2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

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TimothyNewton
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2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by TimothyNewton »

It started out as just small and barely noticeable momentary drops in the rpms while accelerating but eventually progressed to the car bucking and jerking as I accelerate from a stop. Then, one day, it straight stalled out in the middle of the city and wouldn't start. After it cooled down, it started back up, and I was able to get home. We thought maybe the coil packs were bad and causing a misfire, so we replaced them. it seemed to work at first, but after I drove it a little bit that day, it began going back to the usual bucking and carrying on under acceleration. (Note that it would only do this from a stop to about 50 mph. After it reached that speed, the bucking would stop) Also, it would sometimes drive normally. It almost seemed like it only started doing this after driving for so long or getting hot enough. Then, we replaced the ignition control module, and it got way worse. The bucking became more sporadic and the rpm gauge jumpy. Put the old ICM back on to see if there was a difference, but the same thing was happening. Another thing to note is that we replaced all the spark plugs, spark plug cables, and gaskets in the engine. It runs completely fine while idling and will rev up well while in park, and there doesn't seem to be any check engine light.
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by J Wikoff »

Feels like a crank position sensor (or the wiring to it) issue.
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TimothyNewton
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by TimothyNewton »

J Wikoff wrote:Feels like a crank position sensor (or the wiring to it) issue.
Wouldn't the car engine not run at all if the crank sensor were bad?
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by J Wikoff »

Depends on the failure. Granted it was an older version, but mine died in an intermittent fashion. It would run fine, or it would be jumpy, or it would not run at all for short periods.
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yorksaraj
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by yorksaraj »

Same problem with my 2000 Bonneville. Replaced crank position sensor and does same thing. Replaced MAF no change. It seems when it hits normal operating temp the bucking stalling etc begins and car won't start til it cools down. Tried replace egr no luck. Anyone have any ideas?
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by nos4blood70 »

For me, this has always been an issue with something in the ignition system.
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by 57j2olds »

I've had this happen and as simple as it sounds, I had a bad spark plug wire.
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by Namrepus28 »

Yeah, mine was a coil pack issue when something similar happened. Most expensive ignition piece would be the ICM (Ignition Control Module), so I'd start with the cheap stuff first. Lol.
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by JEFFSSSEI »

Come on people learn to read, He has replaced: Spark Plugs, Wires, Coils, ICM....so telling him to re-replace these things without proof they are bad out of the box is a waste of his time and money.

Sir, My best guess from the symptoms and given what you have already changed is either a faulty Crank Sensor (like JWycoff stated) or Cam Sensor, or the wiring to them. Sensor's are weird they can fail straight away or they can slowly die and cause intermittent issues like you are having.
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by AJT2004 »

JEFFSSSEI wrote:Come on people learn to read, He has replaced: Spark Plugs, Wires, Coils, ICM....so telling him to re-replace these things without proof they are bad out of the box is a waste of his time and money.

Sir, My best guess from the symptoms and given what you have already changed is either a faulty Crank Sensor (like JWycoff stated) or Cam Sensor, or the wiring to them. Sensor's are weird they can fail straight away or they can slowly die and cause intermittent issues like you are having.
You should take your own advice before scolding others, "learn to read". An old post was bumped from 8/2020
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Re: 2000 Pontiac Bonneville bucking and jerking under load

Post by NioriFox »

I had this same issue just recently. My fix was pretty easy and straight forward.
Long story short, I had just replaced the coil packs, plugs, and wires when it started. Turned out, that when I put the new coils on, one of the holes holding the rearward most ignition coil down had been stripped out. I thought that I had got it tightened down, but apparently I didn't. My fix was to take a zip tie, remove the bolt from the stripped hole, and zip tie it down. That restored my lost power, and stopped the stuttering/bucking/engine dieing. That's been about 2 to 3 weeks ago, and still no sputtering on my acceleration
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