If the car idles but it will not rev up or respond to the throttle can it be caused by a bad opti?

 

I never thought I would have Opti problems


Like death and taxes...everyone has to experience it!!!

 

Sounds similar to what I experienced. Mine was idling a bit rough but was responding to the throttle, not instantly though. My car would hesitate and sputter when accelerating. I would also have keep the throttle going more at cruzing speeds. I'm replacing the Optispark tomorrow. Hopefully that will take care of it.

 

sounds lie the coil. heating up and breaking down. pm trouse40 he had this happen yestaday and we change the coil and all is good.
why does everyone say opti when something acts up. is it throughing a code like low res fault.

if you have a flat tire its probably the opti. check that first before installing the spare. not ragging on you. just a small vent.

 

have you had the throttle body off recently? Im just wondering if the throttle cable is hooked up. Just a thought.

 

Yeah it's hooked up but I can see where that would explain the idle but no throttle condition.

 

I saw your car over at Tim's yesterday. He thinks the low-res is functioning since it will idle but won't rev. It's also got all the timing pulled out and it still has some crazy knock retard (like 12 degrees!). Did you have the Opti apart for some reason?

-Chris

 

exactly what i was thinking. How is it possible for one second that you thought you would never have an opti problem? I think that was my first mod.....replace the opti then the waterpump.

 

I wish I would have had it open then I would have a reason why it's jacked up. I know better than to mess with the Opti when it's working fine. It was ok before I swapped cams. Tim asked me if I had it open too. I get the impression from him that I should change it out. Do you think it will fix my problem?

 

You need a new one. Get the whole opti, not just the cap & rotor. The problem is obviously something electronic, not mechanical. Tim can probably track you one down cheap, or I might even have an old one that still functions lying around here somewhere. I believe Autozone sells some pretty cheap, too.

-Chris

 

The first question you need to ask yourself is when did this happen, i.e., before or after you did something and go from there. E.g. if it happened after you changed the cam then it probably has to do with the cam. Was the cam tuned? Did it need to be degreed, i.e., is it advanced enough? Just a thought.

 

It's true that a lot of people jump to blaming the opti, but there's also a group at the other extreme who do just as much harm by saying the opti is fine unless it throws a code.

When I bought my vette two years ago, it got poor gas mileage (but not _terrible_, around 16-17 in mixed driving) and it always had soot on the butt. I suspected the distributor, but everybody (on the CF, not here) says if there is no code then it's fine. I had my doubts, but since it's such a PITA to remove I didn't check out the opti.

About a year later I had a bearing go bad, sounded like the water pump. Pulled the water pump and the bearing was fine. Pulled the opti and the bearing was bad. After replacing it the gas mileage improved by about 4-5mpg and a lot less soot on the butt. Never threw a code.

Same goes for a lot of other parts - by the time they throw a code, they are _really_ fd up. I prefer to replace parts when they are only moderately fd up.

 

A buddy of mine had his cat clog up. It did the same thing.

 

I even took mine to the dealer to have it diagnosed before doing the opti. They said that there was no way for them to track down the problem if it didn't throw a code, and most of the time when optis go out the don't throw a code.

 

When you took the waterpump off for the cam install did you get ANY coolant on the opti? Thats what happened to my car.