We haven't figured out what is going on with this Tbird, so thought about putting the symptoms before this panel. Maybe you can come up with something I can take to my garage.
CAR: 94 Tbird, V6, auto, about 115,xxx miles.
Symptoms: When driving at any speed, you hold enough gas pedal on it to maintain that speed, whether it's 40, 50, 60. What happens with this car, it will start to "sputter" like it's not getting enough fuel, and will begin to 'buck', or get a case of the hiccups. I would let off the gas, let it roll a bit, and gas it again. It might smooth out, and it might not. When this first started, the CHECK ENGINE light would come on for about a minute and go off. After several days of driving it like this (while waiting to get the money for the repairs), I learned how to baby the gas pedal and keep the CE light from coming on. Many times I had to give it enough gas for it to drop out of overdrive and increase the RPMs. Using the cruise control will not stop this from happening.
Now, about the time this started, on a short trip out of town, when I started up a hill and the car was under a load, the airflow would switch from the dash vents to the defroster vents. I was told this is a default, and the car was "losing vacuum" some place and causing this.
This past Tuesday, I dropped it off at the garage. The mechanic said later there were no codes stored in the computer. They did track the stuttering problem to the ignition system, and suggested the following repair: Replace plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor and adjust the timing. They also did an oil change and replaced the oil- air-fuel filters.
I picked the car up Wednesday afternoon, paid the bill, and headed home. For the first three or four miles, the car ran great! YAY! It's fixed!
I came to an intersection, stopped at the red light, and turned left when the light changed. The engine suddenly reverted back to its former condition, furnishing just enough power to get it rolling and shift into second. By this time, I had the gas pedal about 1/4 of the way down, the RPMs probably weren't over 1500, and I was going maybe
20-25 mph. I covered a half block, and pressed harder on the gas pedal, before it started running like it should. The rest of the way home, about 10 miles, I had to baby the gas pedal all the way. Never got a CE light, however.Thursday, I has lots to do here at home, so the car didn't get driven. Today tho, I did take it out for a test drive... If you want to call it that! It is now running WORSE than when I took it to the garage! I found a smooth road and got it up to the 40 mph limit. At
40, the tach was reading about 1200 rpm in fourth. I started pressing the gas down, the rpms went up to 1500, but the speed increased only minimally. I fed more pedal to it and the rpms stayed right about 1500, but my speed did increase. By the time it took off like it should be running, I had the gas pedal AT LEAST 1/2 way to the floor!I went back home and called the mechanic and scheduled a visit for next week...
Another way to describe this is: Remember when engines had carbs on them, and sometimes you would get a "flat spot", and the car wouldn't take off like it should...? That's a pretty good explanation.
Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, whatevers, would be greatly appreciated. Please don't tell me to get rid of it, as I am already looking for a replacement. Meanwhile, I need to keep this running until I find something.
Thanks a lots, guys! I've been in here 3-4 years ago, and the info I got was spot-on!
Byeee!
Gerri