91 Sunbird dies while driving

Zaen

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Hey Everyone,

I have a 91 sunbird 2.0L I4 automatic with TBI that I've owned for 4.5 years. It's always ran fine (E.G. gets me from A to B with no issues), until about a month ago. I have a relatively long daily commute, during which my car has plenty of time to warm up.

The first time, it happened while going 65MPH on a relatively straight, flat stretch of road. The car suddenly lost all power, like I had taken my foot off the throttle. It started working normally again after 5 seconds or so, and I don't think I did anything to make it come back.

The second time was more or less the same scenario, except that it didn't start running again until I shifted into neutral, and realized it was idling. I put it back into gear, and continued on.

The next three times it's happened, I haven't been able to get to start working again. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to troubleshoot much on it yet. I don't believe the issue is related to spark, the coil tested good, and the spark plugs, wires, and distributor are all relatively new. There certainly isn't a lack of gasoline going to the engine, as soon as you open up the air filter, the gas fumes come out of the throttle body. If I open up the throttle while it's off, it looks like there's an excess of gas pooled below the fuel injector, but I don't really know what "Normal" looks like. The times I've been stuck on the side of the road, I had just filled up.

Lastly, my ECM would occasionally spit out code 13, which is "o2 sensor no activity" While it's had this issue for years (I replaced the o2 sensor at one point with no luck) I decided to try to unplug the o2 sensor and see it helped with the issue (I think the engine might be flooding, due to the amount of gasoline in the throttle body, there are times I've unplugged the fuel injector and had it running on the fumes for a few seconds) The ECM spit out the codes 13 and 33 after that "o2 sensor" and "exhaust gas recirculation system failure"

Sorry about the long post, but I hope someone can make sense of all of that. I intend to start with the EGR valve, but beyond that I'm kind of stumped. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Hey Everyone,

I have a 91 sunbird 2.0L I4 automatic with TBI that I've owned for 4.5 years. It's always ran fine (E.G. gets me from A to B with no issues), until about a month ago. I have a relatively long daily commute, during which my car has plenty of time to warm up.

The first time, it happened while going 65MPH on a relatively straight, flat stretch of road. The car suddenly lost all power, like I had taken my foot off the throttle. It started working normally again after 5 seconds or so, and I don't think I did anything to make it come back.

The second time was more or less the same scenario, except that it didn't start running again until I shifted into neutral, and realized it was idling. I put it back into gear, and continued on.

The next three times it's happened, I haven't been able to get to start working again. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to troubleshoot much on it yet. I don't believe the issue is related to spark, the coil tested good, and the spark plugs, wires, and distributor are all relatively new. There certainly isn't a lack of gasoline going to the engine, as soon as you open up the air filter, the gas fumes come out of the throttle body. If I open up the throttle while it's off, it looks like there's an excess of gas pooled below the fuel injector, but I don't really know what "Normal" looks like. The times I've been stuck on the side of the road, I had just filled up.

Lastly, my ECM would occasionally spit out code 13, which is "o2 sensor no activity" While it's had this issue for years (I replaced the o2 sensor at one point with no luck) I decided to try to unplug the o2 sensor and see it helped with the issue (I think the engine might be flooding, due to the amount of gasoline in the throttle body, there are times I've unplugged the fuel injector and had it running on the fumes for a few seconds) The ECM spit out the codes 13 and 33 after that "o2 sensor" and "exhaust gas recirculation system failure"

Sorry about the long post, but I hope someone can make sense of all of that. I intend to start with the EGR valve, but beyond that I'm kind of stumped. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello !
Well 1st off it is not your o2 sensor , all your doing by unplugging it is forcing the ECM into whats called open loop where a fixed amount of fuel is being delivered instead of closed loop where fuel is measured acording to o2 voltage.
you say it might be flooding ? are the plugs black with unburned fuel ? has gas milage went to crap ? I am guessing here but a bad MAP sensor might be the issue assuming that spark is constant . As I said I am guessing as I cant see your car on the scanner . A code 33 is a map sensor so thats where I would go be sure to check the vacuum hose to the map sensor if its bad it can cause issues too
 
sounds like a map sensor or the vacuum line to it if the hose is good then I would replace the map sensor seeing you said you had a code 33
 
It could be a failing throttle position sensor.

Just throwing that out there.
 
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