Hey guys,

I tried searching but I want to hear your opinions on this...

I had driven a 3 hour trip on Thursday, the trip went fine, car acted fine... I left yesterday afternoon heading back and had fueled up with 98 (94 octane over there?) at a small gas station (big brand though). About 30-40 minutes into the trip I had exited off onto another highway and was doing about 80km/h (50mph) when I had to pass someone, I was in 5th at this point and normally in 5th I get decent response (the person was just turning right so I just swong around them, but still got on the throttle a bit to speed up). However it felt like the car bogged when I got on the throttle and then slowly gained some speed.

First thought was that it was bad gas (I wasnt empty when I filled up, had a few gallons left) which was just starting to get in... Then I started remember how it seemed that the car was shaking a bit a few minutes eariler on a straight road (I had thought nothing of it). I slow down a bit and went into 3rd and did a few runs up to rpms because no one was infront or behind me and everything seemed good. I ended up pulling over a few minutes later because I was worried (I think I might have passed another car and the same thing might have happened, but I cant remember). I checked under the hood and all the plug wires looked good, I checked the cat and it wasnt red... So I continued.

The rest of the trip went pretty well until I was something like 40km from the city I was headed towards, I was passing a slower car, we were doing 90kmh and I was in 5th, I started passing the car and it felt like the car wasnt going as it should so I shifted down to 4th and sped up until I got infront of the car (a car behind me had been following me almost the whole trip and had been passing when I passed, etc... so I wanted to give them room to come too.) The car began shaking and I look down and see Im doing 120kmh, I believe the road surface was the same the whole time (I believe it was pretty new looking), I slow down to 110, the shaking lessens with speed, I slow down a bit more and speed up back to 110 and the shaking goes with speed. And this was pretty bad shaking, I could feel it in the whole car and in the steering wheel, but for some reason thought it was coming from the rear so I pulled over because I thought I had blown/damaged a tire. I hadnt, I let the car idle and looked at the cat, I could hear a tick coming from the exhaust pipe down there, not a regular ticking that a cat would keep (random), this was a timed tick and almost like a small explosion in the exhaust pipe. When I reved the engine from idle it was bog before taking RPMs (almost like a backfire but without the backfire noise), and it would do it right when hitting the throttle, if I however throttled it while it was still in mid RPMs it would not bog.

When I got here I let the car cool down and felt the plug wires and fired it up at night, did not see any arcing, however from the passenger side I could hear some sort of noise... It could have been arcing but I am not sure, it was like a sharp small rattle, never heard it before. (I have a Delteq system and the noise was kind of like the popping you hear when testing the coils). The noise almost semed as if it were coming from the EGR tube area, but Im not sure.

Today I checked the plug wires again, I cant feel anything bad there or see anything making contact (only area I can think of where something might happen is the power steering pump area, but they seem fine there.) I could not hear the same noise, however when I reved it another noise started coming from the pulley area, a sort of ticking. When I hold the RPMs at 1600-2000 I can hear a ticking that should not be there, in fact I heard the ticking at 2000 RPMs last night right before arriving here.

I know my mind could be messing with me but I just dont know what to do, I was thinking of going and testing it on a highway (half an hour away) to 120kmh to see if the shaking is still there or if it was just the road.

A bit over a month ago I switched to a Delteq after my Opti went bad on me, Delteq works fine (knock on wood) except I thought I was missing a bit of power (but I could have just been imagining it).

Any ideas? Im going to try and look at it more tonight. I opened the oil cap but couldnt hear any more noise coming from there with it running.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

 

Maybe change the fuel filter???

 

Thats one idea... (however I would need to order it from there and wait a week or so for it to get here) I called my dad a few times yesterday and this morning he was saying if he gets a trailer and comes and picks up the TA and takes it to a friends place (my insurance covers towing but they only tow to a dealership... and these werent exactly sold here so it would be towed to some Opel/Chevy dealership who dont even know what the car is...) because if its something serious then theres no point in driving it to wait for it to get worse and then start fixing stuff... I gotta look at it more tonight however. I dont want him coming this way 2 hours then going another 4 hours to the friends place incase its something stupid. I gotta put the TA in winter storage in about a month or so anyways.

 

i had the same exact problem!!!! i was on a wild goose chase with mine bc i had no idea...i ended up replacing my opti, changed my wires and plugs, new coil, then i went and got my comp. tuned by madz28 and Ion told me taht it was throwing O2 codes on a perfectly normal car...so i got hte new comp back and then i replaced the fuel filter and the car seemed to be fine but i havent driven it more than a mile since then so cant really tell...if it is something else tho let me know so i can fix it b4 i start driving it daily again...i dont know if me running completely out of gas one time has anything to do with it or not either...maybe i just need a new fuel pump or sumthing???

 

!!! Now we're getting somewhere, is there something stopping you from driving the car a bit today? (Because if it really seems like it solved the problem Ill order a new filter). Thank you.

 

Same happened to me too. A simple tune-up solved the problem.

 

Thanks for the reply, do you remember what all was changed/done during the tune-up? I ran Fuel Injector cleaner (STP) through the fuel system the other week (put it in when I filled up the tank)...

 

Is the year of the car and a list of mods buried somewhere in that long first post? Not sure how anyone can give you anything other than generalities without knowing the basics about the car - year and any major mods in particular.

Why not add a "signature" with the basic info?

 

nah im not driving the car right now bc its at the shop gettin the rear 1/4 panel on drivers side straightened back out lol...did a 360 on a highway on-ramp and didnt really win the fight with the wall...and its gettin a new paint job...but prior the new filter the car had the same "bogging" symptoms and then once i replaced the filter it fired up nicely and i got on the throttle pretty hard and it kicked back to normal rpms with no bogging...so hopefully that was the cure but i havent driven it enough to tell yet...so we'll see...and once i run this old tank of gas (4 months old) out of the car, im seafoaming it...so hopefully that will pick up any left over crap and get it out of there

 

Plugs, wires, oil filter, fuel filter an pcv valve replaced.

 

Oh crap, sorry... really though I had my information in my signature.

1995 TA (single cat LT1), M6, basically stock except for the Delteq.

khojo16, good thing that 360 didnt turn into a major pile up. You mentioned it started up nice, Ive noticed it seems to take longer to start up now... It used to start up as soon as you turned the key, however I thought this was somehow related to Delteq but I cant back that up.

Evil Lord Lucas, so the fuel filter is looking somewhat like a suspect. I checked the PCV valve a while back but wouldnt hurt to change that too.

When you guys say you had the same problem, did you encounter shaking too? (just to confirm).

Thanks again

 

yeah i had the shaking and it used to take a little bit to start up as well...replaced the fuel filter and it fired right up tho...im hoping that was the problem and not my fuel pump bc i dont feel like doing the whole trap door operation...lol o and the 360 incident was at about midnight so no cars anywhere around me...i was the only one on the road/on-ramp...all the cars where on the highway already lol

 

Alright thanks, sounds like its the fuel filter then... Yeah I dont feel like swapping the fuel pump either (I had ordered one from Summit a few weeks before I left the US, but they never delievered...).

Thanks for the help

 

no problem...lemme know how it all works out..