Wierd sputter happened today

[nineteen88ga]

I haven't had the car (the 88 GA) out in about a week or so and since it was nice today I decided togive it a little run. I was going up a slight grade at about 35-40 mph and for no reason the car sputtered a little bit, as if it was going to stall, but I just stayed on the gas and the next thing I knew it was fine. I remember something similar happening a few years ago, but I know I was running low on gas so I just figured I may have got something from the bottom of the tank. This time I'm at about 1/2 tank. I continued to drive the car for about another 5 miles or so then went home. The rest of the ride it was perfectly alright. I gave everythingthe once over and it all seemed fine. Any ideas? its my88 2.5 Grand Am by the way.

[rixGAphx]

Don't know how far you drove from the time of the start-up 'til the time of th 'sputter' incident.

But with the high humidity you've been having in PA, and tank half-empty, and car setting unused for a week, there's ample opportunity for water vapor to condense inside the tank.
Drops form on the tank walls and trickle down to the absolute bottom of the tank (since water is about 50% heavier than gasoline).
The gas in the lines and close to the pump pickup would allow you to drive a mile or two IMO with no symptoms.

Then the pump sucks a few tablespoons of water and pushes it thru the line to the injectors.
Voila, no gasoline for combustion for a few revolutions, and the engine 'sputters' 'til gas flows again.

Just a thought.
-Rick

[nineteen88ga]

Well, I drove it again yesterday on a longer trip and had no hesitations at all.Oh well. lol

[Matt95GT]

Originally posted by nineteen88ga
Well, I drove it again yesterday on a longer trip and had no hesitations at all.Oh well. lol

It's trying to tell you to "get me out of the garage more often!" :lol:

[nineteen88ga]

well.....I found out what the problem was....

I've yet to still fill the tank since my original post so it was the same gas. I took it out for a run today and got about a mile from my house and the same thing...sputtered then was fine. Drove it about 10 Feet and is sputtered again, only with a cloud of white smoke pouring out from the driver side corner of the hood! At first thought I figured it was over heating, but because of the short distance I didn't see that being the case. Well I got nervous, and luckil I was on a fairly un travled road so I pulled over, forgot I was driving an auto so I put the imaginary clutch pedal in (my daily driver is a 5 spd lol) I opened the hood only to see what I thought wasthe battery smoking. Turns out the billet cobver I had on my optima loosened up and grounded out against the + top mount terminal on the battery. So it chewed up the cover a little, as well as the top mount terminal I had my audio cable hooked up to. Luckily no damage was done to any of my audio equipment, but the battery ground wire(to the chassis) was toasted!I haddent seen it at the time but when I got home I saw the insulation had melted off as a result of the battery being grounded out. Knowing I was only a few blocks from home I had to come up with a way to nurse it home and not have the cover slidearound any more, I wedged Napkins I had in my center console (from last summer) I got from Arbys around the battery terminal and the cover, and luckily that did the trick. Now that I think back, dry paper around smoldering wires probably wasn't the best idea...:lol:

When I was attempting to remove my battery home in my garage that bare factory ground wire had managedto touch the + side mount terminal grounding it out again and almost instantly it began to glow a lovely shade of orange/red with yet more smoke. I finally got everything removed and got to inspect the damage. It sounds alot worse than it is, but needless to say I'm going to be rewiring about 50% of the aftermarket wiring I have done in the vehicle. The only real damage was the ground wire that had the insulation melted off it, but as a precaution I'll be going over the headlights, fog lights, all neons, and Nitrous, basically everything directly connected to the battery aside from the audio system and alarm/remote start. I'm going to be dropping the underdash and inspect all of my wiring as well as cleaning up anything thats not "perfect"...any wires with too much slack or anything not tied up propperly. With the amount of electronics in the car Its going to take a while, :( but afterwards at least I'll knw electronically it will be 110% or better. I have a few pics of the damage, so ifI can I 'll try to get them up. I've already started n the fogs and headlights and its just a matter of zip tieing them up out of the way now, then its on to fabbing up a new battery tray to prevent the billet cover from ever moving whenI don't want it to.

[nineteen88ga]

View of what I found as soon as I got home and popped the hood
Between the washer bottle and the inner fender. you can see the melted flex loom and electrical tape.
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/7000-7999/7858_104_full.jpg


Toasted OEM ground wire (its only about 12 gauge from the - terminal to a bolt in the inner fender about 12" long
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/7000-7999/7858_105_full.jpg


Salvaged wiring from Fogs and neons....
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/7000-7999/7858_106_full.jpg

PS please excuse any dirt you may see, alot of it is soot from the moldering insulation of the wire.You can see chunks of it on the actual battery tray as well as the side of the battery in pic #2 :lol:

You can bet things are going to get more modified now...this is just an excuse to go overboard again!

[rixGAphx]

Teh Optimas come with a goofy dual-post design (side and top), and the top posts just plain get in the way of the low-sloping GA hood.
At least for my '96, and prolly for your '88.

Anywho, do NOT cut-off the projecting top post!!!
The current flows to the side post THRU the top post, and you hafta solder everything back together if you stupidly cut it off.
PITA to use hot solder around a live battery.

[nineteen88ga]

hood clearance isn't the issue. The problem was a billet battery cover that broke loose and hit against the top post. There's definately NO need to alter the battery at all. The battery itself isn't damaged, just some of the vehicle wiring. :(