Hello, I am hoping someone here can give me some idea of what may be wrong with my car. I have an older vehicle, a 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. When I'm driving, it sometimes feels like something is "skipping", like the engine is "catching" or something. It feels like there is a slight resistance, only intermittently, not all the time. This is noticeable when I'm idling at a red light as well. I can see the car's RPM's rising and dropping, even when the car is sitting still - it sometimes idles so low it feels like the car is just going to turn off. Someone told me the timing belt or chain may need replacing. Does this seem correct? What would the approximate cost be for a new timing belt? Any ideas on what else it could be? Thanks in advance for all advice!
I'm not the least bit car-knowledgeable - I don't know what engine I have, other than it's a 6 cylinder engine. No, the Check Engine light hasn't come on....this car seems to have had a lot of problems recently. I just had the muffler replaced, sparkplugs, and a new battery put in. These are not major repairs, but I really can't afford much so it's been a lot to handle already. I just don't know where to turn now - it will cost something for a mechanic to even look at the car and figure out the problem, never mind the cost to actually fix it. The car only has 130,000 kms on it, which is very low for an almost 20 yr old car...I'm hoping it will last me a while still, as a new car is not in the budget at all. Does it not seem like a timing belt/chain issue? Any ideas on what the symptoms might be pointing to?
Hard to call a chain on one of those, though it could happen. Pretty durable. I think I would be looking more towards coils/wires on that. But, without seeing it, I hesitate to recommend anything. So, I think rather than tossing any parts, you will be money ahead having someone look at it.
Thanks for your responses Throttletune - I am paying to have it looked at tomorrow, and then hopefully not cringing when I find out the actual cost to get it fixed!
Remember, you don't have to have them repair it right then. If you can, get as detailed a description as you can and share it with us. With the testing they are going to do, they should give you any results, waveforms, scandata, etc. they pull. Well, that's how I play in the shop I work at, anyway. But, feel free to run it by us, Ziggy. I assume you may be in Canada?
have you looked at your plug wires?had my old truck do the same thing only to find out it was running on 5 cyl.instead of all 6. my moms old kia did it too.1 bad wire will f u c k things up quick.
