power loss

[Twitch008]

On Saturday I was driving home from work, like a 5 min drive, I turned a corner into an uphill and my aveo suddenly suffered a severe power loss and the check engine light came on. I was able to limp home through back alleys though. It almost felt like the clutch went and the engine was bucking slightly. The rpms would go up but the car wouldn't move very well. After sitting for an hour or two it started and ran fine for a trip around the block.

This morning I drove it to work, no problems, and the check engine light went off at the gas station. Ran an OBD scan (I work at a garage) and all the codes came back as some sort of throttle body malfunction or a computer error. Anybody else experience this? And is it an issue that's likely to recur?

[thehunterooo]

do you think you backfired at all? Its possible it may happen again, but you never know

[ontarian_frog]

On Saturday I was driving home from work, like a 5 min drive, I turned a corner into an uphill and my aveo suddenly suffered a severe power loss and the check engine light came on. I was able to limp home through back alleys though. It almost felt like the clutch went and the engine was bucking slightly. The rpms would go up but the car wouldn't move very well. After sitting for an hour or two it started and ran fine for a trip around the block.

This morning I drove it to work, no problems, and the check engine light went off at the gas station. Ran an OBD scan (I work at a garage) and all the codes came back as some sort of throttle body malfunction or a computer error. Anybody else experience this? And is it an issue that's likely to recur?

Had that problem before, if it happens again, shut it down and start it back up. It should be a bad TPS.

[Twitch008]

definitely no backfire.

Apparently there's a TSB about a throttle body malfunction involving low temps and high humidity but I couldn't find any information on it.

Frog is right, I probably shouldn't worry too much unless it happens again.

[triviasteve]

It's happened to my 06 as well. Several times.

Here's the likely problem. The throttle body is covered with gunk, causing whatever sensor to "stick" in the position it was in. If you're driving your car, shift into neutral and shut it off, wait a few seconds and restart. This should reset the sensor so you can at least drive it home safely.

Get a can of throttle body cleaner and a very soft bristled toothbrush. Remove the air intake and you'll see a butterfly valve on the throttle body. Carefully push it open and insert something to hold the throttle body open without damaging the butterfly valve. You can wipe your finger inside and I guarantee it will be covered with crud.

Spray the throttle body cleaner in there fairly liberally, and brush it out with the toothbrush. You'll spend a few minutes cleaning the top side and the bottom side, but it will help for a few days/weeks.

This is a monthly maintenance thing for me.

I will be replacing the fuel filter soon, thinking that that might be part of my problem, and I've also noticed that running non-ethanol gas definitely helps.

I hope that helps.

/2006 aveo with 192,000 miles

[triviasteve]

Oh, and yes, this will likely recur.

My CEL has been on most of my car's life. It's gotten to the point where it's on ignore.

I've had the throttle body replaced. They allegedly replaced the sensor (I don't think so). I've had it cleaned "professionally" several times, yet the damn CEL stays on.

So now I just clean it myself every month, and I don't seem to have any problems with the hesitation.

FYI - replace your timing belt every 60,000 miles - I don't care what the book says, and do the water pump while you're at it. $380 well worth the expenditure.

[thehunterooo]

i wonder if there is something else defective somewhere else also

[triviasteve]

hunteroo... possibly there is something else wrong. I can't figure out why the throttle body gets loaded with gunk so regularly/quickly.

I drive 3-4000 miles per month. I last cleaned it 6 weeks ago. When I clean it again, I'll try to post pictures of the before/after.

I'm going to replace the fuel filter and see it that helps. I have a KN air filter on the car and I clean that every 10,000 miles or so.

I've run mostly non-ethanol gas through the car these last 6 weeks, and I haven't had the hesitation problem since I last cleaned it, but one time when I was running gas w/ethanol in it.

[thehunterooo]

do you have a stock intake still? I would suggest a SRI intake in the slight possiblity of the stock one picking up dirt and such

the other thing to look at is the hose that goes from your valve cover to the intake hose/pipe, i have noticed some stuff does come in through that hose into the intake and making things rather dirty, an oil catch can would work wonders, or even putting a small filter over the hole on the vlave cover and sealing the hole on the intake may help as well (the oil catch can would give us a good indication if that is the problem in the first place)

im shooting out ideas into the dark but you must be inducing dirt and other crap into the intake somewhere, thats my only guess lol

also with 192k miles (most ive seen :P ) something is worn out somewhere, possiblty something pretaining to this issue

[triviasteve]

my problems have been occurring since 50,000 miles on the car. I've replaced the throttle body twice since then. I like the idea of another trap. I may put some cheese cloth in the air intake to see how dirty that's getting.

I can't definitively say, but I do believe the ethanol gas is a contributing factor to the problem.