I have recently acquired a sputtering and popping while driving around normally or wot. Car hesitates to go. I didn't really notice it until the car was warmed up. I was thinking that my plugs and wires are bad or worst case the opti. If I could get some help narrowing this down that would be great. Car has 131,xxx miles on the stock opti and the plugs haven't been changed in a year or longer. I was going to change them today or tomarrow when I did my LT's but my Y hasn't arrived yet so i didn't even bother tearing into it. Do you think I could've ruined the o2 sensors from running the cutout open all the time? Thanks.

 

I Almost Gurantee Its The Distubutor

 

sounds alot like when my opti took a poop on me. Started popping and sputtering at around 3500rpm. Did this a couple times and that was all she wrote. Luckily it died in at home .

 

When it first started to do it, it was only at around 4000 or higher but now its all the time. I don't notice it when its not warmed up though.

 

sounds like plugs/wires or maybe the opti. definitely ignition related

 

Sucks, I wanted to do the plugs and wires tomorrow with the headers but my Y hasn't arrived yet.

 

NOOOOOO its NOT your opti or your plugs and wires!!!! It is the O2 sensors. My car did the same EXACT thing when mine were bad.

Try this. Unplug the O2s and drive it around and see if it does it still. It will correct itself. DO NOT TOUCH anything else because it is not those parts it is the O2s.

 

ok I'll try that first.

 

It's not the o2 sensors if it only started above 4000 and happens at wot as well.

 

Im Think Im Going To Try That To Just To Narrow Things Down A Bit Since Mine Is Doing The Samething.

 

I think the O2s or on functional under normal load, at WOT i think they stop working.

 

Well I'm not sure what it is, but it starts doing it after the car is warmed up. I have a leak from somewhere but not sure where its coming from. Also if i'm neutral I can rev the hell out of it and it won't do it. so I am lost. I didn't get a chance to pull the o2's today I'll try tomorrow and see what happens.

 

I really dont think its the 02s, but i've seen some wierd probs with these cars. If its when it warms up it would lead me to think that its ignition. I would check the coil and make sure no wires are arching out on your headers. As far as the car not revving do you mean you give it gas and it doesnt respond at all or it is choking. This could be your fuel filter. Jus throwing a few things out there.

 

What I mean is I can rev it and its smooth all the way up to redline. No sputtering or popping. Only while driving its start to act up.

 

One more thing you might want to check that most people never clean is your MAF sensor. If it is not doing it until it warms up meaning closed loop cycle it could be your o2 or MAF sensors both of them don't start to work until the car is warm and leaves open loop to closed loop.
When I first took my car out this year I hooked up my laptop and did a datalog with datamaster and the blms were all over the place. The car was running like crap when a friend of mine asked me about the MAF sensor low and behold clean them blms good and the car is running like a grape ape.
So check it out $6 for a can of cleaner and it would be the easiest thing to do.Especially if your car has 130,000 miles.

 

Ok I went to drive it and everything was great until it warmed up. I would hit the gas and it would almost stall out and die. It did die in the driveway once and it is hard to start. I don't know what to do. The air filter is clean, I cleaned the MAF. Fuel pump is new, and the fuel filter is less than a year old. Wasn't able to get to the plugs yet, but I'm not gonna drive it the rest of the week.

 

the stalling on idle when hot and hard start when hot was my opti symptom.

 

Ok I just went out again right now. I had my laptop hooked up and everything looked normal. It didn't stall on me this time but still has a high rpm stutter. Other than the stutter it drove great. I had one code it said code 18 but that all. Also how much knock retard is normal? I got a highest of 9 knock retard under hard acceleration. I don't know much about reading the PCM. Also how many volts are the o2's supposed to have?

 

This is totally incorrect.

The MAF is used the same way in both open and closed loop.

 

I'm sorry if I gave the wrong info but I was under the impression during open loop the pcm locks the BLM's at 128 no matter what fuel cell you are in or what air flow the car is reading.If that was not the case would'nt they change during open loop cycle. At least this is what I found while data loging. Once entering closed loop the BLM's change with air flow. If I am wrong then I have learned something new.