I could really use some help with my car please. I have a 2000 Cavalier with the 2200 in it. Here are my symptoms. The car will cut out, similar to a traction control cut out. Sometimes it will sputter like fouled plug wires, other times it will actually jerk the car and slide things in my dash forward. It randomly does it. It "most consistently" does it at 40MPH @ 2500 RPM. If I hold the throttle even and do not allow it to shift into 4th, the RPMs will swing from 2500 to 2000 until I let off or give it more throttle. It will sometimes do it in 2nd gear at about 2500 RPM. The odd part to me is it will do it at 65-70MPH cruising down the interstate, again at about 2500 RPM. It has done it in warm, cold, rainy, any weather. I have changed my spark plugs, wires, coil packs, and fuel filter. The computer shows no engine/transmission errors. I have had it hooked up to a computer while driving and turned the TCC on and off manually, no code, and will not hesitate/sputter when I do that. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Not to sound like an ass, but this belongs in the maintenance forum, not the performance forum. Good luck on getting your car fixed, there are a lot of bright minds here on the .org, somebody should be able to help you out.

Alright sorry. When I searched previous sputters/cut outs they showed up in the Performance forum. Thanks.

Make sure your battery terminals are making a solid connection.



FORGET GIRLS GONE WILD WE HAVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING GONE WILD!

Could someone move this for me to the maintenance forum please. I apologize for the mistake.

did you figure this problem out having something similar and theres no response in the maintenance for my post kind of like the dead sea lots of questions and no answers

You could pull your Crank position sensor and check if it's begun to develop a crack. I've seen these symptoms resulting from that. I think though, that your manual use of the TCC could be somewhat telltale. Try unplugging the TCC harness from the trans, Its that 4-wire plug on the front of the tranny, do this after the car has already cooled off, then drive it with it unplugged, it won't do any harm. If the problem is gone, then your TCC is malfunctioning. A kit with a revised valve body gasket and spacer, and instructions plus a few other things like band solenoid shims, and springs for inside the valve body can probably be had on ebay for around 30 bucks

My vote goes to TCC problems as well. This is only if it doesnt happen in park/neutral.

If the same problem exists while youre not moving the car Id look into things like the plugs, make sure all your grounds are solidly connected and clean (I had a terrible idle problem for about 2 months because of this).

I had a coilpack go bad on me and it would randomly misfire and run like crap, other times it was fine. It would only run like crap/ no power when in gear (automatic) -- it would free rev with no sputtering at all .
You might look at your Throttle position sensor, they're known to get worn, there might be "bald" spot or spots on the sensor, which would cause this problem.

It sucks that it happens without a CEL -- lol makes it harder to find.

My car ran for a while with the bad coilpack/misfire and never a CEL -- sometimes it was so bad that it didnt have enough power to move the car at all (happened to me a red light 2 times before I figured it out -- thank god the car isnt hard to push )

Good luck with getting it fixed

Still no fix yet. I had the tran shift points changed adn teh PCM reprogrammed and all seemed fine until this morning. Had a slight hiccup. So we will see how this week goes and start checking others things if it comes back.

Still runs like crap. I think its the TCC as well. Going to dig into it this weekend I hope.

Just how many miles are on your car, anyway? If it's more than 100,000 then it's time to change the timing chain. If it's near 150,000 it's definately time. The factory chain was designed for quiet operation at the cost of durablity, so it usually only sees a life of 80,000-100,000mi before it fails. And do it soon before you find yourself having to cahnge more than just the chain.

Also, the factory in-tank fuel pump tends to see only around 130,000mi of operation before it fails. So check that too.

Go beyond the "bolt-on".

Brendan Morse wrote: It will sometimes do it in 2nd gear at about 2500 RPM.

Sounds more like an ignition component to me... TCC applied at low throttle is an ideal condition for misfire (engine load)


98N_Tc

To be more specific, the convertor would not be applied in the above situation (2nd gear) so that pretty well rules it out unless something odd were happening.........

Recheck ur secondary ignition, check ur crank sensor and check fuel pressure "in condition" just to be sure since ur unable to determine if its actually a misfire or something else. You can attempt to produce the condition while not moving by loading the engine in drive with the brakes applied, but only for a few seconds at a time as this can damage the transaxle if care is not exercised.....

If possible enlist the help of an experienced tech for a testdrive


98N_Tc

I was thinking it was not the TCC after reading more about the operation of the TCC, I wasn't very informed before. I have 125,000 miles on the car. Fuel pump has been done. Timing chain has not. Also now that it has wamred up it does not do it. It seems to do it at 40 degrees or less, like something contracts in cold weather or something causing the problem. But since its now above 40 I cannot get it to do it. It's hard to work on it now that it won't do it, I can't tell if I have fixed anything. Another note when I turn my car off now the radio will not shut off with the door open unless I turn the key a couple times, so I think I need a new ignition switch as well. Also I have had 3 experienced technical people with me at various times and they all look at me like "hmm..thats interesting " unfortunately because I have replaced everything they can think of. Thank you for all your help so far.