'99 Grand Prix GT, 48,000 miles.
Dealer, several shops and many Internet resources have given me many
solutions as to what might be wrong, but no one knows for sure. I can't
find a shop even willing to troubleshoot this one. This has been
happening for almost a year. Any suggestions are appreciated:
My problems:
- Car shakes slightly at idle when engine is warm.
- Car sometimes gives off strong gas odor when starting when engine is
cold.
- Car starts and stalls or cranks, shakes and won't start after filling
up gas tank when engine is warm. Sometimes restarts within next couple
of attempts if I push the gas pedal down. Sometimes I have to wait
about 20 minutes, then the car starts (this is what happened to me a
few times after filling up). It'll crank but the entire car shakes and
pressing down on the gas doesn't do anything in this circumstance.
- On a few occasions the car stalled without filling up and it was
after I had been driving for a while, shut the car off and then tried
to restart it within a short period of time. The car then will not
start again for about 20 minutes. I can "almost" get the car to stall
after shutting it off and then restarting it after it has been driven a
while. The car will shake and then recover itself but still remain a
little bit shaky.
- Car does NOT stall after filling up gas tank when engine is cold. If
car has been off for many hours and I start it and drive the quick
under-a-mile or so just to get gas and not allow the car to get very
warmed up, I have no problem.
- Service Engine Soon light has never come on when problems occur.
Fuel pump and fuel filter changed. New gas cap. New spark plugs and
wires (routine maintenance). MotorVac carbon cleaning service performed
(which fixed another problem where my gas pedal was hard to press down,
presumably from a carboned up throttle body). No gas leaks. No trouble
codes set.
Somebody...help... Shops will suggest problems but express uncertainty
how to fix it and say live with it. It's driving me nuts. Main
suggested problem is the Evap system. Anyone ever have similar problems
and if so how'd you fix it?
Snoopy - 02 Jul 2006 20:38 GMT
My Astro Van did something similar, turned out to be a defective coolant
temperature sensor. The van didn't shake but ran rough sometimes until it
finally failed. The sensor was telling the computer it was cold and flooding
the engine when it was hot (choke).
Just an idea..
> '99 Grand Prix GT, 48,000 miles.
>
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
> suggested problem is the Evap system. Anyone ever have similar problems
> and if so how'd you fix it?
=AB Paul =BB - 02 Jul 2006 21:12 GMT
> '99 Grand Prix GT, 48,000 miles.
Possible/probable leaking intake manifold or burned out intake manifold, depending
on engine.
Shep - 02 Jul 2006 21:29 GMT
Look at the vacuum hose to the fuel press regulator see if it is wet inside
with fuel, also with the line off turn the key on no start see if any fuel
is evident on the line attaching port on the regulator, if so the engine is
loading up when shut off hence the problem. Or an injector could be leaking
down, harder to find this though.
> '99 Grand Prix GT, 48,000 miles.
>
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
> suggested problem is the Evap system. Anyone ever have similar problems
> and if so how'd you fix it?
Mike Marlow - 03 Jul 2006 13:33 GMT
> '99 Grand Prix GT, 48,000 miles.
>
> Dealer, several shops and many Internet resources have given me many
> solutions as to what might be wrong, but no one knows for sure. I can't
> find a shop even willing to troubleshoot this one. This has been
> happening for almost a year. Any suggestions are appreciated:
I find it hard to believe you can't find a shop or a dealer willing to
troubleshoot this problem. I can more easily believe you can't find one
that will offer up a quick answer to a difficult problem.

Signature
-Mike-
mmarlowREMOVE@alltel.net