Buick - Century :: 1995 - Idle Getting Rougher
Mar 31, 2016
My grandpa's old wood paneled station wagon is sick. The idle seems to be getting rougher and rougher with every time I kill the battery (I've somehow left my headlights on four times in the past two months and needed a jump). It's to a point now where if I don't throw it in neutral at stop lights and keep a tiny bit of gas on the engine it stalls out.
Notes:*When it first gets jumped after being dead, if I stop even for a second, it dies instantly.*While cruising - it is fine. *It idles smoother stopped in neutral than it does stopped and in drive. *It seems a bit rougher with the engine is cold, but still rough and can stall with the engine hot. *Some random times it idles just fine (like for example the first few seconds on start up, and then it sounds like the engine is decreasing in rpm automatically, and then it is rough again).
Could the dying battery and rough idle be related?? The battery guy says "if it starts fine, the battery is fine" (it does start fine, although keeping the radio on for 20 minutes without it running will kill it).
Also other problems with my car in case this has anything to do with it: *I have a leaky tail pipe*my ABS has recently been randomly engaging at low speeds (next problem to work on...)
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I have a 1995 Buick Century with 149,000 miles that will occasional and randomly idle rough when started warm. Also, on several occasions it will idle so rough it kills the engine and I'm unable to start the engine until the thermostat reads completely cold. I've taken it to 2 separate mechanics who both are unable to pull any error codes (even after the engine has died) and are unable to duplicate the problem. When it does idle rough most of the time I can rev the engine, put it in gear and drive it for a few minutes and the problem disappears. Other times I try to put it into gear and it kills, I put it into park and try to restart the engine and the engine will start for a brief second and then die and will die faster each time I restart until the engine doesn't turn over at all. Then once the thermostat reaches 'C' it starts up like there was no problem at all.
Here is a list of recent pertinent repairs:
- Replaced Battery 12/2/11
- Replaced plugs and wires 4/11/12
- Throttle Body Gasket and Fuel Filter Replaced 3/18/13
- PCV Hose replaced 2/19/14 (last mechanic's guess on the problem)
I don't notice any signs of a rich fuel mixture or abnormal exhaust (there was a discussion with a Buick with no start that had this).
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I have a 92' Century w/107 K miles that has a medium rough idle. This is a summer use vehicle for me. I have done the normal maintenance on this motor w/ new plugs and a good Napa wire set. Any bad vacume lines that I can get at have been replaced including the vacume tree on top of the motor. Has anybody had coil issues or ground issues with this motor?
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1990 Buick Century w/3300 V6, fuel injection, less than 80,000 miles ... Vehicle may have had 200 miles p/yr put on it last 3 - 4 yrs. Was still regularly serviced. No previous problems no fluid leaks, clean motor.
Hesitated on hwy twice, wouldn't start after second hesitation, but did later & ran good. Wouldn't start for about 15 mins. after fueling once, but ran good when did start, had fuel pressure at sharder valve both times. Next trip after about 10 miles, started loosing power, finally quit, NO pressure at sharder valve. Towed in. Mechanic said ECM bad, changed it, ran idle, but would not accelerate, chk'd everything. Put different ECM in, same thing, idle, but won't accelerate, has chk'd fuel pressure, fuel regulator, ICM, CPS, everything can think of...
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When damp or foggy, my 1990 Buick Century 3.3 will either not start or start and idle rough. Spraying WD-40 on coil packs and wires work. I tried click and clack's method of misting water on the 3 coil packs and wires when idling, and got arching on middle coil, # 2 wire to top of coil pack. Do I need to replace that coil, or just the spark plug wires? The slight mist of water on that middle coil stalled the engine, and it would restart after WD- 40 was sprayed on the coils/ wires.
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I own a 2001 Buick Century Limited that has 208k miles on it. A couple days ago I started the car up at a friends house and noticed that it had a loud rough idle and that the check engine light came on. When I drove the car home, the CEL would flash when I accelerated and I could smell something burning. When I released the gas pedal and coasted, the flashing CEL would return back to a solid state but I could still smell the burning. When I would accelerate, the CEL would start to flash again. Whenever I was stopped at a stop sign, the flashing CEL would again be solid and there would be a loud rough idle along with the same burning smell. Am I looking at an engine replacement or an easy fix? One problem or could it be multiple problems?
