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[Remington]

So this is a car-care related question but I didn't figure it was worth starting a new thread for.

My 88 Buick Park Avenue has been dying recently.  It dies when idling, though sometimes when slowing.  My car idles around 1000 RPM normally, it seems like it wants to idle around 800 or so but dies when it tries to. 

It almost only happens when it's warmer out, but it has been happening during the mornings and after work too.  I have no problems starting it, and I've noticed it shifts pretty hard from 1st to second (it slips a little and then chugs forward every few times I start to accelerate).

I've eliminated the battery and the alternator as the problem, and was wondering if anybody had any other ideas for things I could check myself before having to take my car into the shop.

[Sa9jev]

Could be a fuel system issue. Check the lines, injectors, pump, injectors again, etc.

[The Iron Colonel]

Yeah, I'd recommend checking fuel pump and filter as a first check, then maybe the ignition system. Could be any number of things (that is, things in the fuel system and electrical/ignition system), none of which are terribly easy for the home mechanic to fix. Probably time to take it in, if you care to do so.

Also, RE: the 4.6l v8 vs the GM v6, remember that the 4.6l v8 is a much older engine and doesn't have the benefit of new innovations that the v6 has (e.g. variable valve timing). The v6 also has the benefit of direct injection, which improves both fuel economy and allows tight control of fuel mixture on a per-cylinder basis. The 4.6l has somewhat primitive variable valve timing (no lift control, has phasing but a SOHC engine so both intake and exhaust are phased in unison) to the v6's phasing on 4 cam shafts (for independent control of intake and exhaust timing), 3 valves to the v6's 4 valves, and multi-port injection to the v6's direct injection, on top of numerous internal features of which I'm sure I'm unaware. The point is, the 4.6l v8 is an aging engine that lacks the new modern features of the v6.

However, note that the SOHC 4.6l v8 has 70 ft lbs of torque more than the v6. Recall that horsepower is a derived measure from torque and engine speed; to wit, the Cadillac has a 7,000 rpm redline vs the 4.6l's 6,100 rpm redline. The Cadillac also has a higher compression ratio, which eaks out more thermal efficiency.

It's not so much that Ford cannot produce engines with better volumetric efficiency, they just haven't yet. They recently launched an initiative to replace the majority of their v8's with high-feature v6's featuring light-pressure turbocharging. However, the development cycle for a whole new family of engines is both long and very expensive; Ford hasn't exactly been rolling in money lately. Who's to blame them for holding out and getting a couple more years out of an existing engine line?

[Sa9jev]

Then they have the marketing aspect to wrestle with. I imagine it'd be pretty tough to get the muscle car demographic to accept a turbo-charged v6 as their most powerful option for factory-spec Mustangs.

[Remington]

Yeah, I'd recommend checking fuel pump and filter as a first check, then maybe the ignition system. Could be any number of things (that is, things in the fuel system and electrical/ignition system), none of which are terribly easy for the home mechanic to fix. Probably time to take it in, if you care to do so.

I do care to do so, and will be doing so tomorrow evening.  I would have liked to fix the problem myself but figured it was probably out of my hands.  Thanks anyway, though.

[Jalaam]

Just some questions that have been on my mind for a while, but for which I can't find any specific information:

*Why are there Holden Commodore SS sedans and utes being badged as Chevrolets in Australia?


*How come the interiors of American cars are, for the most part, so cheaply (read: badly) made, compared to their European and Asian competitors?

Some retards simply think it looks cooler. Which is interesting because GM Holden make a better quality car than GMC. Which takes us too...

I'm about to explain this badly but, the American car market has a demand for cars that only need to last a few years, then the owners like to update alot sooner than their Euro friends. (Not sure about the Japs) Partly as a result, the cars are made/sold cheaper. As a result, they're simply not build to last as long.

[Kicsi Viz]

That was true in the past, not so much any more.  Both in the sense of the cars holding up better and of people keeping them longer.

But a lot of American cars still have crappy interiors.

[Mister Fahrenheit]

Just some questions that have been on my mind for a while, but for which I can't find any specific information:

*Why are there Holden Commodore SS sedans and utes being badged as Chevrolets in Australia?

Some retards simply think it looks cooler. Which is interesting because GM Holden make a better quality car than GMC.

Upon further Googling, it appears that they are actually Chevrolet Lumina SS cars. The Lumina is meant for export to left-hand drive markets though, so it still doesn't explain what they're doing in Australia.

[The Iron Colonel]

Brand loyalty? Some people are irrational to extremes about brand and image. Tell someone that the Pontiac Firebird and the Chevrolet Camaro are the same car (they were, before being discontinued, mechanically identical and simply had different bodies) and they may very well get upset. Or better yet, point out that your neighbor's $70k Lexus is just an upmarket Toyota and you might get punched out (the same holds for Nissan/Infiniti and Volkswagen/Audi and Honda/Acura and Chevrolet/Buick). Americans are very image conscious; perhaps that's spilling over into other countries?

