Okay... I'm trying to track down the problem, but I figured that I might as well make use of the vast reservoir of G-Body and general car knowledge here as I do it.
Recently, my car -- 85GP with the 305HO, 4-barrell Quadrajet, most of it stock -- has been running like crap. You start it up, it idles high and normal while it's cold. Once it kicks down, it idles all kinds of rough. It just started this one day, out of nowhere. It's the kind of idle where the entire car shakes, and it feels like it's almost going to stall out, but it never does.
I've had bad luck with head gaskets in the past, so I immediately checked that. No bubbling in the coolant, no milk shake in my oil fill and my oil resembles oil, rather than chocolate milk. There's a little bit of water drippage out of my tail pipes, but I attribute that primarily to condensation because it doesn't last more than a few minutes after I start the car.
Plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor are brand new as of July. I've checked the seating of the wires, everything is secure. Oil could probably use a change, but it isn't black and horrible yet.
There is no power loss in acceleration, and it holds speed nicely.
Here's the weird part... you start the car, it idles like crap. You hop on the highway and do 70 for a few minutes, get off the road and it idles fine! No sign of any problems. Turn the car off for five seconds, restart it... and it idles like sh*te again.
Oil pressure is fine -- I don't have gauges but I have an extremely sensitive idiot light where you can almost tell what the pressure is based on how bright the light is shining. Car is also making enough power, and even when it idles crappy, the lights don't dim or anything. No check engine lights or anything of the sort have come up.
I am having a terrible time diagnosing this. The only work I've done to the car recently is replacing the air filter and the front shocks -- neither of which, I would think, would be a contributing cause to this sort of an issue.
Any thoughts?
Recently, my car -- 85GP with the 305HO, 4-barrell Quadrajet, most of it stock -- has been running like crap. You start it up, it idles high and normal while it's cold. Once it kicks down, it idles all kinds of rough. It just started this one day, out of nowhere. It's the kind of idle where the entire car shakes, and it feels like it's almost going to stall out, but it never does.
I've had bad luck with head gaskets in the past, so I immediately checked that. No bubbling in the coolant, no milk shake in my oil fill and my oil resembles oil, rather than chocolate milk. There's a little bit of water drippage out of my tail pipes, but I attribute that primarily to condensation because it doesn't last more than a few minutes after I start the car.
Plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor are brand new as of July. I've checked the seating of the wires, everything is secure. Oil could probably use a change, but it isn't black and horrible yet.
There is no power loss in acceleration, and it holds speed nicely.
Here's the weird part... you start the car, it idles like crap. You hop on the highway and do 70 for a few minutes, get off the road and it idles fine! No sign of any problems. Turn the car off for five seconds, restart it... and it idles like sh*te again.
Oil pressure is fine -- I don't have gauges but I have an extremely sensitive idiot light where you can almost tell what the pressure is based on how bright the light is shining. Car is also making enough power, and even when it idles crappy, the lights don't dim or anything. No check engine lights or anything of the sort have come up.
I am having a terrible time diagnosing this. The only work I've done to the car recently is replacing the air filter and the front shocks -- neither of which, I would think, would be a contributing cause to this sort of an issue.
Any thoughts?
