jb4xx

Last Saturday I bought a low mile (56k) black 93 trans am. Drove 150 miles to check it out, Test drove went fine, bought the car. Po had a recept for opti, wires, plugs from little less then a year ago.

Wife drove car 50+ miles to a town to visit relatives. We got to hotel and she took car for wash, best one she could including undercarriage. Drove back to hotel and out for brunch Sunday. After eating car just turned over, no fire. After checking all fuses, fuel pump relay and parking lot check for fuel pressure, 45 minutes passed, we were about to tow and car fired up. Drove horrible, tried to die at stop lights unless given gas, then cleared up. Po said it had "old gas" so I put some seafoam in with fresh gas. Tires were drycracked bad, didn't see that when checked car out so I bought tires, car started and stopped several times, no problems. Went to start car for 160 miles drive home, car started, as we talked in parking lot, car quit and would not start. No fire at plugs or coil.
After an hour, car started, drove 3-4 miles and quit, now on the highway. Car did same thing until I finally made it to truck stop before it died. Left it there and drove family home. Got trailer and drove 7 hours to get the car.

Car cuts off after running 3-8 minutes original icm would heat up so fast it would burn you, put it in frz, cool it down, car would start and run again for few minutes

Icm tested bad by a guy at o Reilly who didn't look like he knew what he was doing. AutoZone said they didn't have directions how to hook up icm to testers. Bought new icm and car still quits.
Bought new coil, car still quits

Tried running car with temp sensor on water pump unplugged, still dies.

Tested, system power is at icm when warm and cool.

Ecm going to opti harness shows 4.72 volts in a and b and 12 in c with key on car cold, same when warm

Fuel pressure stays at 40 constant, did not change when car died.

After car dies, sometimes starts and runs poorly for seconds, other times just turns over, no fire at all until cools/ sits for 30-90 minutes.

Help! Did I kill the cat by running poor icm or ruin opti eye in car wash? Don't want to keep throwing parts at it and this forum seems so helpful with diagnostic help.

Thanks for reading this far.

Code 16 has been read using clip method

jb4xx

Code 16, cleared and is back after running car again

Fastbird93

iTrader: (10)

The undercarriage wash took out your optispark. Consider it a lesson learned.

jb4xx

Heard of Chandler optis? Read good and bad about so many brands. Should I replace water pump or do they hold up well? The car is a survivor, all original everything including hoses, belt, etc.

bufmatmuslepants

iTrader: (3)

BOOM nailed it. Lesson learned, $400 later. Don't get the opti wet. No fault of the PO. Whatever opti you get, take it apart and loctite everything, and upgrade to vented cover. I would do waterpump with either a Delco one or the advance auto one with the lifetime warranty, something I wish I did was tap the weep hole for a 90 degree fitting and run a vacuum hose from it incase it weeps so it won't take out your opti. My advance waterpump held strong 6 years till I went electric.

jb4xx

Pulled the opti out and there was significant build up on rotor button inside the cap. There is no way this opti was changed unless it was replaced by one from junkyard. The rubber seal was old and yellowed. The wires looked old as well but checked out good with dark driveway test when running. I think the po was ripped off if he did actually pay for the invoice given to me. I would be wasting my time going after anyone for the parts I replaced.

I put new opti in, new coil, icm, coolant sensor, belt and car is not stalling anymore. No codes after running car 3 times in driveway.

Idles 15 minutes easy. Now I just need to build back confidence that it won't die and leave me stranded!!