ok, so my saga with this car continues. Back in march, i had a no start issue. took it to a repair shop who put on a good/used distributor, timing belt, coolant sensor, plugs and wires, and adjusted the amm screw. Now on Thursday of last week, i was getting a slight miss when i was at a stoplight with the vehicle in drive. a couple times i had a pretty powerful surge while stopped. I purchased the mass air flow cleaner, sprayed the crap out of it, let it dry and put it back in. Was running very smooth. Last night im driving home and its missing so bad, i couldnt get any speed out of it. I also noticed that the radio was cutting out to the pattern of the hesitation. It wasnt shutting off, but its like the signal is getting interupted.

 

Power issue? Battery cables? Grounds? Fuses? That's where I'd look if you haven't already.

 

I dont know a whole lot about the electrical side... Could you elaborate on it a little?

 

Pretty simple look at the cables attached to the battery make sure they are clean and tight.
Not familiar with the 88 240 but my 86 has a main ground going to the engine block near the a/c compressor clean possibly sand off corrosion tighten, along with any other grounds you can find.
Again not familiar with the 88 but my car has the euro style fuses near the driver side door. I would pull them all out individually and clean the contacts.
Last I would check to make sure your alternator is working properly with a multimeter/voltmeter across the battery terminals while the car is running you should have around 13.5v or so and over 14 at running rpm.

 

ok. something wierd going on to say the least. My radio kept jumping into protect mode. I did have to replave the ground wire for the alternator a few months back. Ill check your suggestions tonight after work.

So you dont think its an AMM issue? What was odd about it while I was driving home is I would have power, then all of a sudden, it was gone even though I was still pressing the gas pedal. It was like something shut off

 

I always start with the free stuff first. I'm not an expert on these FI systems but it sounds like an electric system cutting in and out. Go back and double/triple check that alt. ground.

 

I checked all the grounds, check the alternator voltage. Everything good there. I pulled the throttle body and it had black gunk right around the valve. I cleaned it and the maf. Running smooth.

 

When I had the air hose off the t/b I rev'd up the motor and the valve wasn't moving inside. Shouldn't that be wide open on high throttle?

 

the throttle should open when you step on the gas pedal or turn the throttle drum, even if the engine is off, its directly cable+lever actuated.

 

Cleaning the t/b ended not being the fix. Just tried to drive to work and hesitation all over again. Anybody got an idea

 

driving down the road this morning, i was holding a steady pedal and would get the hesitation i've been experiemcing. It resembled what would happen when you run out of gas. Then it would stop hesitating, sputtering, whatever you wanna call it. Then start all over again. After I cleaned the t/b and maf las night I ran it for awhile and it was smooth. Even took it for 2 drives and no issues. Any help would be appreciated as this is my daily runner.

 

i will also get the missing and have had an occasional surge in RPM's while at a stoplight with the car in drive.

 

Could this be a bad tps or possibly a malfunctioning ecu?

 

the TPS is purely a idle switch. closed (on) when the throttle is at idle, open otherwise. when its closed, it engages the idle regulator circuit which opens the idle air control valve if the idle is too slow, and closes it if its too fast. some years have an additional full throttle switch, this tells the ECU to run full bore when the pedal is completely floored, but otherwise does nothing.

 

your symptoms could be weak ignition system, or fuel starvation. they also could be something else, like a bad head gasket causing coolant to seep into the cylinders, drowning the spark.

 

Ok. Thanks for the insight. What's odd is... I went out and started it this evening. It seems to be running fine. Cold and hot. Where it seems to be the most problematic is when I'm driving it. I can feel it bogging down then comes back and operates normally, but then starts hesitating. When it's hesitating the radio is affected by it. It gets static in the reception. That's how I know it's getting bad again

 

Does anybody know why my radio would be staticy and cutting out when the engine is hesitating/missing. if i rev up the gas, it will clear out . I checked the voltage across the battery terminals at idle and its registering 13.5v

 

park in a dark place at night, open the hood, start the car, and inspect the engine in the dark, do the spark plug and coil wires light up like a christmas tree? if so, replace them with the Bougicord wire set that fcpeuro or ipdusa carry.

 

I'd look at the Power Stage. Had a similar issue, the PS was the culprit.

 

Power stage? What's that... Excuse my ignorance