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Hey all - my friend's son has a '95 Intrepid. About 125,000 miles. 3.5 24 valve V6.
I was over there this evening, and basically the thing is running rough. Sometimes it dies on the kid, but when he goes to restart it, it always fires right back up.
I didn't have the time or tools to do much, so we just kind of fiddled around under the hood for a couple minutes. It appears that a couple of the cylinders are hitting intermittently at best. The dad had pulled a couple plugs and said they were pretty sooty. Other than that, nothing immediately shows up.
I suspect that at least one of the injectors is kind of slobbering gas into the cylinder, which does no favors for the spark plugs. I also suspect that the plugs may be long overdue for a change.
My thoughts are for him to replace the spark plugs and dump a bottle of Lucas Deep Clean Fuel System Cleaner. At best, he gets lucky and for $25 his car is running much better. At worst, he spent $25 for something that probably needed to be done anyway.
What are your thoughts? I know I'm giving very sketchy information, but that's all I have at the moment.
Are there specific problem areas with this particular car? Some sensor that is known to go bad, an ECM problem?
Didn't you go through this a couple of months back or was that a different car?
Anyway, you didn't specify if it was dying at idle or when driving down the highway. If at idle, check the PCV hose for and all related hoses. These are known for the hose collapsing and cracking open, creating a vacuum leak which would explain the cylinders leaning out and the rough idle. Good luck
Didn't you go through this a couple of months back or was that a different car?
Anyway, you didn't specify if it was dying at idle or when driving down the highway. If at idle, check the PCV hose for and all related hoses. These are known for the hose collapsing and cracking open, creating a vacuum leak which would explain the cylinders leaning out and the rough idle. Good luck
Yeah, actually it is. Somehow I completely zoned that one out.
Where is the PCV valve & offending hose on that particular car?
I'm probably repeating myself from the other thread too, but it's always worthwhile IMHO to catch up on deferred maintenance, particularly spark plugs and fuel filter, on a neglected car.
It's usually not a waste of time to look for vacuum leaks on an older rig like this either. One thing I like to do is use a 2 or 3 foot long piece of vacuum hose, holding one end to my ear and moving the free end around in the engine compartment to find the "hiss" of vacuum leaks. It looks rediculous, but it works well. Be safe, don't get close to any belts or pullies with this. I have a proper mechanic's stethoscope, but the old hose trick is better at finding vacuum leaks as you don't have to actually touch the leaking hose/fitting to hear it, you can hear the hiss get louder as you get closer.
The above is beyond the obvious one that 3-steps pointed out... I'd be amazed if it only had 1 or 2 vacuum leaks...
I'm probably repeating myself from the other thread too, but it's always worthwhile IMHO to catch up on deferred maintenance, particularly spark plugs and fuel filter, on a neglected car.
It's usually not a waste of time to look for vacuum leaks on an older rig like this either. One thing I like to do is use a 2 or 3 foot long piece of vacuum hose, holding one end to my ear and moving the free end around in the engine compartment to find the "hiss" of vacuum leaks. It looks rediculous, but it works well. Be safe, don't get close to any belts or pullies with this. I have a proper mechanic's stethoscope, but the old hose trick is better at finding vacuum leaks as you don't have to actually touch the leaking hose/fitting to hear it, you can hear the hiss get louder as you get closer.
The above is beyond the obvious one that 3-steps pointed out... I'd be amazed if it only had 1 or 2 vacuum leaks...
Mitch, on your stethoscope, pull the diaphragm and tip off and replace it with your 2 foot piece of vacuum hose at the Y fitting, That way you get the benefit of using the earpieces.
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