HELP!! GA is acting up!!

[navybluese00]

The other day, I was at a stop light, and when the light turned green, I stepped on the gas, and the car went on it's way, but wouldn't accelerate fast, and the harder I stepped on the gas, the more the engine raced but didn't gain any speed. It corrected itself at the next light, and didn't happen since. Then, this morning, it stalled twice. Happens when I put the car in park. The idle goes up and down, and then stalls. And, I keep getting the low coolant light. What is wrong with this car????? 60,000 trouble-free miles, and you're gonna act up now!!!! Help!! When I bring it in, I want to be able to tell them exactly what I want done. I don't want them fixing stuff that's OK and getting raked over the coals. I want this car to run pefectly.

[rixGAphx]

A nearly-dead battery, or one not being charged well by a failing alternator, will show these symptoms.

The 'lack of power' when giving it gas is NOT actually lack of engine power.
Rather, it is the failure of the first gear electric solenoid to fully engage, due to low electrical power.

A major cause of all the above is dirty corroded battery cables/connections.
Take 'em apart, clean them shiny brite, and reassemble.

The POS cable silently corrodes unseen within the molded red rubber boot. You might consider cutting this off with a razor knife, cleaning/repairing the cable, and installing an aftermarket protective boot.

Be careful not to short circuit from a live terminal!!
Disconnect the cables, NEG (black) first, then POS (red); reconnect in reverse order.

Good luck.
-Rick

[navybluese00]

Well car is back finally after about 3 weeks with a mechanic my father in law knows. He basically took apart my whole engine and rebuilt it. He said the 3400 was a bitch to work in - apparantly the fit is very snug in the engine bay. So here's what he did:
Replace LIM gasket.
Clean fuel injectors.
Disassembled the engine, all the way down to the engine block, check everything
Cleaned all the parts in a parts washer.
He also did something to eliminate that annoying piston slap. I can't remember exactly what he said, but he's a city mechanic, and fixes NYC garbage trucks for a living. He took some part of my car down to his garage, and put it into some kind of machine the city has to make it better. All I know is when I start it up now, there's no piston slap - smooth as butter.

Thank God for this guy, because I'm told that all the work he did on my engine would easily have run me over $2,000. He only charged me $675, and I basically have a re-built engine.

BTW - he also says Dex-Cool is crap. He flushed my whole system and put in regular good quality fluid. I have to bring it back to him now after driving it 1000 miles, so he can check the all the fluids again and change the oil, so that any additional crap that was flushed out can be cleaned out of the engine, and he can make sure it's running in top condition.

[brsexton]

Did you ever find out why it was stalling out on you? Did he replace/clean any sensors?

[navybluese00]

Yeah he said the diagnostic came back with a code that said rich mixture, because I was starting to get antifreeze leaking into the engine, so I guess that's why he flushed out the whole engine. I'm not sure if he replaced any sensors or not.