’90 Firebird Stalling When Braking

I’ll admit now: I’m definately not an automotive expert. So, please go
easy on me. To start off, I drive a 1990 Pontiac Firebird with the
189ci 3.1L EFI and a 3 spd + O/D auto package on it. It’s quite cherry
and was garaged practically 24/7 for the first 13 years of it life,
where it only racked up 15,500 miles. Everything is stock, except the
tires and the alternator, which I replaced less than a year ago. It
now has 48,000 miles.

I just had some work done by Midas. The previous owner put in this
reddish-orange coolant, which I think the mechanic called Dexa-Cool or
something of that nature. While I flushed the system as soon as I got
the car, the mechanic told me that the coolant was in long enough to
eat away at 3 freeze plugs, the rear two of which were leaking and the
front was about to start too. He popped out the tranny and replaced
them.

I also had a problem with my headlight. I had to splice a new 6054ST
connector in because a contact had broken loose. While I’m positive
the splicing is perfect, I took off the negative terminal while doing
it.

Right after I got the car back, I noticed that it was trying to stall
at times. It will only want to stall when slowing to a stop like for
stoplights. Slowly or rapidly decellerating makes no difference, but
the thing sputters like it wants to stall. A few times it has, which
is a pain with an automatic at a green light. The stalling doesn’t
occur when fully stopped, idling, accellerating out from a stop, or
any time other than when stopping for lights. Running the headlights,
stereo, or any other electrical has no effect on it. Temperature has
no effect. Popping the tranny into neutral when stopping may or may
not have an effect... I can’t tell if there are any changes.

What I want to know is since the work on the freeze plugs was
guarenteed, should I take the car back to the shop, or is it due to
electrical from when I messed with the terminal? I don’t have much
cash, so any work I can do myself without having to buy any more tools
would be great.

Thanks in advance.

So, any ideas?

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if it still stall in neutral than its not the trans. i would check for a
vacum leak does it idle high or posslibly a iac motor or tps sensor

bigauto wrote:
> if it still stall in neutral than its not the trans. i would check for a
> vacum leak does it idle high or posslibly a iac motor or tps sensor
>
My knowledge base stops at 1984 , but guessin' works on anything

My guess is that the mechanic may have left off a ground connection
which causes the lock up converter to stay locked. I also like the
vaccum tubing suggestion. Vacuum tubing is so cheap, it's always smart
money to change lines. Do them one at a time. Your car sounds like a
real gem, but old cars are finicky, and parts that " look good " may not
be. As far as your callous blast of Dex Cool rotting your freeze plugs,
let's review here, the car is 14 years old, how old is the Dex Cool ?
Could the Green type antifreeze wimped out when the car was young,
rotted the freeze plugs, prior to the Dex Cool upgrade
and now be blamed for something it didn't do, or are you sure the plugs
were good before the previous owner went to DexCool ? I don't want to
sound mean, but considering the bad press DexCool has received, only to
find " other " things were the culprit. Use the green stuff if that's
what you like, be sure to change out every year or two, hard water is
another factor. Distilled water is only a couple bucks a gallon, a
smart investment in many locations. Keep the mix at 50 / 50 for
corrosion protection. Many fair weather cars run very weak mixture, and
that will rot your cooling system, regardless of anti freeze color.

Your car sounds like a
> real gem, but old cars are finicky, and parts that " look good " may not
> be. As far as your callous blast of Dex Cool rotting your freeze plugs,
> let's review here, the car is 14 years old, how old is the Dex Cool ?
> Could the Green type antifreeze wimped out when the car was young,
> rotted the freeze plugs, prior to the Dex Cool upgrade
> and now be blamed for something it didn't do, or are you sure the plugs
> were good before the previous owner went to DexCool ? I don't want to
> sound mean, but considering the bad press DexCool has received, only to
> find " other " things were the culprit. Use the green stuff if that's
> what you like, be sure to change out every year or two, hard water is
> another factor. Distilled water is only a couple bucks a gallon, a
> smart investment in many locations. Keep the mix at 50 / 50 for
> corrosion protection. Many fair weather cars run very weak mixture, and
> that will rot your cooling system, regardless of anti freeze color.

Good post.
H

As far as your callous blast of Dex Cool rotting your freeze plugs,
> let's review here, the car is 14 years old, how old is the Dex Cool ?
> Could the Green type antifreeze wimped out when the car was young,
> rotted the freeze plugs, prior to the Dex Cool upgrade
> and now be blamed for something it didn't do, or are you sure the plugs
> were good before the previous owner went to DexCool ? I don't want to
> sound mean, but considering the bad press DexCool has received, only to
> find " other " things were the culprit. Use the green stuff if that's
> what you like, be sure to change out every year or two, hard water is
> another factor. Distilled water is only a couple bucks a gallon, a
> smart investment in many locations. Keep the mix at 50 / 50 for
> corrosion protection. Many fair weather cars run very weak mixture, and
> that will rot your cooling system, regardless of anti freeze color.

It just occured to me that it may not have been Dex Cool in his engine.
Zerex and Durex are two brands that used to be orange. May still be AFAIK.
H

"hairy1" wrote:
> As far as your callous blast of Dex Cool rotting your freeze
> plugs,
> > let's review here, the car is 14 years old, how old is the
> Dex Cool ?
> > Could the Green type antifreeze wimped out when the car
> was young,
> > rotted the freeze plugs, prior to the Dex Cool upgrade
> > and now be blamed for something it didn't do, or are you
> sure the plugs
> > were good before the previous owner went to DexCool ? I
> don't want to
> > sound mean, but considering the bad press DexCool has
> received, only to
> > find " other " things were the culprit. Use the green stuff
> if that's
> > what you like, be sure to change out every year or two, hard
> water is
> > another factor. Distilled water is only a couple bucks a
> gallon, a
> > smart investment in many locations. Keep the mix at 50 / 50
> for
> > corrosion protection. Many fair weather cars run very weak
> mixture, and
> > that will rot your cooling system, regardless of anti freeze
> color.
>
> It just occured to me that it may not have been Dex Cool in
> his engine.
> Zerex and Durex are two brands that used to be orange. May
> still be AFAIK.
> H

I flush my coolant every 15,000 miles just to be on the safe side.

I have no way of knowing how long the Dex-Cool was in the radiator
before I bought it. However, it seems like the previous owner didn’t
keep very good maintenance. When I first bought it at 15,500 miles, it
still had the transmission fluid in it from the factory. There was a
considerable amount of metal flake, so the mechanic, refusing to
believe that my mileage was origingal, said I had less than 6 months
before my transmission went. This was 18 months ago, and it hasn’t
started to slip as of yet.

I took the car back to the mechanic just to be on the safe side. He
could only get the car to get rough at a stoplight twice during the
test drive, and looked at me like I was nuts. He refused to put the
car on the lift to look at it and told me that I should try running a
bottle of fuel injector cleaner. Also, he said it looked like the EGT
(I think that’s what he said) was "sparking" onto the no. 1 cylinder
plug wire. He said to replace it and zip tie the thing out of reach.

This sounds like the runaround to me. What do you guys think?

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"451CTDS" wrote:
>bigauto wrote:
>My guess is that the mechanic may have left off a ground connection
>which causes the lock up converter to stay locked.

Where would I find this ground wire?

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