[Kicsi Viz]

Let's not forget the "Chevymobile" class-action lawsuit, when GM ended up paying millions to people who claimed to be outraged that their Oldsmobiles had Chevrolet engines in them.

I knew a woman in the early 1990s who drove a Cadillac Cimarron, which was basically a Chevrolet Cavalier econobox with fancy upholstery and double the price tag.  She'd never drive a Chevy, but she'd pay twice as much for the same shitbox and a Caddy badge on it.

[Jalaam]

Brand loyalty? Some people are irrational to extremes about brand and image. Tell someone that the Pontiac Firebird and the Chevrolet Camaro are the same car (they were, before being discontinued, mechanically identical and simply had different bodies) and they may very well get upset. Or better yet, point out that your neighbor's $70k Lexus is just an upmarket Toyota and you might get punched out (the same holds for Nissan/Infiniti and Volkswagen/Audi and Honda/Acura and Chevrolet/Buick). Americans are very image conscious; perhaps that's spilling over into other countries?

We had elements of that in the 80's & early 90's when we had Holden Commodores badged as Toyota Lexens, (and all the others, but this one had the biggest brand impact) the Lexens were a few thousands dollars cheaper for an identical car. But fuck me if you'd ever get me in one of them compared to the Commodore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badge_engineering, this explains a lil. But to My knowledge something happened in Australia in the 90's that stopped the local manufacturers doing this. Possibly simply product saturation.

[Jalaam]

Sorry, this too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_car_plan

[daedeloth]

So this is a car-care related question but I didn't figure it was worth starting a new thread for.

My 88 Buick Park Avenue has been dying recently.  It dies when idling, though sometimes when slowing.  My car idles around 1000 RPM normally, it seems like it wants to idle around 800 or so but dies when it tries to. 

It almost only happens when it's warmer out, but it has been happening during the mornings and after work too.  I have no problems starting it, and I've noticed it shifts pretty hard from 1st to second (it slips a little and then chugs forward every few times I start to accelerate).

I've eliminated the battery and the alternator as the problem, and was wondering if anybody had any other ideas for things I could check myself before having to take my car into the shop.

I have this exact same problem on a '95 Chevy Corsica. Right down to the inconsistent shifting. It starts fine, idles like shit and likes to simply stall when stopped or slowed down after it gets driven for a bit.

At first it'd only do it after I drove it extensively, I drive down to my parents' every couple weekends and it's about 60 miles one way, which would cause it to stall almost every time. Recently it's started happening more often, a two mile trip can cause it problems. And it does seem to happen when it's warmer out.

I had the fuel injectors and fuel pump replaced last summer because they were leaking like mad. It has a new battery and alternator from December when it wouldn't start. I've had the spark plugs checked, a bad idle control valve replaced, and it's still doing it. My mechanic is utterly stumped.

I'll be taking it into a Chevy dealership Friday hoping that it's some stupidly small thing I've overlooked thus far, or just a bad part my usual mechanic got by accident. I'll let you know what they find.

[Remington]

The guys where I took my car figured out the problem and it is costing me around $500 to get fixed.  I don't remember what the problem is.

[Sa9jev]

I'd bet it was your G-Diffuser. Or fuel pump, whatever.

[The Iron Colonel]

That's what it cost to have a new fuel pump and filter installed on my girlfriends car; most of the cost was labor, if I recall correctly. That doesn't sound like an unreasonable sum, though.

[Leunam]

So are there benefits to true dual exhaust over single exhaust?

A local guy is selling his exhaust and it's a deal I don't think I can pass up. I'll be going from single to dual, but I'm curious if there are any HP gains or other performance related benefits.

[Anatomica]

Depends on the engine. Generally if it's a V8 or something with even more cylinders it'll benefit. V6's are kinda iffy. Four cylinder engines largely don't benefit. If I recall correctly, the main benefit is a reduction of backpressure - when you've got two separate banks of four cylinders each all feeding into one pipe, there's a lot more pressure than just one bank of four cylinders per pipe. Theoretically a four cylinder might still benefit from it, but I seem to recall the benefits are marginal at best.

Dual exhaust also means you can install a cross-pipe, which you can use to get a bit more power via scavenging (the exhaust flow from one pipe will draw more flow through the other pipe which, in turn, will draw exhaust out of the chamber more rapidly which, in turn, will pull in more fuel).

If you've got a V8, it's probably worth it.

[daedeloth]

That's what it cost to have a new fuel pump and filter installed on my girlfriends car; most of the cost was labor, if I recall correctly. That doesn't sound like an unreasonable sum, though.

$550 was what it cost me to get a new fuel pump and filter put in. It didn't fix my problem.

Hope it fixes yours, at the least. I won't have the money to take mine to the shop until next month.

[Leunam]

If you've got a V8, it's probably worth it.

That's a shame, I drive a V6 Charger. Well it's $100, and some other people have reported a slight increase in response, but they also had a cold air intake installed. We'll see soon enough.