the car is now running really rough. It ran smooth before I took the throttle body off and cleaned it and the MAF with the proper things. I got a new gasket made sure I put everything back the way it was supposed to go then started it up and it went straight to 1500 RPM and slowly went down to 1000 RPM at idle and the engine started to shake really violently.

A code for a misfire in cylinder 6 came up. I checked for vacuum leaks, bad plugs, wires, ignition coils, nothing.

Have I done something wrong in cleaning the throttle body out? Is there some kind of idle re-learn procedure I need to do? I tried unplugging the battery and ECU fuse but kind of knew they wouldn't do anything.

I'm really stumped on this, the car was running fine the day before I replaced the front oxygen sensor and my city MPG jumped from 16 MPG to 21 MPG. I figured I would try and do the last maintenance thing on my list, MAF and throttle body clean, as I just did everything on that list posted around here except for transmission fluid change and coolant flush and then this happened... really hoping for some help as I am stumped. Thanks in advance.

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2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI

what did you clean the maf with? did you touch it with anything or just spray it? my guess is the problem is somehting related to the maf. try disconnecting the maf and see if the idle smooths out..

S

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Shane "RedZMonte"
2004 Z16 Z06: Virgin
2000 SSEi: Kenwood DDX512, 3.25" MPS, ZZP DP, PLog, Puck Mount, NGK TR7's, DHP Tuned
1995 Monte Z34: T04e "60" turbo, 42.5# injectors, Borla Catback, OBDII swap, DHP Tuned, Much more...

Sorry, forgot to update the thread. Today I got the problem solved for the most part.
I took the throttle body off again and re-assembled it double checking everything was tight, then I realized that there was a slight tear in the vacuum hose that is attached to the throttle body. So, I went to advanced and asked if they could get me vacuum line and the guy there was nice enough to fabricate a makeshift solution for only a couple of bucks.

That eliminated the surging and shaking. However, there is still a loud ticking and the occasional misfire. I'm going to try and use seafoam and change to synthetic oil tomorrow as I suspect that it's either the valves or injectors failing.

I just ordered the intense CAI so hopefully after these final things my bonny will be back up to great condition, just wish I could get this stupid misfire tick that hasn't gone away...

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2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI

Just in case... Sometimes a coil can make a hell of a snapping noise if it is shorting to ground and also can cause the misfire...

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2002 SSEI "Twitch"
INTENSE™ Fenderwell Intake Kit
INTENSE™ Modular Pulley System with 3.40" Pulley -
SD Headers H-Flow Cat
WB 255 Siemens 60.0 (65.0) pound/hour Fuel Injectors
Yella Terra 1.9 90# Manley Retainers
L32 LIM & Gen V Blower N* TB

Valves don't progressively fail, the only thing that can happen is the valve breaks, or the valvespring breaks. That is a sudden thing, and very noisy/violent at that. I'd closely inspect wires, and start switching parts around to see if a misfire moves with that part.

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Bye Bye:

RIP sandrock

Well I don't think it's the injectors and if the valves only fail in an instance and not over time, then I suspect that it's a bad coil. I've had a misfire on Cylinder 6 twice now, so I'm assuming that I need to replace a coil. Any suggestions on the cheapest place to get a coil that won't break on me? Budget's pretty tight.

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2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI

PM harofreak00. Or a salvage yard. You want coils from another Series II S/C, they're the "hottest" factory 3800 coils.

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Bye Bye:

RIP sandrock

Salvage yard as stated above. The SC coils have a yellow tab on the bottom, other coils will be blue or gray and will work but they have less windings in the coil so less voltage for the spark.

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Boost addict


The Fleet:
'93 SSEi - Twincharged + manual Build thread
'97 Camaro - Top swap
'05 STS - V8, AWD, her DD
'92 Trofeo - Fair weather DD
'99 Montana - top swap 3800
'04 Sierra 2500HD - LLY Duramax

Current project:
Something cool, trust me.

Upcoming projects:
'92 Bonneville SSE
'87 LeSabre T-type
'67 LeSabre

Gone to greener pastures:
'84 Sierra Classic - Twin turbo 3800
'97 LeSabre - Top swap

RIP:
'86 LeSabre - pictures
'93 SE - L67

S/C coils have a blue tab...

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Bye Bye:

RIP sandrock

This 'tab' thing is making me want to check the one coil the previous owner replaced on mine.....

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Matthew

1998 Chevy K1500 Silverado Z71 ECSB L31 -- project/toy
1998 Chevy S10 ZR2 ECSB L35 5spd -- winter truck
2002 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi -- stock (trying to keep it that way...we'll see...)

Just an update for you guys, I checked primary and secondaries on all coils and everything was alright. I borrowed my friend's mechanic stethoscope to better locate the ticking noise and found the source of the noise. It seems to be right in the supercharger snout, and upon research I found that the coupler is probably worn, so I ordered the kit from intense with the oil and coupler and plan on doing the fix this weekend, I will let you guys know if it gets rid of the tick.

Thanks for all of the help here guys, upon completing nearly everything on that great maintenance list and installing the intense CAI (with the annoying side effect of a high pitched whistle whenever i'm not stepping on the gas) I am now getting great throttle response and am averaging 28 MPG while cruising down a street with only a few stops at 35 MPH, it's along my daily route. However when I get to stop and go traffic I drop to 18 MPG, but I suppose that's normal.

I love the way my Bonny is coming back to life, and when I get the money I plan on either installing more "advanced" mods or maybe upgrading to a G6 or G8, but to get close to enough money for that I would have to sell my SSEI, and I don't foresee that happening anytime soon

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2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI

Usually when you get a bad coupler it sounds like ball-bearings, not a tick, but good luck.

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2002 SSEI "Twitch"
INTENSE™ Fenderwell Intake Kit
INTENSE™ Modular Pulley System with 3.40" Pulley -
SD Headers H-Flow Cat
WB 255 Siemens 60.0 (65.0) pound/hour Fuel Injectors
Yella Terra 1.9 90# Manley Retainers
L32 LIM & Gen V Blower N* TB