Engine missing

SALTYR1

MEMBER
GMC

99 Cavalier 2.2L with 63k miles. This just started happening this week. I drive about 30 miles to work - all highway. Everything is fine until I get off the highway and stop at a light. Then the engine will start missing, not constantly, but a hard miss every couple of seconds. Now it will go away in a couple miles of non highway driving (I work about 2 miles off the highway). But as soon as I make the long jouney again, it's back. Again it will go away as I drive in stop and go traffic. No check engine light. I replaced the plugs and wires. No help.

1 Reply

MECHANIC116

MEMBER
28 POSTS

I'll almost bet you that you have particulate contamination in your gas tank. Extended highway driving calls for constant higher rates of fuel flow through the filter screen in the tank. If there's particulate matter in your tank, it will ALL find its way onto the filter screen during the highway driving. And then cause starvation. I have seen this many times. Start by removing your fuel filter. Be careful NOT to let all the fuel spill out of it before you get a chance to look at it. Carry it over a bucket and put a white cotton cloth across the opening of the bucket, then blow back through the filter in the opposite direction of the normal fuel flow through it. And see what comes out of it on the white cloth. If you get some "goodies", chances are your gas tank is contaminated. If you don't get much of anything, then its something else. Could be 02 sensor / catalytic converter related too, possibly. But I'd try the fuel filter look-see first.