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  1. #1
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    Getting pissed off!!! (video)

    So i thought i had this issue fixed a while back but it seems like it came back..

    Everynow and then my car will have an extremly bad hesitation, sometimes it right when it starts up (cold) sometimes it takes a little while to start doing it. Today on the way home from work, i got about 1/2mile down the road before it started, the car would sputter while accelerating, when i let off the gas it would backfire, and i could smell gas, kind of seemed like it wasn't running on all cylinder, maybe half the cylinders. I got out, opened the hood, messed with the coil pack harness connectors and started down the road, it ran fine for about 3 miles then started up again..

    I am getting no ses lights at all. I am to the point where it is just pissing me off and making me want to get rid of the car. I was thinking about replacing the entire engine bay wiring harness because of how the previous owner did the wiring when he replaced the motor. He replaced it with another motor from a 98 trans am.

    any input would be greatly appriciated because i am stumped and just don't know what to do anymore...


  2. #2
    11 years of bangin gears cammed goat's Avatar
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    2004 GTO M6

    First thing I will ask...ALTHOUGH redundant...when was the last time you cleaned the MAF sensor? I ask as your symptoms sound like mine when I had my radiator replaced a few months ago. Left the shop and car was sputtering like yours. Went back to the shop and the tech threw on a MODUS and got a low MAF signal code but no light.

  3. #3
    Senior Member JayTA98's Avatar
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    Mean Black
    1998 Trans Am

    Also have you disconnected the plug and see if you have moisture/water inside? or maybe bad corrosion in it? You might need a new plug. I'll start cleaning the MAF 1st and then check your connector if you haven't so.

  4. #4
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    i cleaned the MAF about a month ago because i actually had a light for it, light went away and all seemed well after that..

    as far as the plug i cleaned the connectors about a week ago, haven't noticed any moisture inside of the plug either... i'll see if i can find a new plug, re-pin it and see how that works out.. i'm at a loss for ideas, i have also disconnected the MAF and it made no difference..

  5. #5
    11 years of bangin gears cammed goat's Avatar
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    Have you checked the throttlebody then? Also, check your wires. Two summers ago I had a miss under throttle. Turned out one of my wires broke but was still in the boot. The wire broke at the boot where it snaps over the plug. I twisted all the other wires on the plugs and when I got to the bad one, it fell out without any effort at all.

  6. #6
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    i have not cleaned the throttle body yet, i did seafoam the car this past weekend, i did it through the brake booster vacuum line and put the rest into the gas tank..

    i have tugged on all the plug wires and made sure they are seated on there good.. i guess i can go pick up a set of plug wires tomorrow and try that out, if they don't work then i can just return them..

    i am honestly seriously thinking about buying a used engine bay harness and pcm from someone that is parting out their car and try that.. if you could see all the shit that is messed up on the wiring under the hood you would probably feel the same way... also i have heard that the 1998 pcm had an issue with crashing, don't know if its true or not though....

    one more thing.. is there anyone that can get some pictures for me of the ground on the motor itself, i was told there are 3 grounds on the motor. i have 2 that were not connected... One was on the front driver side of the motor, it was hooked up behind the altenator but i don't know where it should ground to? the other is front passenger side of the motor hooked up on one of the coolant lines right by the throttle body, it was actually cut a couple inches away, again i don't know where it should go..

  7. #7
    Senior Member Cutlass's Avatar
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    1999 Formula WS6 M6-sold
    2001 Silverado Z71

    seems pretty obvious from the video what the problem is. Skip the MAF cleaner,TB cleaning, and plug wires. Go fix that coil connector issue!!

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cutlass View Post
    seems pretty obvious from the video what the problem is. Skip the MAF cleaner,TB cleaning, and plug wires. Go fix that coil connector issue!!
    do you think it would be worth it to change out the entire engine bay harness? pretty much every ground is spliced and ran to a chassis ground. so i have like 6 different chassis grounds with about 5-6 wires running to each of them.. i'm pretty sure none of the motor grounds are hooked up correctly either... how difficult would it be to change the engine bay harness with leaving the motor installed? i've been seeing them go for $150-$200 so i think it would be worth it just to make it look better under the hood.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Cutlass's Avatar
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    Well I gotta say I can't stand hacked up, backyard mechanic BS wiring so I would definitely do it. Shouldn't be too hard. You might have to disassemble/remove a few things to access all the wiring, but its doable. but you could probably get away with just fixing that connector

  10. #10
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    i feel the same way you do though about the backyard hacked up BS mechanic crap and i can't stand how sloppy it looks under the hood so i really want to just change the whole harness..

