frustrated

aPerfectTransAM · 09-01-2006, 12:20 PM

I guess i'm frustrated because Im kinda clueless when It comes to fixing the car. I love cars but I have a whole lot to learn... anyway here is my problem.

Sunday my friends changed my spark plugs.... after all was said and done car started perfectly and ran great, got home and parked it in the garage and left it alone. The next day Monday, I drove to work and after work I went to my buddies house and I changed the oil and put my K&N airfilter back in (I had it cleaned and drying over the weekend, I did have a paperfilter in its place while the K&N was drying) After that the car ran perfect and I drove it home that night, and parked it in my garage. Tuesday I didn't go to work but I went and put some gas into it because of the hurricane coming. The car felt still good at that time. The next day I went to work and it was raining pretty bad. Got to work fine with no problems. Lunch time rolled around and I got into the car and started it up and this is were it all began. It was idling real funny and it kinda sounded like it wanted to die. I immediatly turned the car off and waited a few minutes and restarted the car. The car felt fine and was at the right idle. As I started to drive to lunch I kept feeling the car bogg down. Like I would be stoped at a light and when it would be time to go I would have it in 1st gear climbing the RPM's and out of no where the rpms drop and it shakes and then it comes back up like normal. Its been doing this for a few days now. I also noticed that when i'm stopped in traffic... the guage needles look a little twitchy and my temp guage needle will go from being in the middle and suddenly drop to 100 and back and to 100 and back. I don't get it. What can it be? I'm really clueless... Should I check the plugs? I checked the maf but I didn't see any K&N oil on it. Could I have gotten bad gas when I filled up on tuesday? please help guys, Its my daily driver and I can't go without a reliable car...

My car is a 99 Trans AM, M6, with 50,188 on the clock.

Thanks for all your help.

**sunsetorangess** · 09-01-2006, 02:30 PM

I would check the work yall did, Recheck the plug wires and make sure there all tight and not burned and good to go. Make sure your battery terminals are tight and dont have any corrosion. I would put the paper filter back in a pull off your maf and clean it with some crc can cleaner. Then i would reset the battery and see if it fixes your issue.
I had the same issue and it was a dirty maf, from my K&n filter, it only had 10 thou miles on the clock.
J

**2001NBMZ28** · 09-01-2006, 02:54 PM

You didn't mention any SES light so it's probably something minor. I'd double check the battery connections and also have it load tested (most auto parts stores will do it free). There's a TSB out on the 99's for the gauge clusters acting funny/sweeping on start up when the battery voltage/amps are low. Also check the ECT sensor connection by the #1 cyl first since your temp gauge is acting weird - might just be loose/disconnected when that plug was changed.

aPerfectTransAM · 09-01-2006, 03:32 PM

Thanks guys for the replies, this helps me out so much. I am not throwing a code and thats whats kinda throwing me off. But the car was running fine before the spark plug change and me putting back in my filter. So I will retrace my steps... thanks so much guys.. means a lot.

i did take the maf off and I didn't see any oil on it.. I will go buy some cleaner and spray it down and let it sit and resest with the battery.. thanks again.

**2001NBMZ28** · 09-01-2006, 03:43 PM

ECT sensor/connector looked OK?

**0rion** · 09-01-2006, 08:21 PM

The key to that I think is the rain. It sounds like you guys didn't get a plug boot on all the way and it's letting moisture get into the boot either on the plug end or the coil pack end and my bet would be on the coil pack side. Try to find which boot it is that's not on all the way and dry it out. It will dry out on it's own as soon as the rain stops and the car gets up to temp real good. Either way, after it's dry go to autozone or any parts store and buy a couple packets of di-electric grease and put in all the plug boots on both ends. Should fix you right up. Theorectically it could be a couple of things but the fact it ran fine until it started raining makes me think moisture is getting in somewhere. As far as the gauge deal are you sure you're not looking at the same time the t-stat is opening up? Does it do it a bunch of times or just drop once then come back up to temp and stay there?

aPerfectTransAM · 09-02-2006, 07:45 AM

Its weird the car will be up to normal temp, it stays right on the middle line. I stopped in traffic and the needles start twitching a little bit and i watched the temp guage needle and it went down to 100 back to the middle, down to 100 and back real quick.. it was weird. thanks everyone for your help!!!

**oldguy** · 09-03-2006, 07:13 PM

I would check the ecm for trouble codes. I've been told that sometimes the dash light will not stay on and there will still be a stored code.

I have also experienced a similar gauge/idle fluctuation due to a loose battery terminal.

aPerfectTransAM · 09-04-2006, 07:12 PM

Alright I checked the coolant temp sensor and it was broken. I bought a new one and everything seems to be running like a champ.. thanks guys. I will let you know more tomorrow to see if everything is still good.