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[URL] I even pulled the same P0170 code. And what I need to do before I spend a boatload of money and wind up sleeping in my car instead of driving it to work or lack therof is to start a troubleshooting list starting from where Sabot's update left off, i dont even know where the vacuum line is that he mentions and if i sprayed carb cleaner on it would i get a jump in engine RPM or a stall as a test?
What I have done: Cleaned MAF sensor, changed fuel filter.
What I have not done: Checked all vacuum lines, Tested fuel pressure, Tested for compression issues due to blown head gasket.
there is also a puffing noise coming from the exhaust side of the engine, im gonna grab a bottle of baby powder this afternoon and test for air leaks, i dont believe it is a misfire...
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The equipment:1995 Buick Regal Custom 3.8
I noticed a year ago that my car would randomly stall out coming into work after a 20-25 minute drive. It then started to idle really high, very rarely. So i cleaned the throtle body, new air filter, new fuel filter, sparks, and wires. This is about where my expertise ends.
Its seemed better, however, it would act up now and again (stall) but I was fine with it.
Recently I have noticed that the car idles really high 1.5 in drive (compared to 900) and 2k in park after I have drove for 20-25 mins. So I put the computer to the car and all I have is transmission error codes which I have had since I owned the car at 80,000 miles and I am now to 160,000 miles. This car has been pretty good to me because it starts, goes forward, and backwards! What else can you really ask for. A better idle maybe?
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I have a 95 Buick Regal, V6 3.8 Liter. The symptoms are the following: stuttering idle. And lack of response at times when I try to accelerate. Like sometimes I'll be driving on the highway, and having no problems. Then I'll be going up a hill at around 55 mph, and then the car will shudder as I try to maintain a speed of 55 mph. So I have to ease off the accelerator and slow down. At first I thought this was a transmission problem, but I am guessing it's the same problem that causes my choppy idle.
So I had this acceleration problem on the highway when I was going up a hill. And a weak idle. These problems have been going on for several months now. They were annoying, but didn't seem that serious. Then all of a sudden, on a rainy day, the car was really responding poorly to acceleration at all speeds. I was able to drive around, but I couldn't count on the car responding right away when I hit the gas pedal. And the car would shudder at times. Then, I didn't drive the car for a few days, and then it was dry, no rain, and the car ran better. So I am thinking humidity makes the problem worse.
I have also noticed over the past few months, that the car runs best when I start it up after a few days of not running it. Then if I drive the car a few miles and let it sit for about 2 hours or so, it would idle weakly when I would start it up again. The car's been doing that for several months now, but it wasn't really affecting the drivability or the response of the car when I hit the gas pedal.
Now it's gotten much worse. So, I've already replaced the following items myself to no avail: mass air flow sensor, oxygen sensor, and egr valve. I am guessing the next thing to fix is the pcv valve. But I also think it might be the fuel pump. My first guess though is the pcv valve. What else could it be? And is there any easy way to test to see if the fuel pump is going bad? Or should I just take out the pcv valve and see if it looks bad?
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Got a strange one here. 1995 Buick Park Avenue, supercharged 3800, 159K miles... an older car, but an unmolested one. A little over a week ago I began to notice an occasional miss when cruising along at highway speeds, along with a slightly rougher idle. Both the fuel filter and the plugs/wires predated my ownership of the car (a little more than 6 months); so seeing no obvious culprit, I replaced them and hoped for improvement.
Unfortunately, neither had any impact. The missing continued to become more noticeable. It was never present under acceleration. Most of it was like a split-second long version of "bucking" that could be observed while cruising at lower (<2000) RPMs. It was also very noticeable at idle. Eventually a code was set: P0341, camshaft sensor issue. If the story had ended there, it would have been just another night in the garage. But it didn't.
As I was noticing the aforementioned symptom increase, I also noticed my voltmeter would occasionally "twitch" in the downward direction. Eventually I had an incident where I came to a stoplight... transmission in Drive, foot on brake, gauge dropped to around 10-11v. It returned to 14v momentarily, but dropped back down, held there for several seconds, returned, etc. No particular rhyme or rhythm. Of course my first guess was that the alternator was failing; a separate problem from the other.
