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  #1  
Old 01-11-2007, 10:17 AM
Shaboom Shaboom is offline
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'95 SVX fond of dying

I've got a '95 SVX that's been getting unreliable on hills. It used to just give me some engine shake when I got to the top, but lately it's escalated to sputtering and dying. It's worse if the engine's cold, but it'll still do it sometimes no matter how much I warm up the engine. Sometimes just getting up to freeway speeds puts enough stress on it to kill it. But the weird part is that after it dies and I restart it, it runs just fine. I can go up any hill, push the speed, etc.

My friend suggested that it might be a bad vacuum line and my mechanic said it might be the ECU, but he hasn't gone into it yet. Any ideas on what could make it do this? Winter's in full bloom and I'm in a hilly city. Thanks for any advice you guys have!

Last edited by Shaboom; 01-11-2007 at 10:24 AM.
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  #2  
Old 01-11-2007, 10:26 AM
SVXMAN2001 SVXMAN2001 is offline
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It could be a variety of things, and I am sure others will chime in but I would start with the Mass Air Flow sensor, if you have an extra laying around try and swap them out and see if that cures what ales ya....also could be an ignition coil, from what you described (sputtering, trouble accelerating) your engine may be misfiring (a number of members have had this issue, myself included), its hard to diagnose this problem if there is more than one bad ignition coil...however if you have access to another set of ignition coils swap them out and see what happens, if you have these extra parts it would be the least inexpensive manner in which to resolve your problem...good luck and let us know how it goes....
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Old 01-11-2007, 10:27 AM
SVXMAN2001 SVXMAN2001 is offline
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oh and welcome to the network!!!
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  #4  
Old 01-11-2007, 10:53 AM
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Manarius Manarius is offline
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I like the Mass Air Flow Sensor for this problem as well. When they're reading badly, the engine runs extremely poorly.
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Old 01-12-2007, 09:55 AM
Shaboom Shaboom is offline
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Airflow meter

Well, the airflow meter and temp gauge died at the same time about a year ago, so it's a pretty new one. I'll look into the ignition coils.

Thanks for the quick and friendly help! I'm really glad I found this place.
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Old 01-12-2007, 06:08 PM
oab_au oab_au is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaboom
Well, the airflow meter and temp gauge died at the same time about a year ago, so it's a pretty new one. I'll look into the ignition coils.

Thanks for the quick and friendly help! I'm really glad I found this place.
The coils tend to burn tracks in the rubber boot, that covers the plug. Pull the coils and check the boots for black tracks. Might as well stick 6 new plugs in there, while you are at it.

This allows the spark to short down the side of the plug when the load is on, like going up hills.

Harvey.
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  #7  
Old 01-12-2007, 06:47 PM
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Trevor Trevor is offline
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[QUOTE= But the weird part is that after it dies and I restart it, it runs just fine. I can go up any hill, push the speed, etc.
[/QUOTE]

This is the interesting part which requires further diagnosis. It would appear that the engine actually stalls and will not continue to run, even badly. Please confirm. If so would appear that something intermittent fails and then resets.

Worse when the engine is cold --- i.e. right from start up or shortly afterwards? Does it idle OK at start up? Ditto when hot?

Think about everything and come back with all the clues you can.

Let us hope we can come up with something more definite. Trevor.
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Old 01-13-2007, 02:46 AM
Shaboom Shaboom is offline
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A cold engine means it takes a lot less to cause the problem, although some days I've had problems no matter how long I warm it up, especially at an uphill freeway entrance.

It seems to be stalling, yeah, except with an especially cold engine it'll be extra hard to get it going again. Just now I had it die on me very early in a trip (I didn't expect the "hill" to be enough to push it over the edge, but it was at the start of the trip so all hell broke loose), and I had to let it sit for a minute before it would start again. Even then the engine was shaking like crazy, and I had to let it roll forward a little and then start it moving to calm it. Rest of the trip went fine.

The problem starting wasn't really a "give it gas", wheezy sort of dead (although giving it gas seemed to help), but more that it was stalling as quickly as it started.
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Old 01-13-2007, 02:23 PM
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Trevor Trevor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaboom
A cold engine means it takes a lot less to cause the problem, although some days I've had problems no matter how long I warm it up, especially at an uphill freeway entrance.

It seems to be stalling, yeah, except with an especially cold engine it'll be extra hard to get it going again. Just now I had it die on me very early in a trip (I didn't expect the "hill" to be enough to push it over the edge, but it was at the start of the trip so all hell broke loose), and I had to let it sit for a minute before it would start again. Even then the engine was shaking like crazy, and I had to let it roll forward a little and then start it moving to calm it. Rest of the trip went fine.

The problem starting wasn't really a "give it gas", wheezy sort of dead (although giving it gas seemed to help), but more that it was stalling as quickly as it started.

The "shacking like crazy", indicates an ignition problem but is confirmed as being intermittent. Therefore this would not normally suggest a spark plug problem.

The sit for a minute and then things come right. causes suspicion regarding fuel starvation, until a fault clears. Nothing exactly points to an electrical intermittent, but damn it, here we are not involved in an exact science.

The one time I have experienced an intermittent problem exactly like this, which was so hard to locate, it turned out to be an object in the fuel tank. Only on occasion did this block the outlet but cleared before it could be detected. It kept the car out of racing for some time. The problem is always, how to get at it when it is actually playing up.

The tactic is to absolutely eliminate one item at a time. Items have been suggested which you have eliminated from the equation on the basis that they were replaced not that long ago. This is not a means of ABSOLUTELY ruling them out and you will have to back track. A hit and miss approach is unlikely to be effective and will drive you up the wall. A logical approach can give some satisfaction along the way.
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