RE: 1994 pontiac bonneville with occasional BAD hesitation

Apr 09, 2004 3 Replies

I have a '94 Bonneville SE V6/3800 with 205K on it. It's been a great car but recently when its warmed up it will sometimes hesitate to the point of nearly stalling when pulling onto the highway or pulling out from a stop sign after I had stopped or nearly stopped at say an intersection. Playing with the gas peddle for a few seconds usually makes it spring to life and take off like a jackrabbit. Then it's usually OK for several miles. Sometimes it will run a little rough or lose a little power when on the highway, but not often. Sometimes after stopping the car, the idle RPM on the tach. will rock up and down (500-1200 RPM range). I tried gummout in the gas and changed the plugs and plug wires. It improved, but it's still a serious problem. The check engine light never comes on. Also, I've noticed that sometimes if I'm downwind from the engine after shutting the car off I smell a whiff of gas. Any ideas out there?


Ray


I agree with FBR. Try changing out that fuel filter. Or, try driving around without the fuel cap and see what happens. As I always say, start cheap. Hate to see you pull the fuel pump. GL Mike

Or possibly a bad MAF sensor. My 94 Trans Sport 3800 was balky and lost power occaisionally on the highway -the check engine light would come on though when this happened - IIRC it was a lean adaptive limit exceded code or something like that. Threw in a used MAF and the problem dissapeared.

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