chugging and sputtering when accellerating

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

This is in a 1990 Buick LeSabre Custom, 3.8L V6, 142,xxx on the odo

when I accelerate from a stop, the car will hesitate and act like it is about to stall. It has actually stalled on me a couple times. But if say I am at a stop light, and i go to accellerate from the dead stop, the engine will hesitate and chug a little bit and you can feel the car shaking a little. I feel like I am going to stall out, and the feeling almost reminds me of somebody first learning to drive a stick and they barely keep from stalling the engine.

But the weird thing is that once the car warms up the problem goes away, like after 10 or 15 minutes or so. Anybody know what the problem could be? i already changed the spark plugs and the plug wires look good. what else should i look for?

Click to read more...

 

[bad @SS chevy 10+ year member]

Bad spark plugs..... old air filter..... oil change....

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

i had an oil change less than 700 miles ago, replaced spark plugs about 200 miles ago, and air filter is pretty clean.

i thought it could be my PCV valve and fuel filter, but I can't get to my PCV and i need ramps to be able to get to my fuel filter based on where its located

 

[MTXman 10+ year member]

I'd say spark plugs. Rumbling is usually from burnt out spark plugs. Check all your fluids and change out your spark plugs and you should be all set.

Edit: NVM, but - even though you just changed them out, one of them might be burnt - check the ends to see if they are or not.

 

[Pop da Hatch 10+ year member]

could be fuel filter or pump.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

mine did that too, turned out to be a bad O2 sensor even though the check engine light never came on.

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

I'd say spark plugs. Rumbling is usually from burnt out spark plugs. Check all your fluids and change out your spark plugs and you should be all set.

i just installed brand new spark plugs about 2 weeks ago, and the problem still hasn't gone away. Most of my fluids look good, i need a coolant flush and probably a ***** flush, but levels are okay.

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

could be fuel filter or pump.

I will replace the fuel filter as soon as I can get some ramps to lift the whole car up, i can't access it when its on a jack because the jacking point is right where i need to be to work.

mine did that too' date=' turned out to be a bad O2 sensor.[/quote']
I will check the O2 sensor, I know one of them is really easy to get to, i don't know if there are any more. How can i tell if it is bad? is there a way to look at it and tell? can I test it with a DMM? or can autozone test it for me?

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

autozone will do it with an OBD reader.

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

well my car is a 1990, before OBD ports were standard. Can they still run an OBD scan on it?

 

[frzninvt 10+ year member]

Run some fuel injector cleaner through it and use some higher octane gas when you do.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

my OBDII runs from cars 1996+, so yes.

 

[revrider1 5,000+ posts]

Fuel Filter

 

[1320n12 10+ year member]

Sounds like a sensor,possibly collant temp sensor, yes this sensor helps to control fuel.

You need to get it scanned by someone with a good scanner (snapon) not by auto zone or the like.

My new scanner cost me almost 10K so not everyone is gonna have one.

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

okay so list of things to do on this car:

replace fuel filter (will replace this regardless, its only a $5 part)

have OBD scan done to check O2 sensor

possibly replace O2 sensor (may replace anyway, its only like $20)

anything else I should do? anything else I should check?