Prizm - Chevrolet :: 1987 - Randomly Won't Idle?
Sep 18, 2016
it's really a 1987 Nova, but the drop down menu didn't list that option. I have been working on trying to figure out the cause of this problem for a pretty long time. During the last several years it had been running deteriatingly worse until I did an ignition tune up and replaced the spark plugs, plug wires, and the distributor cap (and rotor). That restored operation back to just the original problem of random but often poor or inability to idle. I have spent a lot of time on the carburetor and think that isn't the cause of the trouble. I'm pretty shy about doing this post, but here goes.
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I have a 1998 Chevrolet Prizm that will not fast idle when it is started in cold weather the first thing in morning. what could be the problem?
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I have a very weird thing going on with my car. It all started about 3 month ago. The car will not accelerate and it left me broke down on the side of the road. It will start but it will not move fwd. So i took it to a mechanic, he told me it was the ignition coils, so he replaced them with some used ones that he got from the car junk yard. It worked for a like 2 months. About a month ago its stared doing it again! So i thought that since the mechanic replaced the ignition coils last time with some used one, i out to try some new ones. so i went ahead and bought some new one and the spark plugs and replaced them, $100 later it still doing it.
Mind you that this time around, the car will take a bit to accelerate once i get enough speed the car will only go 70mph, then the car starts to feel like its going shut off but it doesn't. Also it feels like the car is being held back, and every now n again will have a little burst of energy. I also see the gas consumption its a bit faster, i guess since I'm pressing the gas pedal all the in but can not go more than 70mph.
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I'm very happy with the car. the last posting I made was about a pulley, the mechanic said is was a $26 bracket causing drag.
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i have done mechanic work most of my life and can't figure out whats happening with this car. it'll idle fine but when u give it fuel it's like it cuts out. have changed fuel pump,timing,and checked most sensors?! 2000 chevy prizm twin cam toyota motor same as corolla.
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I drive a '98 Chevrolet Prizm with 205K miles on it. It drives perfectly fine except in heavy rain/snow. In those cases, I've noticed that as soon as I drive through a big puddle (i.e., get the undercarriage wet, it seems), my car won't accelerate above 35 or 40 mph. If I attempt to push it faster, the engine (?) makes a terrible roaring sound, frankly like it's going to die on me. Interestingly, if I pull over, turn off the car, let it "dry out" for a couple of minutes, and then restart it, it drives fine once again (assuming, of course, that I don't hit anymore wet patches).
I first noticed this problem about 2 years ago during the winter when, on one occasion, it had just snowed heavily and I drove through a particularly sludgy patch on the highway. Since then, I've only had the problem recur a few times, typically during monsoon-like rains. However, more recently, I've noticed the problem wanting to occur even during medium-to-heavy rains. The car will start making growling noises in those wet conditions; however, if I keep pushing the car at highway speeds, eventually the sound goes away rather than crescendo-ing to the really scary roaring noise. I'm going to hazard a guess that by continuing to drive my car at highway speeds, even when it starts growling, it dries out whatever part is getting wet and thus getting "irritated".
In sum, it sounds like my car is becoming more sensitive to and/or more exposed to moisture.
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I have a 1999 Chevy Geo Prizm a.k.a. Toyota Corolla. I am new to car ownership and don't know much about maintenance yet.
Recently, the back right wheel has started making a soft "wumm wumm wumm" noise when the car is in motion. The faster I drive, the more the noise speeds up, so it seems like something is coming loose or out of alignment. I've driven over a fair number of potholes in the last couple of months, and while I don't remember any particularly gnarly ones, I imagine that's what has caused the problem.
Any guesses as to what might be going wrong, how dire it is, and what I should expect to hear from the mechanic when I take it in?
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the car has 180,000 and last month i noticed a slight hum during acceleration. the car also has a slight whine when the weather is cold. i checked the serpentine belt, and it's good. Could it be the power steering fluid? Is this normal or am I a knob?
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I have a 1999 Chevy Prizm that I'm trying to keep as long as possible since I'm now working very part-time hours. For the past week or two I put the ignition key in, and can't get it to immediately turn. I check to make sure the car's really in Park, push the key in further, pull it out just a hair...between each step I try to get the key to turn and start the car. After 4 or 5 tries it does turn and the car starts right up.