I checked all the relevant connections (at the battery, at the alternator, etc), and cleaned them for good measure. All were tight, relatively clean, and the cables showed no resistance on the ohmmeter. It happened that I had another correct alternator on hand (used/working pull), so I swapped it in. No change. I reinstalled the original and was back where I started.
On my most recent drive, I noticed both issues had become very noticeable. The drop in voltage was happening at nearly every stop, and the missing was happening a few times per minute while coasting along. There seemed to be some correlation between the missing and voltage fluctuating, but it wasn't absolute.
I decided to attack the voltage issue again. Re-checked all the cables; same result as before (all OK). Looked all over the car for possible bad grounds, loose connections, or other visible problems, but found none. My next thought was to run a jumper from B+ to the voltage regulator's Sense input (have seen issues there on more than a few older vehicles) - but after reading that this car uses the PCM as the voltage regulator, I didn't proceed.
Just to be certain I'm going to have the alternator tested by the local auto parts store. But I suspect it'll pass.
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I'm at 55k and over the past 2k-3k miles I have noticed my idle getting rougher and rougher when stopped at a light. I took it to my garage and they cleaned the fuel injection system/throttle body/MAF sensor. When I got the car beck it felt a little better but the idle is still pretty rough.
Compared to my wife's '09 Sienna, it is a lot more noticeable that the car is on. I'm in Florida so the AC is on. When I put the car in neutral, the idle become smooth.
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So I have a swb LS with right at 100k miles. drove great and got tires (same brand same model Continentals as the previous set) put on yesterday - right after that the car got noisier (mechanically, not because of the tires).
When I drive over 25-30mph it's like the car rattles...it starts "rougher" and is audibly noisier in idle now. The water bottle in my cup holder visibly shakes and did not do this before yesterday. What's weird I watched the guys install the tires, they never got close to anywhere under the hood..
Just to rule out the possibility, I had the tires remounted and rebalanced but of course same issue. Sounds like a noisy tranny or like I have an aftermarket muffler..have noticed a slight lag in acceleration (oil change at lexus 600 miles ago).
I got new plugs, air filter, coolant flush, diff fluid flush within the past 3 weeks and had no issue with the car until yesterday. My early suspicion is a motor mount or muffler-exhaust related issue?
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I have a 2000 Buick Century that I cannot get to start. While my wife was driving home it started to sputter (like running out of gas) and did a little back firing. She made it home and I put in some gas (Just to make sure) and the care cranks over but will not start. I have replaced the fuel filter, checked the spark plugs and replaced the CAM Sensor. The car still will not start.
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My wife has a 2000 Buick Century with about 150,000 miles on it. It has been relatively trouble free. Recently, the "low coolant" light began to come on.She took the car into a garage where she was told there was oil in the coolant and the sensor had been compromised. The cooling system was flushed and cleaned and a new sensor installed. The "low coolant" light continued to come on. She took the car back in. She was told the wrong sensor had been installed. When she went back for the car the second time, she was told the oil in the coolant was preventing the new sensor from working and there was nothing more the garage could do. I went in and asked questions, primarily how serious was the condition, and couldn't get a straight answer.
We are due to drive to Florida in November. My wife would like to take it to a garage there. Is it save to drive it as is? What are the implications of oil mixing with coolant? What is causing it to happen?
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Just turned 80k and recently noticed a bit rougher at idle. Other than that all has been fine. Plugs, etc. all original. Engine and VSC Light. Autozone ran the scan which turned up the above stated codes. They are defined as Evaporative emission control system pressure. He said it could be a loose gas cap. Checked it and its tight as a drum.
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I had water pump and belt changed by a Toyota Dealer on 2006 4 cyl Camry LE. Now the car idles a little rougher, gas mileage is down by around 20%, and there is some subtle chatter noise.
Before the car would idle quiet (could not hear it from inside car), now it is noisier with a little vibration- both in park and drive. Gas mileage is worse, and I am compensating for winter temps (no snow around). I fill the tank and reset mileage to check. The needle also confirms lower mileage too.
A little noise around belt or pump area but another mechanic said belt tentioner is fine, no need to replace. So what could the dealer have done to cause this? What parts/systems do they operate on? Dealer said car sounds o.k., can't hear anything unusual (of course).Is there anything I can check myself or fix myself? I may try an auto stethoscope when I get one. Just want the old car back. Car has timing chain, no belt.
