Resolved -- Car problems: Anyone good with Chevy's?

[Zach]

If anyone wants to give me advice about what could be wrong, I'd love to hear it. Or, let's make bets about what ends up being wrong.

My car's a 1990 Chevy Corsica, V6 automatic. Had a tune up about 10k-15k miles ago. Gets oil changes at Jiffy lube every 3000-3500 miles. Sometimes 4000. I drive it only a few times a week, if at all, most miles are freeway miles driving on the interstate, but most often I drive about a mile each way to school

Here's the problem:

Decellerating from 40+ mph, I'm down to about 20mph and the car starts shuttering. When I'm finally about to come to a stop, the engine dies. It happened about three times yesterday, for the first time. After the car would die, it would start no problem. I could shift into nuetral from park no problem. Put it in drive, take my foot off of the brake, and dead. Clunk, like it aint using a clutch; but it's an automatic.

I tried checking the transmission fluid, didn't look low. I did see little bubbles though? Strange I thought. Hills don't seem to matter, it happend going downhill and uphill. The only correlation seems to be I was going at least 40 before starting to brake.

People's Ideas:

I'm thinking it's a trasmission problem, I'm pessimistic I guess.

Tow trick driver thought it ws the coils, I'll have to look up what those are.

Tower guy also thought it might be the fuel filter.

My stepmother thought maybe spark plugs. Hmm.. seems odd but I didn't have time to check.

And, the best part. After it sits a little while I can get going again, no problem. Fire it up, and all of the sudden it'll go into drive no problem. After trying several times it'll work. I even got to hold up traffic on one of the local highways for about 3-4 minutes. All this started happening in the town I grew up in though, so my dad and I got it to a Pontiac dealership's shop and dropped it off.

Any ideas? I'm thinking I should get a Honda, pero no tengo denero!

 

[Hooobi]

obviously a problem with the domesticity

you should have it replaced



H

 

[Tominator]

I'm not a trained mechanic and not familar with your model, but I'll hazard a couple of guesses...First thing, change the fuel filter and cross your fingers. If it is a fuel problem and this doesn't correct it, it may be the fuel pump. It's probably inside the fuel tank and you should have a mechanic change it. I'll guess in the $350 range.
:disgust:

 

[Zach]

You sound like my fiance. Her Honda has had one problem in 11 years: the relay system. They called it relay system at least, she said they replaced some chip. Either way, one problem..

I'd have to re-learn sticks though. I'd like to have a manual, but I'm sooo bad with them.

 

[Zach]

I forgot, someone did mention fuel filter. I wish I had it town with me, but I had to head back home. I'd be changing out stuff.. it would have been a desent learning experiance. Never done a fuel filter, only changed/looked at plugs in recreational equipment.

 

[conlan]

sounds like your tranny may be sticking in OD on decel. my first advice i give to anyone with a auto OD tranny is to only use the OD when on the highway. we have similar trouble with the Ford AOD tranny. sometimes after a thorough draining of the fluid (all cooler lines , torque converter , trans pan and a new filter) it solves the problem , sometimes not. if you havent had your tranny seviced in awhile try that. i can tell you that it is NOT your coil or spark plugs. another thing to check is excessive build-up of sludge in the throttle body(air-intake of the upper-intake manifold), and/or a sticking IAC (idle air control valve).

 

[Layzie]

Yeah my cousin has the same car as yours and had a similar problem, but in his when you accelerated to 40+ mph it would stutter violently, and would shut down, well he went to different mechanics and spent about $800 before he found the source of the problem. It turned out to be the fuel pump, so go on that before spending some crazy money.

 

[Layzie]

<edit> Gettin a used tranny was part of the $800 he spent, but that didnt fix it<edit>

 

[Zach]

I don't have OD... All I see is [P R N D 2 1]. Column shifting.. no buttons. I miss my old 5 speed Mazda truck sometimes.

 

[Thegonagle]

Conlan is on the right track, but it?s not sticking in OD (i.e., 4th gear), the lockup clutch inside the torque converter is not disengaging itself. The lockup clutch prevents the natural slippage of the torque converter while you?re cruising. Have a mechanic disconnect the lockup clutch, or use a Chiltons or Haynes manual in the library to find out how to do it yourself. You don?t really need it, as they only started being used in the mid ?80s.

HTH, Good luck!

 

[Zach]

This is interesting:

-Torque-Converter Control Solenoid: This quite possibly the most misunderstood transmission failure that occurs in GM front-wheel drive cars, despite the fact that it is one of the most common. When this $20 electrical part goes, the symptom is dramatic: in heavy traffic or on a hot day, your car will start bucking and stall out like a manual-transmission equipped car that has been accidentally left in gear at a red light. Of course, the only way to drive the car is to shift into neutral whenever you stop and then back into drive when it's time to take off. Many, many mechanics waste customers' money by attempting to treat these symptoms as a common stalling issue. They hook up to the diagnostic computer (a bad TCC solenoid may not ever register any trouble codes), they clean fuel injectors, replace fuel filters and pumps, they check electrical parts, they change spark plugs and spark plug wires; all to no avail- none of those fixes will even mitigate the symptoms of a bad TCC solenoid.