I've tried both my "regular" key and my spare, thinking maybe one was a little worn and not fitting quite right. I'm getting worried that the time will come when I won't be able to get the key to turn. Is this a problem with the lock part of my ignition, or is there some glitch that's telling the car it's not in Park even though it is?
I just had to spend a good chunk of my emergency money to get tires and brake work on this car so it could pass inspection, and when I told the man at the garage about the key problem he shrugged and made some vague comment about old cars having problems.
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I took my 2002 Chevy Prizm to a Firestone shop to have the tires rotated, battery and serpentine belt replaced, oil changed, and brakes adjusted. Yesterday, I noticed a chirping sound when I accelerate. Yesterday was also the first time since the maintenance work that I was driving without any music playing. So, it's possible that the chirping sound was happening before.
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I have a Chevy Prizm 1998 and I drive about 250 miles a week. Recently I started going through a quart of oil in 2 weeks. My engine sounds good. I am religious about changing my oil and filter every 3,000 miles and I check my oil every time I fill up my gas tank. There is no blue smoke and no oil spots on the garage. Could it possibly be a small leak that only occurs while I am driving or a am I dreaming?
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I am trying to diagnose a problem that a friend is having with their '92 Prizm (which is really a rebadged Corolla). It started when they went out to drive it one day and the battery was dead. So I checked it out, and it seemed like it had a dead cell. Bought a new battery and put it in, and everything seemed fine for a few weeks.
Then, the same thing happens. I take another look and notice that the positive battery terminal is very badly corroded. I replaced it with a new one and cleaned the negative terminal as well for good measure. I jump start the car, everything seems fine again for a few weeks.
This time, the car stalls out as they are leaving a parking lot. As in, they had driven somewhere with no problems, and then they started the engine again, and it died as they were moving at parking lot speed. So now I start thinking maybe it is the alternator or voltage regulator (I believe the regulator is inside the alternator on these, right?). I took the alternator to Autozone, and they tested it and said it was fine.
After that, I checked all the fusible links and fuses, all were fine. I checked the ground strap from the battery to chassis and engine to chassis, and they look fine as well. I have run out of obvious things to check.
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When my vent is on the face setting, a grating/whistling noise emanates when the fan is on.This does not happen on the floor or defrost positions. The noise diminishes when it is in the face and partial floor or defrost setting. What may be causing the noise and how I could fix it.
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I drive a 2001 Chevy Prizm with 90,000 miles on it. Lately, when I'm accelerating over about 30 to 40 mph, my engine starts to make a grinding noise, that gets worse the faster I go, or the more pressure I apply. The noise also happens when I'm going up hill. What's causing this noise, so I don't look like an idiot when I take it in to my mechanic?
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For over 2 years, but much more frequently and lenghtier recently, my 2000 Chevy Prizm, with a used 07 Corolla engine with 75,000 mile on it now, has seemed like it wants to die but then will eventually kick in and you would never know anything had happened. Started out as a maybe 50 yard slowing down but is now up to about a quarter mile with some occasional noise like misfiring on the last two times it acted up. Have had it in to a couple of mechanics and no one can seem to determine what it is. Had a mass air flow sensor put in about a year ago and was told if that doesn't fix it I would need a catalytic converter (shows up in engine codes) but second mechanic told me my problems would not be the result of a bad catalytic converter. If that was it, the car would die not keep on going.
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The ABS light on my Chevy Prizm 98 comes on when I start the car and then turns off in a few seconds. The last few days the light does not go off the entire time the car is running. The light does not flash it just stays on. It's never done this before. Does this mean I have an issue with my brakes? I replaced the front brakes last year but I'm fearing/dreading rear brake replacement. I have no signs that they need to be replaced but am wondering if the ABS light is telling me I'm reaching the rear brake replacement day.
