Hey guys...I'm new here and am a typical chick who knows nothing about cars so hopefully you can help me. I have a 99 Cavalier with an automatic transmission and it has about 54,500 miles on her.
As of almost two months ago, my car would make some jerking motions when I accelerate it. It's been getting worse the past two weeks. It jerck violently especially when I have the ac on and the car is stopped at a light or intersection and feels like it might stop. Reving the engine makes the jerking go away for a few seconds. When I accelerate it, it doesn't have much power and then when it reaches about 25 or 30 mph or so, it jerks violently and there's a full blast of power and speed. When I'm going a steady 40 mph or so it still jerks every now and then as I"m driving it, but not as violently as when the car is stopped. When the ac is off, it does all of this, but the jerking isn't as violent.
Also, my ac has started to make this stupid noise as of the past two weeks. It sounds like a film projector. The ac works fine though. I wonder if this is connected? It's made noises in the past few years and it only lasted a few weeks and would then go away. I always figured it was a leave or something stuck in the ac vent.
I'm worried it might be something major like a bad transmission or a bad fuel pump. I hope it's something small like a sensor or cables or something.
If it matters, 2 months ago, (a week or so before the jerking started) My car turned off several times on me as I was driving it. I took it somewhere and they put it in the computer and everything and they found NOTHING wrong with it...they suggested that I put the higher grade of gas. So after a week or so it turns off on me again and this time it's dead. My boyfriend took a look at it and he immediately saw that one of the battery cables was corroded. He replaced it himself and the car worked fine after that (except that the jerking started over a week later). Now I'm guessing the battery is leaking acid...I got that battery 2 years ago. I don't know if the jerking is due to the battery being bad (even though when I took it to that @!#$ty place, they tested the battery and they said it was good).
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be wrong with it? Anything like this happened to you guys before??
Thanks in advance.
Oh yeah, and sorry about the type-o's. I wrote this fast and didn't bother to spell check it.
Well the jerking might simply be the fuel filter. Have you replaced it yet? When free-reeving, you're not putting as much load on the engine to cause it to jerk, and the AC is even a higher load making it jerk more violently.
As for your AC sounding like a film projecting, it just sounds like something got into the vents. It's happened to me a few times on the four different Cavalier's I've owned. It may eventually knock itself loose. I've never taken it apart to remove anything, it's always gone away for me on mine.
Check your owner's manual to make sure all long-time regular maintenance has been done, then evaluate from there if it continues.
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I do agree with you about something being stuck in the ac...it has happened to me before and it's gone away by itself as well.
I do believe I got my fuel filter changed not too long ago. I still have all the service receipts from the past few years of everything that has been done to the car so I'll check when that was changed.
I drove it this morning and it did the whole jerking/jumpy thing. I just drove it now to run an errand and it didn't really do it. It does it sometimes. I'm planning on taking her in regardless on Sunday to Tire Kingdom but I"m concerned it might not act up that day
Hmm, when it jerks like that, pull the shift lever down to the next lower gear range for a few seconds and see what that does, then put it back in drive. I'm not sure if these cars have lockup converters or not, but those symptoms can sometimes be attributed to a converter thats not unlocking as you come to a stop, and then staying locked as you accelerate. Lockup converters typically will only lock when the gear range is set to drive, and won't lockup when the gear range is set lower.
If your AC is sounding like i think it is..... its the clutch.
I think i may have, well, ruined mine when i stalled a few times on my first time out in a stick. Does it make it all the time? or just when its off.
I am confused by his stating that he stalled the car, but I think he may be referring to the AC clutch. You know they have the electronic one that makes the wheel free or engaged. That clutch can go out sometimes.
But then since he said he stalled the car i dunno. The transmission clutch wouldn't affect the AC
I have a 2001 Cavalier with 63K on it.... and reading your posting was like you have been riding in my car! Same thing! I had it serviced in mid-June and they advised me it was a bad fuel pressure regulator. They replaced that... and it was fine for a few weeks. It did it again, so I dropped it off at the shop.... they drove it around and around and told me it didn't act up for them.
It happened again this past Friday, so I drove straight to the shop.... and, like a MORON, I shut it off. Dumb idea, as restarting it seems to temporarily clear up the problem. A mechanic rode along with me and, sure enough, it didn't act up! However, after dropping him off, I drove around that area trying to get it to do it again... and it did! So he rode in it again and finally experienced it too--I was beginning to think I was going crazy!! Then Saturday and Sunday it drove fine, although a little bit sluggish.
He did a diagnostic on it and told me it could be a transmission sensor or something.... but when I brought it in today they told me if it didn't act up for them again, they may not be able to do anything.
I too noticed it acts up more when the A/C is on too.... and after stopping and trying to accelerate.... and it periodically shuts off on me. Same way like when you run out of gas-- everything locks up on you and shuts down. I'm baffled! It revs at over 4,000 rpms at 20mph or less.... and then jerks as it tries to shift.
We should start a support group for this problem. Ha!
I just looked at a Carfax report for my car and it mentions this:
"Occasional problems with this vehicle are failures of the Torque Converter Clutch (TCC) Solenoid, 3 Speed Automatic Transmission only, and the Transmission Pass-Thru Connector, 4 Speed Automatic Transmission only. The cost to repair the TCC Solenoid is estimated at $40.35 for parts and $286.00 for labor. The cost to repair the Transmission Pass-Thru Connector is estimated at $10.00 for parts and $52.00 for labor. All prices are estimates based on $65 per flat rate hour and do not include diagnostic time or any applicable sales tax."
