Pontiac - Sunfire :: 1998 - Grab And Release Feel When Applying Brakes
Dec 15, 2012
My 98 Sunfire has a grab and release feel when applying brakes. Mechanic fixed this same problem March 2012. I was told it was warped rotors and brake pads. This worked great until four weeks ago when it started again. I find it hard to believe that rotors and pads would warp again after 7 months. Also the front brakes lock up real easy on wet surface such as a light rain. When they lock up I get a bad rattle sound under the dash. ABS light does not come on and never has. This happens all the time. Even after new pads and rotors were installed.
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On said truck, when you go to stop, the brakes grab a bit, then release , then the pedal goes to about 2 inches off the floor, then they grab and hold. Pumping does nothing. No abs light on the dash. Today we put the truck in 4high and while back up I had full brake pressure from the top. Also when you take off, either in the mornings or during the day, it has a slight vibration, kinda like a brake grabbing, then all is fine. The brake grabbing isn't there 100% of the time, I would say 95%. I haven't changed the brake pads, rotors, or anything yet. Just didn't want to throw money at it and still not fix the problem.
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Okay, I never experienced this on my Prius C, but now that's I've upgraded to a 2013 Prius Plug-In, I can duplicate it:
When traveling on the highway (at like 60MPG) and I brake a little hard (but not pedal fully to the floor), I hear and feel a 'click' through the brake pedal as it slows through 25MPH. A car pulled out in my lane, and I had to brake suddenly and felt/heard this 'click' at that speed. Did some testing on an off-ramp with the same situation (50MPH - heavy breaking - feel/hear click at 25MPH).
I think this is the transition from the regen braking to the brake pads, but I'm unsure. Not sure if it's ABS either. I've looked at a ton of Gen3 braking threads here on PC, but I was unable to find my exact issue. The car only has 3000 miles on it,
Loving my upgrade so far (but having weird fueling problems - doesn't seem like I can 'fill' the tank, always lose the first 'blip' too fast), and enjoy the freedom of being able to charge for local driving.
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I have a 98 pontiac sunfire with 130 k it died out last week while I was driving got a p0342 code I replaced the camshaft sensor still nothing I'm getting spark and I can hear the fuel pump click on.
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I have a 1998 Pontiac Sunfire 2.2l 5 speed. 3rd and 5th gears are grinding as i enter the gear. It happens when i am up shifting sometimes, but more often happens when down shifting. im not sure if i have a clutch issue or if i need to replace the transmission. I recently replace the clutch slave cylinder/throw out bearing. at the same time i flushed the fluid. How do i start to diagnose the problem?
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I have a 1998 Pontiac Sunfire. I keep up on her engine and have only experienced this issue one other time back in the fall or winter. Like that day, today I started the car and drove off without letting the engine warm up a little because I was in a hurry. It was fine on my way to my destination but on the way home (about 5 miles from my house) I hit a lot of traffic an pretty much caught every red light. About 1/4 of the way home, every time I stopped the car started acting like it was going to stall out. The best way to describe it, would be if cars breathed like we do and she was out of breath panting. She had no trouble accelerating and there seemed to be no problem when continuously moving, it was only when stopped. Like I said, she only did this once before on a cold night and I was stopping and going after driving without warming it. She hasn't had a tune up or new spark plugs in a long time and she's due for an oil change. My feeling is that it is fuel related? I dunno. To top it off, my dad is looking under the hood checking the fluids right now and he just informed me that someone must've hit my car because there is now a dent and scrape on the fender.
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Car occasionally fails to start or will start and immediately die. Engine turns over, spark plugs are getting spark, but engine either won't catch or will start and immediately die.
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After replacing my brake pads and shoes I am hearing a squealing noise coming from the area near my brake pedal. This noise sometimes becomes high pitched if I depress the brake too hard. I am also losing a little bit of brake fluid if I depress the pedal hard several times. The brakes themselves function fine and have no problem stopping. When I bled the brakes today some of the fluid was black. I figured it might be air in the system but after bleeding them it is still happening. I also replaced the bleeder screws.
1997 Pontiac Sunfire 2.4L uses DOT 3 brake fluid.
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I'm trying to resolve a nagging brake problem on my 98 Pathfinder. In short, braking power is weaker than it should be, but I do not have sponginess in the brake pedal. I've bled the whole system a few times, and even changed the master cylinder - to no avail.
While performing a few tests lately, I noticed the following behavior: if I drive up a steep hill and start pumping the brake pedal with the left foot while keeping the right foot on the gas (to keep moving uphill), the pedal gets progressively harder to press and braking action diminishes accordingly. If feels a bit like when you switch the engine off with the car still moving (in neutral) and try to brake: as the vacuum in the booster gets expended, the pedal gets harder and braking action diminishes dramatically.
I don't think this is related to the act of going uphill; it's just that this is the only way the engine can develop enough vacuum for the symptom to occur.
This leads me to wonder if I have a vacuum leak somewhere (either in the line or in the booster itself) that only happens at higher vacuum pressures...
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I recently got new brake pads put on (front and back) and while they work ok there is no grab in the brakes like there used to be when they were new. They are quieter than the old ones. Do they have to break-in? Should I have gotten the rotors replaced too?
