks and is giving me horrible mpg. at one point it gave me a code 43 for fuel system.
Since all this I’ve replaced the plugs, wires, o2 sensor, fuel filter, and swapped the map sensor. Nothing gave any kind of result…help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I would think the next to look at would be the distributor cap/rotor, then the timing, then compression. If the mpg is terrible, the car may be running crazy rich, or the combustion is not complete, or one of the cylinders is getting a spark only intermittently. Looking at the new plugs might tell you something, if one or two look different from the others.
if the cap and rotor are old, intermittent ignition (sputtering) might just mean they are worn out.
I’m thinking its the distributor too… I have a rotor ill put on there tomorow and see what happens, probably nothing.the whole distributor is pretty ghetto have wanted to replace it for a while… Ill check thetiming too give me an excuse to get a timing light…
Also other than OEM and eBay what options do I have for buying a distributor? I’ve heard bad things about autozone and eBay, and new OEM is expensive. Don’t really trust craigslist either. I’ve heard about distributor king but its out of buisness?
I would probably get one from a scrap yard, plus a new cap, rotor, and a new gasket for the cap. People sometimes install a new cap with the old gasket, which is ok on a newer car, but not so good an idea when the gasket may be 20 years old…
I bought one from oreilly’s got the one with no car or rotor included was a couple hundred bucks & has a lifetime warranty. I had a junkyard distributor, and went through a couple coils ( still have a new on on my desk) before just replacing the whole thing.
Yeah I’m probably buying a new one tomorrow I think ill go with one from an autoparts store that has a lifetime warranty unless someone convinces me otherwise …the one I have I got used and
I’ve had problems with a different used one as well…
Also I’m nervous about dropping a couple hundred bucks on something I’d it doesn’t fix the problem I’m gonna go through a couple of the other things you guys told me to try
OK I got a new distributor from Autozone and car is still making the sputtering noise the same as before maybe slightly better bit not really able to tell…
Ill get a timing lite tomorrow and make sure its all correct but if it was the distributor I still don’t think it should be making the sound???
A friend is telling me I could have a bent valve and says he thinks its running on 3 cylinders …does any of what I’ve described lead to that??
[QUOTE=LAMesa;2279251]A friend is telling me I could have a bent valve and says he thinks its running on 3 cylinders …[/QUOTE]If it is, you can tell by removing one wire at a time. When you disconnect a wire leading to a cylinder which is firing, the sound of the engine will change (become rougher). When you disconnect the cylinder which is NOT firing, you have found the problem. You can also find videos on youtube showing the procedure, including the sound made by the engine during the process.
Honestly though, when you replace the distributor and/or the cap and rotor, you should really check and set the timing with a timing light. Normally, a mechanic would do that BEFORE bolting on a new distributor (a reputable mechanic, anyway), and definitely AFTER a new distributor, b/c there is NO way to know if the timing is right after you remove/replace it. You might get lucky, or close, but getting the timing right on the mark would be coincidence.
The other thing is that these cars seem to slip a tooth or two on the timing belt really easily when they get old. This is not something you can fix by setting the timing at the distributor. That is what happened to mine, and the engine ran really badly when I started it for the first time. The car will compensate for the bad relationship between the crank and the cam gears up to a point, but the engine will still not run well.
I know it is easier to just throw parts on the car, especially if you have the money to spend… there is just more satisfaction in fixing a problem with a new clean part or set of wires, and so on (done that, and more than once). But, there is also more frustration in having the new parts, and still running crappy…
timing definitely needs to be done… when I replaced my distributor, I had the car at the shop and did the distributor myself, then paid my mechanic 40 bucks to make sure timing was correct and do the idle re-learn steps while I went to work.
Just slapping the new distributor in the car ran like shit till the timing was adjusted.
And FWIW I stay away from autozone parts… too many bad experiences… bad coils. incorrect stock on Oil Pressure senders that do not thread into the block… poor quality CV axles. I only buy form delray acura (acuraoemparts.com) when needing an OEM part and Oreilly’s for anything else.
Good to know. So, you are assuming the timing is dead on now. I think if the machanic is any good at all, and if the car sounded like it had a bad rod, or ran on 3 cylinders, he would have told you.
Ok thanks a lot guys and I think you may be confusing djzachtyler for me?? Maybe I’m confused lol but I still haven’t taken car to mechanic yet. Anyways yeah I got the Autozone distributor afters not finnding any others and the Guy told me if I really wanted I could return it for cash if they give me too many problems…I think that I’m about to go buy a timing light and check that…if it can’t be fixed using light, then mechanical timing is off correct?? Thanks for the help guys!
[QUOTE=djzachtyler;2279350]
that response sounds as though I were the one with the issue rather than walking you through how I resolved my issue…
:excite:[/QUOTE]OOPS, you are correct! I guess I am still excited about actually being able to DRIVE my car, now that it does not sound like two squirrels shaking a bucket of bolts (Been a busy day here!)
I. Got the timing light but there is a problem…the crazy idle is Not letting me see the timing marks correctly…unplugging the map sensor will even it out a lot and my question is if I adjust screw on throttle body with map sensor unplugged to get idle around 7 or 800 will that be good enough to set ignition timing? Or if I do that will plugging the sensor back in cause it to be off again? I hope this makes sense