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About 5 years ago, my air conditioner started making a metallic-sounding grinding noise, when it is turned OFF. This noise goes away if the A/C is on. My mechanic said some part was slightly bent, bent it back, and this fixed it for a while. Eventually the noise came back but was intermittent. I drove the car for years hoping it would go away, leaving the A/C on most of the time. The noise is no longer intermittent, and my new mechanic says that it seems louder than before and if I don't get it fixed, it might cause the car to stall out. He offered to bypass it with a belt or replace the unit. What this could be? I drive with the A/C on now. 1998 geo prizm
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2001 Prizm/Corolla - CEL is off, no trouble codes, all other monitors are ready, but not the catalytic convertor. No repairs since a new battery mid December. The smog guy (California) says that he can let another monitor go but not the cat; it costs him too many points.
Is this a converter in the early stages of failure (150,000 miles; some oil consumption)? Or is there another possibility?
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I own a 2001 Chevrolet Prizm with ~150,000 miles. It has the three speed automatic transmission. It generally runs very well, but occasionally when pulling away from a stop it will hesitate for 2-5 seconds. I'll push the gas, but it will basically just creep forward slowly, as if I'd only taken my foot off the brake. If I keep my foot on the gas for a few seconds it will start to accelerate, although it seems to surge a little bit (although this could be because I probably end up pushing the gas harder than I normally would, hoping that it will go).
This problem was happening very intermittently, although its been happening more lately. Its been going on over the past year or so, but it would only happen maybe a few times a month. Over the past month, though its been happening more and more. Probably every other day for the past month. However, it doesn't happen at every stop. For example, if I leave for work (about a 15 min drive on city streets) it will usually make it through a few traffic lights before it happens. Then after 5-10 minutes driving I might pull up to a stoplight and it will hesitate pulling away. It might make it the rest of the way to work without incident, or it might do this at 1-2 more stoplights. On longer trips the car seems fine; it runs well on the highway and behaves normally otherwise.
Some maintenance history:-bought the car 5 years ago with 110k miles; it had just had a rebuilt engine installed-about 3 years ago I had the catalytic converter and O2 sensors replaced (got a check engine code)-about 2 years ago I had the in-tank fuel pump replaced-about 10 months ago I replaced the mass airflow sensor (the car was stalling on start-up and the check engine light was on - this fixed the stalling problem, but not the intermittent hesitation problem)-I have not had any transmission service done, but the car shifts smoothly. I checked the fluid and the levels seem fine and it doesn't smell burnt.
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Have a 2001 Prizm with 120k miles on it. Just had the recommended 120k service done a month or two ago (local shop that has been reliable to me) and they commented on how mechanically solid my car was.
Thursday drove to work like normal. When it was time to leave, car wouldn't start. No dash lights, nothing at all when I turned the key. Got a ride, came back later that night and jumped it and it started right up (didn't wait at all, but I also didn't check it before hooking up the cables - it might have started without a jump). Radio had reset and so forth, but it was running.
Drove Friday, it was fine. Car sat all weekend. Monday morning, dead as could be again. No dash lights when I put the key in, nothing when I turned it. Maybe a single click, but nothing more (can't remember for sure).
Drove wife's car to work. Came home Monday afternoon and the car started right up with no problem. Was curious if the battery voltage was low or anything, so I turned the car off, hooked up my bluetooth OBD reader (generic ELM 327 off ebay), and tried to start. Car was dead. Unplugged the reader, still nothing.
Took the battery out and ran to the store, assuming a bad or weak battery. They tested and said it's completely fine. Went back home, hooked it back up, car started right up. So now I'm suspecting something's up with the ELM327... I just got it last week, a few days before this all started. Had it hooked up all week long and didn't unplug it till the first time the car wouldn't start. Didn't plug it back in till Monday afternoon's issues.
Could a flaky OBD reader cause these kinds of issues? Anything else I should be checking, or do you think I'm ok as long as I toss out that reader? When I was using the reader last week, it seemed to be reading everything fine and sending the data over to my phone. When the car was dead each time, it acted like the battery was completely disconnected - radio reset, NO lights, etc. Could something with the OBD reader mess up the computer and make it act like that, and then a little time lets the computer reset or something?
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I've owned a 2001 Chevy Prizm LSi for about 12 years and it's been burning oil at a rate of about 1 quart every 200 miles or so. No tail pipe emissions or noticeable smoke and no OBDC codes.
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