1992 Buick Park Ave engine problems

[Guest]

At first, sorry for my english, i'm a bloody german. <P>I have a 1992 Buick Park Avenue (not Ultra) with about 116000 miles on it. The transmission was overhauled over 3 month ago.<BR>When i press my gas pedal more than 1/3 of the way, i have backfires and the engine is stalling and running like it gets out of fuel. Last week it started to appear only when i drove about 10 miles and the engine was warm. Now it appears even while the engine is cold. The sparkplugs and -wires was changed nearly a year ago. The computer have no error codes saved. I've changed the fuelfilter last week, this was not the failure.<BR>I'm grateful for any idea!

[BUICK RACER]

Christian, try these: <BR>See that fuel pressure remains constant and above 35 psi:<P> Ohm check the coil pack across the secondary towers. It should read 10-13K ohms across 1-4, 2-5 and 3-6 pair. Check both cold and hot. It it appears to be missing only on the 2-5 pair, replace the crank sensor. <P>Look for obvious like bad grounds and crud on battery terminals.

[Reatta Man]

Good advice...I would go a couple of steps further. <P>Remove the coil pack and ignition module, turn them over and look at the epoxy resin on the back side of each part. If you see what looks like air bubbles in the epoxy, replace them both. They may check out fine, but later fail when they get hot (that's what causes the air bubbles--excessive heat leading to a failure). If you can't find the module and coil pack there in Germany, try <A HREF="http://www.autozone.com" TARGET=_blank>www.autozone.com</A> and see if they will ship the parts to Germany. <P>For that age and mileage, I would also change out the spark plugs and wires at the same time. Use a good 8MM wire and AC Delco spark plugs. Bosch may claim their plugs are compatible, but you will get better results with AC Delco plugs. If you can find it, add a can of BG 44K additive to the fuel tank when you fill it with gas. If you can't get BG 44K in Germany, go to <A HREF="http://www.cambridgeauto.com" TARGET=_blank>www.cambridgeauto.com</A> and click on "Ryno Products" to buy it. I asked them if they can ship to Germany--they are not sure but they will try. <P>I would also remove the rubber tube going from the air filter housing to the throttle body inlet, and spray a good carb cleaner in there with the engine running. You could be dealing with an excessive amount of gum building up on the butterfly valve in the throttle body. Here in the states, Berryman's B12 carb spray is readily available and does a great job. <P>The 3.8 is a great engine. With decent maintenance, you should get 200,000 miles, or about 320,000 kilometers. <P>Good luck!<P>Joe<P>[ 06-27-2002: Message edited by: Reatta Man ]<p>[ 06-27-2002: Message edited by: Reatta Man ]

[NTX5467]

The other suggestions certainly have merit, but I wonder that possibly the catalytic converter might be having a restriction issue at that higher mileage. I believe there's a ball joint connection where the lead pipe joins the pipe just prior to the converter, so it would be easy to take things loose there and see if it makes any difference (with the car parked, of course!).<P>I concur with the comments on the Bosch spark plugs. I never did mind charging a customer full retail when they said the just put some Bosch Platinum plugs in and they wanted some new AC-Delco plugs back in their vehicle. Some of the newer Ultras have Nippondenso Platinums as the OEM spec plug--the replacement AC-Delco box even has the Nippondensos in them too. In any event, where ever you get the AC-Delco plugs from should also be able to get you a set of AC-Delco plug wires too (pre-terminated and ready to install).<P>The other things I can think of that might cause a problem (throttle position sensor, oxygen sensors, etc.) should all set a code in the computer.<P>One other thing might be the change of fuel mixes from cooler weather to warmer weather? Or maybe just a bad tank of gas?<P>In any event, getting the ignition issues sorted out and freshened up would be a good start. Plus running the mentioned pressure checks on the fuel system.<P>Sometimes, a deposit buildup in the throttle body can cause problems, but they are usually related to poor idle quality and lower idle speed. It probably would not hurt to use some carb cleaner on the throttle plates and make sure the Idle Air Control operatives are working as they should. 3M makes a "throttle plate cleaner" and I suspect you can find something similar over there.<P>Once everything's back to snuff, you'll enjoy that Buick again!<P>NTX5467

[Guest]

I admit I don't know much about these newer cars, but the symptoms certainly sound like the fuel pump is going out, to me.<P>Pete Phillips<BR>BCA #7338<BR>Ector, Texas