90TGP Posted October 27, 2002 Report Share Posted October 27, 2002 Ok, I know a TGP is a love/hate relationship. But I'm really starting to hate my car. Here's the situation. I can start my car just fine, and drive it while I have no electrical things on[lights, stereo ect]. Once I turn my stereo on [6 aftermarket speakers, 300watt amp, aftermarket deck, no subs] my car will start hesitating and beg for power. The idle gets real ruff, I get black smoke out of my tailpipes and through my hood louvers when I try to accelerate. It feels like I have a real bad tranny, but it isn't the tranny [or at least I sure as f*ck hope not]. The car will make real rough grinding type noises when I press the gas pedal down. Sometimes the car will even buck pretty hard. About the end of September and early October, I had the plugs replaced because the current ones in the car where pretty bad. I had a bad plug wire too, but didn't know it at the time. Earlier this month, I replaced all my plugs again[i didn't use platinums], and used Taylor plug wires. It was fixed for a while after that. Then Saturday, I got my car back onto the road after being dorment for two weeks because of a snapped parking brake cable which locked my rear caliper. I used my stereo for the first time in a while Saturday when I went bowling, the car ran fine. Then when I left, the car started to do all that shit I mentioned in the first paragraph. I had the radio and my lights on because it was at night. I had to ease it home since it was hesitating. Before I got home, I pulled into a parking lot, and then the car stalled. I then thought it would be the alternator since the stereo might be draining power from it. I had my alternator checked today at Autozone, and my battery and alternator was just fine. The car ran fine to and from Autozone. But when I got to a stop light, it started all over again. I had to pull into the middle turn lane to try and get into the plaza. Then my car stalled again. I only had my stereo on. I was lucky to bring it home. Since I had my plugs and wires replaced, and my battery and alternator checked. I think it might be a bad coil? If it keeps doing this, I might just have the whole g@dd@mn motor rebuilt over the winter. Replace all the electrical shit. WHAT THE F*CK IS WRONG WITH MY D@MN CAR!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted October 27, 2002 Report Share Posted October 27, 2002 You have to realize it takes about 60 amps of power give or take to run the TGP. Between the fans, engine electrics, powermaster, heater, radio etc its alot of power. The TGP alt only puts out 105 amps on a good day, at about 2000 rpm. What did they do to check the alt? I really think this may still be your problem especially with the amp. WHen the power goes down, the injectors can't fire right, and the coils can't work right. Take a volt meter with you on your next trip. If it starts to FUCK UP again (comon guys like we don't know what F*CK is!) put a volt meter on the positive stud on the strut tower and on the thermostat housing and see what the voltage is. If its not at LEAST 14 volts, you could be having problems. I had one once that chaged fine except when loaded down, then it wouldn't put enough to charge the battery and would eventually die. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff M Posted October 28, 2002 Report Share Posted October 28, 2002 Right on Scott, if there is a clue (voltage releated) then go down that route (Radio Shack and $15 and you got a decent little volty/ohm meter!). I would say from all the TGPs I have seen that you could have as low as 13.3 to 13.8 if the system is not loaded/battery is charged up from engine running a while. NOW, from some info I JUST posted on ground loops being caused from a bad motor mount (Or non-isolated dogbones) this is the typical resulting problem you will find. Take that new ohm meter and get a reading from the motor (anywhere on it that is metal!) to the subframe (yes through the undercoating/tar), if it is less than 100 to 200 ohms then very good possibilty, less then 50 ohms or worse, there you go, now have fun dropping the frame a tad and lifting up the motor to swap it out/install new! AND NO, this is not TGP specific problem, any 2.8, 3.1 or 3.3 (or ?) can do this when the owner lets the old power steering pump leak after it wears out its seal, and on high milage engines, the front main seal too, so that all that oil runs dow and soaks into the motor mount pocket in the subframe and eats through the rubber part of the motor mount. Of course some smarties we have here will already be thinking a trip to the car wash to blast what has accumulated, out of there before they have the same problem as you. Good luck, bye Jeff M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1trucavalier Posted October 28, 2002 Report Share Posted October 28, 2002 you got a cap .5 or 1 farad? 300w may not sound like a lot but if you using a high end amp the current draw will fry an altenator easy. I fried 2 altenators in my cavalier until i wised up and got a capacitor. I am currently running a 1600w lanzar and 600w Jenson both are 1 farad cap'd and the lights never even blink even at night. Getting a larger battery 850+ is worthless its cap or fry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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