I posted a thread about this a while back, and was told it sounded like my EGR valve. This problem eventually wound up causing me to blow a head gasket, and I've been without a car for months now. I replaced the EGR valve while doing the head gasket change, and sent the car to a shop to set the valves/lifters. They called me yesterday and informed me that the car is hesitating under acceleration, so that tells me it wasn't EGR..

I'm pulling blanks as to what could do this, All plugs are replaced, the drivers side wires are new, but the pass side aren't. Would this cause the car to idle fine, drive fine, but studder under acceleration? I'm really strapped for cash, so just throwing money at the car is not a option.. Any opinions as to what it could be?

 

Well, I'm completely lost as to what it is right now.. Just got back in from working on the car some. I took the EVAP solenoid off,(#11 http://shbox.com/1/1996_evap.jpg) I believe its called, and it was full as could be with charcoal pellets. knocked them all out, blew the lines out, found that the hose that runs from the fuel line bundle wasn't completely attached, so I snugged that up, and put everything back together. Started the car and it idled fine, no problems, for about 10 seconds. Then, car started surging, idling high then low, and started making a funny noise. Kind of like a rattling, like the pellets were coming back up the tube. So I disconnected it, and there were none coming out, and none in that solenoid..

Could the P1441 code cause the car to run like this is the solenoid or anything related was bad?

 

Ok, I may be a newbie but not a dummy, ur sig says u have a 97, so I'm assuming it's an lt1 car, don't get me wrong but I've met people that say they have a 97, then u see it and it's clearly a 98 with an ls1. So as far as your problem, when u got the new egr, did u bother to get a new egr control solenoid?? Because u have a solenoid that connects to the egr via vacuum line and the solenoid is plugged into the ecm/pcm. Which controls the on time of the egr based on info that the ecm/pcm gets from the ect, maf, vss, and the iat. Or yours could be backpressure controlled, I don't have lots of experience with that type, but my experience with cars would lead me to believe that there has to b e back pressure present before the vacuum pump will start to cycle the egr, but this is merely my suggestion. Hope it helps. Also u say it surges during acceleration, does that mean at wot as well? That sounds like o2's possibly to me. My car recently had a lack of power, and surged durring light acceleration. Long story short, I found out that idiots shouldn't call themselves mechanics. But I paid him to do the work cause I was too busy, so who's the idiot?

 

It is a '97, with the lt1. I didnt know people could confuse a lt1 with a ls1. haha. Anyways, I did not replace the solenoid, only the valve. I dont believe it is the problem any more. Picked up a scanner yesterday, and got P0300, random misfire. Jacked up the car, pulled some wires and did a visual inspection, put it all back together, and it changed to P0303, pulled the wire and everything for cylinder 3, and put it back together, that then changed to P0301, misfire in cylinder 1. At that point it was dark and I was getting swamped with mosquitoes, so I haven't messed with it yet. I'm hoping its just a matter of the wires not getting a good connection to either the opti, or the spark plug. Thanks for the reply, btw. I appreciate any help and advice.

 

It's funny that u r having the same thoughts I was, u see when I let this guy work on my car and get the majority of some of the bolt ons put on, the car sounded fine but didn't have the same horsepower, he said it was probably due to some stupid excuse, that shouldve been my first clue, and recently my car just went to crap, I pulled everything and started trouble shooting everything, then I pulled and reconnected all my plug wires, and started it up, and wouldn't u know it it ran fine. Then it burnt a plug wire, wires were routed wrong and not plugged into the opti very well. It's another lesson in not letting idiots be mechanics, but like I said, after I talked to him he seemed to know what he was doing, and I paid him, now I'm taking him to court, so who's the idiot?? I believe that would be me!!!

 

For anyone having the same issues as I've had with this. I replaced the opti, and it runs like a champ now. Finally can sit back and enjoy my car. Thank you to all who have helped me, I wouldn't have been able to do it without this site.

 

If you're taking him to court because you have documented proof that he took your money for something he did NOT do. That would be a prudent move.

But if you're thinking of going to court cause he did a shoddy job, you're merely wasting your time, the courts time and maybe money. No court will intervene into shoddy workmanship.