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So my car keeps just dying while i'm driving..my car was running just fine until i got gas one morning and then started to sputter while i was driving and didn't want to accelerate very well...read a multiple misfire code when my check engine light was on..changed the coil packs and now isn't reading anything but now it takes a lot of cranks to get the car to start and while i am going down the road it will just die...normal engine dying lights will come on the dash when it dies..have changed the fuel filter..checked the catalytic convertor...checked plugs and wires..once in a while i do get a funny gas smell on the outside of my car but it's not leaking anywhere..checked the battery and still does it with a new battery..changed the fuel pump about 3 years ago..
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i have a 1997 Pontiac sunfire 2.2..i was coming home from work i heard a clicking sound coming from the motor then the car just died and it wont start back up.
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Any way, my 2000 Pontiac Sunfire will randomly not accelerate while I am driving. I was initially rolling up to a red light so took my foot of the gas at about 20 mph, then the light turned green so I tried to hit the gas but nothing happened for about 5-7 seconds. So I was just coasting, but then I hit the gas and everything was fine. It did this a second time on the way home. Two days later I went to start my car and it wouldn't start. Nothing was happening--no noises, nothing. So I got my battery tested--Autozone tested it and said it was bad, but after replacing the battery nothing happened still.
Then a "mobile mechanic" came and stuck a screw driver into the starter to short circuit it so it made a sound like it was trying to start, but didn't. Then after a few minutes he looked and my radio was on and it started with the key. Since then it has not started only one time when I used a screw driver to start it myself, but when I was on a steep incline last night it kept not accelerating if I made it work too hard. I would be at ~65 mph and it would just quit so I'd pull off the side of the road and it would drop to ~40 mph for ~5-7 seconds, then I'd hit the gas again and it would go just fine. It did this about 3-4 times. One time all the lights on the dashboard flashed on when it wouldn't go. One time it just completely stalled on me when I was driving. I pulled off the side of the road and started it again and it was fine.
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My car is an automatic 1997 pontiac sunfire SE. 2.4L. I drove into a parking space and the car would not shift out of drive into park, or any other gear. I called a tow truck and the guy said that the "link" had popped out of place and it needed to slip back in. He also said the high heat (it was 109 today) can warp the plastic to where it will not stay in. He showed me this link and popped it into place. I was able to get the car to shift from low to park and then to neutral but it popped out again. So I know it's not the transmission. My question is what is this "link" called so I can get a replacement for it.
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I have a 1996 pontiac sunfire.one of my headlights is a lot dimmer. I put a new bulb in there and still the same thing.
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For the last two years my old Sunfire (I've been its only owner) has been tugging while speeding up (happens at different speeds) and I have taken it to all sorts of mechanics and none have been able to solve the issue. The car had a faulty injector which was changed with a new original part, the transmission diagnosis have all come out negative, the engine is in great condition according to all the mechanics and the electromechanics I've been to have found no problems with the car whatsoever.
The car has around 130,000 miles and runs great, it just has these tugging episodes while accelerating and I have ran out of things to check in the darn car. The car is always up-to-date with maintenance and it's used for short trips the majority of time. What could be wrong with this car?
Another detail is that when the car is full (fuel) the tugging stops, but none of the mechanics have been able to find the relation between the fuel and the tugging.
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My daughter drives a 1996 sunfire 2.2. car started stalling while driving about a year ago. No apparent pattern, would go weeks even months in between. Last summer it became more frequent and noticed it would only do it when engine was warm. After stalling it will restart after what seems to be a cooling down period. Now it does it at idle as well. (Replaced fuel pump and filter) would like a good guess before I start putting money into it.
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2003 Pontiac Sunfire, 103K miles, a little overdue for an oil change, but no major (or minor) problems before now:
Last Monday my car was running fine until, on my way out of town, I gassed up. Immediately, my car started acting strange: immediately died upon leaving the station, didn't want to start, RPMs all over the place, acceleration & braking weren't responding properly, TERRIBLE idling, difficult handling at higher speeds (>45 mph), check engine light eventually came on, as well as the battery light (for just a minute).
Needless to say, I decided not to go out of town and took the car to a local mechanic (by this time the car was dying regularly and absolutely did not want to start). This morning he told me that I have water in my fuel tank and detailed a draining process that sounds expensive. However, after reading several "water in gas tank" threads on here, I'm skeptical. As a young woman living the in the South, I'm sure you all can understand my suspicion. So, is he giving me the run around? For what it's worth, I do live in southern Louisiana - hot, humid, rains daily - water isn't exactly scarce here.
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Here's the story: My engine misfires one night so the next day I check the spark plugs and there is oil in the far left plug well. I decided to change the valve gasket cover. Went to take off the covers and the cover wouldn't budge. It ended up cracking some metal piece that I SUSPECT houses the timing chain. I've included several pictures of my engine bay so you can get a feel for how it looks. Not sure what the part that is cracked is called. Anyway my real question is, is it worth it to replace this part and sell the car for around 1800 or just scrap it for about 500? The parts circled in red are where the crack is.
Pontiac sunfire 1997 2.4L 4 Cylinder
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I own a pontiac sunfire '00, and it makes a crackling noise in the rear end whenever I drive slowly, what could it be?
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On Tuesday I discovered that my drivers side headlight wasn't working, so I bought a light-bulb and went to replace the light. It turns none of the wires are still attached to the light holder and so the light is obviously not attached to the car. Is it likely that they all broke off at once or that someone cut them? (I have some nasty neighbors). Is it going to be really expensive to get this fixed? Can I buy the part that attaches to the light-bulb that has the wires attached and attach the wires to the car myself? If so, what is the part called so that I can order it?
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