Having trouble starting idle control motor?

JUSDUCKIE

MEMBER
1999 PONTIAC GRAND AM
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
84,500 MILES

My car was having trouble starting. It would turn over but acted like it wasnt getting any gas. When I gave it gas at the start, it would catch and start ok. I spoke to a friend who suggested maybe it was the fuel injector and said to by a cleaner, which I did. The car started just fine for about a day or two. Then it acted as if it couldnt get any gas and kept stalling. Told the mechanic this. They just replaced the idle control motor. After reading a few of the posts on this site I'm a bit concerned they may have replaced the wrong part. This car also has a security feature that if it senses the car is not being started properly it shuts the gas off to the car. This started to happen 2 weeks prior to the problem described above. Could this be related?

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

If the car starts and stalls then it could be a theft issue or it could be the idle air control.

However, it sounds like you have a fuel issue. If the vehicle ran better after doing a fuel treatment then that points to possible fuel contamination and clogging the injectors.

So, I would suggest checking the pressure and then doing another injector cleaning. If this makes any improvement then we are going to need to clean the tank out, replace the injectors, pump while the tank is out, and the fuel filter.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-fuel-system-pressure-and-regulator

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-fuel-injector

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-change-a-fuel-filter

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-an-electric-fuel-pump

I would not worry about the theft system or IAC until this other stuff is checked and then go from there.

Thanks

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