Tell that to your mechanics and see if that helps any.
Thanks, Greg! I'll pass that info on! Bummer to have spent $600 last month for new front brakes, a new fuel pressure regulator and a new part for the A/C... something had burned out and only the bottom 2 speeds worked.
Hopefully mine is one of the cheaper fixes.....?
Thanks!
Vanessa-- One more thing.... have you noticed an issue when making right-hand turns? I have noticed a tendency to hesitate and feel like a loss of power may occur... but doesn't. Could be unrelated.... but just curious.
Laura
Laura Althans wrote:Vanessa-- One more thing.... have you noticed an issue when making right-hand turns? I have noticed a tendency to hesitate and feel like a loss of power may occur... but doesn't. Could be unrelated.... but just curious.
Laura
It does this whether I'm turning left or right or just driving straight.
when ever it is jerking.. is it when you are trying to hold speed.. and if you tromp on it does it appear to stop? And look into your review and see if you notice black smoke when you nail it. If so have the fuel pressure checked.. It might be the fuel Pump. If the engine is running lean from from lack of fuel pressure the PCM will increase the pulse width to help over compensate for this cause the motor to load up on fuel which cause the care to hesitate.
3800 SII S/C Swap <In Progress>
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What usu. indicates the TCC solenoid going bad is if the engine starts "bucking" at a stop light, then if you shift the trans. to neutral it will clear up. If not, you've probably got something else going on.
Have you had the trans. serviced? New fluid & filter might do wonders.
I had mine in the shop again on Monday.... and of course, they couldn't get it to act up again. They had cleared the error codes the previous Friday and hoped it would act up again in order to possibly isolate the primary error code.
What they did is install a new TPS in hopes that it will work. I'm kind of their 'guinea pig.' If it doesn't act up again, they'll figure that was the issue. If it does act up, they'll give me my old part back, refund for the piece and move on to another possible solution. Trial and error! I did recently have a new fuel pressure regulator installed.
The issue seemed to show itself in city traffic where there was breaking and accelerating going on. When I'd hit the gas, I'd feel a definite loss of power.... I'd have the pedal way down and it was stuck at about 20-25 mph and revving at like 4,000 rpm's. When it did try and shift, it would jerk forward.... I did have a tranny flush within the last year or so, and a new fuel filter installed in the last year as well. Barely put 12,000 miles on my car each year.... so low mileage.
Fun stuff!!
What engine do you have? If it is the 2.4 twin cam I would change the coil housing.
Carl wrote:Mark wrote:If your AC is sounding like i think it is..... its the clutch.
I think i may have, well, ruined mine when i stalled a few times on my first time out in a stick. Does it make it all the time? or just when its off.
She has an automatic
Was referring to the AC clutch.
I think the car suddenly dieing and violently jerking does not go very well for it. I stalled once, not bad tho, since i had the AC compressor (w/ clutch) done, and now its starting to go bad again (and its only been 3 weeks) Acdelco has it's warranty so i'll be getting it done again.
Hey guys...FYI.. I FINALLY took my car in to Tire Kingdom. They said I had the wrong spark plugs in my car *I believe Firestone was the one who replaced my spark plugs early this year*. So Tire Kingdom replaced my spark plugs for ac delco. They also put in new spark plug wires and a new fuel fliter.
Lets just say I haven't had this good of a performance on my car in months!!! It runs perfect now.
Hmm my cars got about the same symptoms right now... I think I'll try a few of those cheaper parts first and see what they do.
98 Cavalier
2200 OHV
"It's a rolls... rolls down one hill and up the next"
Hey folks. I`ve been having some problems with my 1998 Cavalier 2.2L and this is the closest post I have found to my problem. I honestly think that the Supreme gasoline that I bought from a certain vendor had a content of diesel fuel in it.. The car started bucking down the road at 80 km`s or so. You would tap the brake and she`d buck. I drove it for a while and noticed she idled fine but when I reved it up she wouldn`t even reach her full potential before the rev limiter kicked in and she backfires. I put it in drive and sometimes it would stall. When I could get it to run in drive with my foot on the brake it would buck very violently and almost stall..
Heres the real kicker, I was rolling down the road and all of a sudden it wants to randomly downshift. So I have to let off the gas a bit and it gos into the next gear. Then all of a sudden I lost every gear completely. Everything was neutral except for park. I thought I dropped it. So I coasted into a parking lot and let her cool down so I could try again. I could catch my gears again, only to slowly accelerate a bit and then loose it again.
Oh, also after all the bucking before the tranny problems all of my drive accessory pulleys had loosened up and the belt.. Does this sound familiar to anyone.. Is it diesel or some fuel sensor.. I also have Ac pulley noise.
Nessa GOD wrote:Hey guys...FYI.. I FINALLY took my car in to Tire Kingdom. They said I had the wrong spark plugs in my car *I believe Firestone was the one who replaced my spark plugs early this year*. So Tire Kingdom replaced my spark plugs for ac delco. They also put in new spark plug wires and a new fuel fliter.
Lets just say I haven't had this good of a performance on my car in months!!! It runs perfect now.
I knew it was spark plugs as soon as i read the title.