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My 03 Buick century is overheating. I changed the thermostat and the water pump. And still overheats as soon As I start driving. I am also getting when it is overheating some misfiring in cylindar 1. I am going to reflush and bleed the coolant even though it seems to be full . i dont think it is disappearing. Is it Possible i have a blown headgasket or intake manifold leak?
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I am having a very tricky problem with my Buick.
For approximately the last 4 months, it has been (at least according to the heat gauge on the dash) running pretty hot. Not overheating, but getting close. And it doesn't take long for it to get there. This all seems to have begun right around the time that my father and I flushed the coolant system.
Since then, I have replaced some parts, and learned a few things in the process.
I learned that there are bleeder screws which can be opened to let air bubbles out. And I have heard that the 3.1L is especially susceptible to them.
New parts which I have installed:
- thermostat
- coolant temperature sensor
- radiator cap
- upper radiator hose
- lower radiator hose
I have checked the water pump and it seems to be perfectly fine. No leaks. No signs of bad bearings. And it circulates coolant just fine. I have not been witness to either cooling fan, primary or auxiliary, switching on in a while.
The exact symptoms are these:
The heat gauge does not take long to get to mid-way point, but will sit at that point for a bit if the vehicle remains stationary. Once the vehicle is in significant motion, the heat gauge will climb fairly quickly, especially with moderately high RPMs. It WON'T touch the red though, but will get very very close to it. The car runs fine. It does seem to be a bit underpowered, but I am comparing it to my fiance's 1996 Olds Cutlass Ciera, which I believe has a different transmission. My Buick does not seem to have lost power since this problem arose. The cooling fans no longer kick on. The oil appears fine. The coolant as well. With the radiator cap off, coolant does not bubble out or shoot out.
I made sure after changing upper and lower hoses to fill the radiator, let the car run long enough for the thermostat to open, and then slowly poured more coolant into the radiator until it was full again. And the reservoir is at proper level and the the reservoir hose s not clogged.
I am not SURE, but I don't believe the radiator is clogged. I believe that covers it, at least as well as I can.
BTW, I do not know where the fan relays are, otherwise I would test the fans to see if they still work.
What the heck is up with my Buick? Also, it has 97,xxx miles on it, and the transmission fluid is at proper level and looks normal.
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2002 Buick century will sometimes not start. Seems to correlate with warmer weather and happens after long drives. I try to restart within 10 minutes of turning off and it will start and then in a few seconds the car shakes and the engine dies. I can restart multiple times, but it will always die in a couple of seconds. If I wait an hour and retry, no problem. Once someone banged on the gas tank and that solved it. Mechanic cannot diagnose problem unless it dies while he is there. Should I replace the fuel pump or could it be something else?
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I have a 2001 Buick Century that started making a noise from what seems to be the engine. It sounds like a jet engine when I accelerate. The noise is still there when I cruise, but it evens out. It is loudest when going between 40 and 50mph. The car is not overheating, and other then the noise it drives fine. My husband at first thought it sounded like the catalytic converter had been stolen, but he rarely knows what he is talking about. What could it be?
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Most of the time it has no problem what-so-ever, but once in a while it just doesn't start. It will turn over and over but that's it. Most of the time if I just let it sit for a few minutes (5-20) it will start right up no problem, but I've noticed when it does it often revs up as if I had my foot on the gas. (that took me a while to realize since I often touch the gas anyway.) Once it's running it runs great. The idle settles down to normal after a few seconds and the car runs as if there was no issue. It does this randomly.
I can drive it for days or hours with no problem, and then suddenly it just decides to leave me stranded. Usually i wait and it gets me home, but a couple times it didn't. I've drained the battery twice on two different occasions months apart trying it, and waiting and trying it. Both times with barely enough juice the following day to turn it over, it fired right up, rev'd the engine, then ran fine. I don't think it's an issue with fuel because on one occasion while trying to start it I laid into the peddle until I could smell gas under the hood- and it never has issue while running, only on start-up.
So far the only thing I've done is replace the spark plugs- it runs better now, but doesn't start any differently.
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