 

[Mister T]

another vote for fuel pump,
maybe something wrong with the fuel injection.

maybe not, just read your TCC solenoid post.

 

[geno]

It very well could be the torque converter. If it locks up before it should - it's like haveing the clutch engaged when putting the car in gear. Take a look around that area, it makes sense.

 

[Thegonagle]

That's it, Zach! That's what I'm talking about. What did I win?

 

[Viperoni]

That could very easily be the problem.
However I'd recommend changing the fuel filter anyways

 

[Zach]

My family had a $5 pot about how much it'll cost to fix. I just wonder what will end up happening to it... I wont be able to talk to any mechanics before it's looked at. My dad will be calling them tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll call him now and make he mentions torque converter, its cellenoid, fuel pumps.. I hope thos mechanics don't put me through several hundred bucks.

This couldn't have worse timing too. I'm trying to start up a hosting company, so I already have no cash. All my savings are zilch, I only have some investmens left.. and those are at about 60%-70% of thier original value because of the market.

 

[Thegonagle]

My advice is to take it to a trasnsmission shop first, because they're not so interested in fuel pumps and filters, and therefore have no desire to &quot;diagnose&quot; your stalling problem as a fuel problem. At worst, you'll come out of the tranny shop with the same old fuel problem and a new filter and fluid in the tranny, which is never a bad thing.

 

[conlan]

zach... my bad , i should have asked you first , but most auto-equipped cars have had od auto trannys for some time now. it could also be sticking in 3rd gear as well though. as far as the tcc(torque converter clutch control) goes , any problems with this usually will set a code in the EEC (electronic enigine contol) module and turn on the yellow check engine or servive engine soon light on your instrument panel. not always as nothing on autos is a given , but usually. also on the &quot;D&quot; on your shift indicator , is it circled?? if it is then you do have od , it wont always say OD. EDIT.. zach i didnt see your post about the TCC solenoid , i think your on the right track now , check that out, cuz as i wrote above it wont always throw a code.

 

[SuperSix]

Sounds like either the TCC or the fuel filter/pump. You can diagnose fuel supply problems those with a pressure guage attached to the Schrader valve on the fuel rail.

A quick way to check proper operation of the TCC is to go above 45-50Mph, and tap the brake while you still have your foot on the gas. The engine RPM's should rise ~ 500 or so, and should quickly drop back ~500RPM's. If you have a tachometer, you should see it change with each shift, 1-2, 2-3, and again when the torque converter locks, (The TCC solenoid is activated) I don't think you have an OD (4 speed) transmission, as you have the &quot;3T40&quot; transmission, I'm prety sure the &quot;3&quot; means 3 speed.

How many miles on it? Has the fuel filter been replaced?

Don't forget what someone else mentioned, the IAC (Idle air control) valve, it controls the amount air bled into the motor at idle, it's required as the throttle plate/butterfly is closed and the motor still needs air. If it's stuck, it will stall @ idle when the throttle plate is closed. If you can tap the gas when it's stumbling and that fixes it, it may be the IAC.

A large vacuum leak could cause the sysmtoms you describe, and a co-workers Lumina was doing something similar, it turned out his POS battery post was dirty/corroded, and it was causing the computer to lose it's memory, and it was contstantly having to &quot;relearn&quot; it's parameters. He cleaned the posts, all was well.

 

[Zach]

&quot;... it turned out his POS battery post was dirty/corroded, and it was causing the computer to lose it's memory, and it was contstantly having to &quot;relearn&quot; it's parameters. He cleaned the posts, all was well.&quot;

You remind me! About 6 months ago a dell in my battery died, and the car had to re-learn. It had a hell of a time, but pulled through. What's different though is that that kind of problem will happen when you start it up, before you get going to speed. I'd have it chug before I got out of the parking lot. This time around, it happens after I've been driving for a bit. But it only has been three times.. it seems different though.

 

[Thegonagle]

I just noticed that that informative little page about the TCC came from an AOLer. He must know a lot more about cars than computers

he he

 

[mechBgon]

That's a good description of what my transmission was doing, and it was indeed the torque converter refusing to unlock after reaching lockup speeds.

 

[Zach]

Garfang: Just ruin that source's credibility why don't you!

 

[Zach]

Soooo, I wonder what fixing a torque converter problem would cost...

 

[Soybomb]

Remember not all cars have a torque converter that will lock up anyway. I'd be looking into the AIC motor and stuff first myself. Actually I'd check/have it checked for diagnostic codes first.