  11. #11
    Senior Member JayTA98's Avatar
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    1998 Trans Am

    Quote Originally Posted by Tx98Formula View Post
    i cleaned the MAF about a month ago because i actually had a light for it, light went away and all seemed well after that..

    as far as the plug i cleaned the connectors about a week ago, haven't noticed any moisture inside of the plug either... i'll see if i can find a new plug, re-pin it and see how that works out.. i'm at a loss for ideas, i have also disconnected the MAF and it made no difference..
    what did you use to clean the connector? did you let it dry before you put it back in? I really thing your issue is in that plug like cutlass said. Sometimes if you use contact cleaner and you dont let it dry out it will eat up the plastic inside cuasing faulty contact inside the plug. See if you can find this plug in a junk yard or brand new. I will try the plug 1st before buying a whole harness.

    If replacing the connector fixes the problem you can buy some loom tubing and cover that crappy looking tape. Then it will look nice!

  12. #12
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    i can't remember what i used, it might of been the MAF cleaner, it said that it was good for connection cleaning also.. But i was having the same issue before cleaning it.. i'm going to see about repinning it and see if that works, then eventually redo the entire harness

  13. #13
    Senior Member Cutlass's Avatar
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    From the way it looks when you wiggle that connector, it looks like you may have some poor terminal tension, meaning the female terminal is spread open and isn't making a tight connection to the male pin. Either that or you have a broken wire inside the insulation that making and breaking contact as you wiggle it

  14. #14
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    I found that female connector on oem connectors website for $12 plus shipping, i think total its like $17 to my door, i'm going to call autozone and other local parts stores to see if i can get it sooner. but i think for now i'm just going to change out that connector and see how it goes.. hopefully it works then later down the road i'll still probably end up redoing the whole engine bay harness just to make things look a little better under the hood!

  15. #15
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    well i decided to just bypass that connector and see if that would work, i spliced in some wires running past the connector.... still no help, the car still stumbled and idled like complete garbage, so i am guessing that one of the wires is messed up further back in the harness, or i don't know..

    So i started pulling all of the wires, i have pretty much everything disconnected so far, i am going to finish pulling the harness tomorrow, i need to pull the intake manifold off so i can figure out where the wires go back behind there, it was just to hot and the kids were getting on my nervous a little to much to finish it today. But i figured while i am doing this i can go ahead and delete the AIR system while i'm at it and maybe do a couple other things to clean up the engine bay, now i just have to find a engine bay harness for the right price...

  16. #16
    Senior Member Cutlass's Avatar
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    Glad to hear you're digging into it! You'll get all straightened out soon enough

  17. #17
    11 years of bangin gears cammed goat's Avatar
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    If you decide to splice in a replacement connector, solder the wires and use heatshrink tubing. I learned this with my last car.

  18. #18
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    my goal is to not have any spliced wires at all. I've found a couple '01 harness that are supposed to be in good shape just waiting on pictures right now. Hopefully i can have this all done soon, but like i said at least with this down time i can work on cleaning up the engine bay, deleting the AIR system and a couple other things.

    Would it be worth it to get a '01 pcm also? i know with that it already doesn't have the egr and it will be setup for running the LS6 intake, the only thing i would have to delete is the AIR system then get it tuned for my 3.73's, which i planned on getting the pcm retuned anyways to run a bigger stall, and my mail order tune just sucks as it is right now

    or i found some pcm on ebay that come with a "hot rod tune" which has all the egr and AIR system removed and they will set it up for whatever gears you have, i think it was $78

  19. #19
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    Where does the wire bundle that drops down behind in the intake go to? As far as i know all i have left to disconnect the starter and the wires that run into the dash..

    By the way, where do the wires run into that dash at? where do they need to be disconnected? and how many wires do i need to disconnect from the trans, where are they plugged in at on the trans?

  20. #20
    Senior Member Cutlass's Avatar
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    You may have more problems than its worth trying to run a 01 harness on a 98. The 98's have a few unique things about them that will might give you a few headaches trying to straighten out.

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