1989 Buick riviera 3800... power loss
19,495

Asked by Jason Sep 17, 2011 at 03:34 AM about the 1989 Buick Riviera

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

my rebuilt engine has 70k miles on it.. my stock parts have been transferred to the rebuilt engine too. when i take it for a drive, it
seems to be missing; engine will idle but run rough. feels like it chuggles along in drive; misses. transmission shifts welll, it goes
into all gears fine. i replaced MAF. i inspected all spark plugs, #2 has oil in the cylinder; rings getting shot in that one. NO
TROUBLE codes in the diagnostic mode. all cylinders seem to fire fine; all spark plugs fire. i have some gas smell on cold start ups.
22 year old ignition coil; never been changed same with catalytic converter. exhaust seems to flow freely. this started after
fueling up and going onto the highway.   we are the first and only owners of the car and have full service history. rest of car has
189k miles. i'm getting stumped.. should i go drop the fuel pump next??  fuel pressure regulator?

3 Answers
19,495

Jason answered 13 years ago

it actually was the Ignition module under the ignition coil pack. car still runs like a dream.

3 people found this helpful.
Mark helpful

leafsfan answered 9 years ago

Hi Jason. I've also got an '89 Riviera. I got the MAF replaced about 6 months ago after some off and on again rough driving and stalling. Recently its been driving rough again but it hasn't come close to a stall. I'm fairly certain all spark plugs are fine. I got the cat replaced and the person who installed it said the car was running rich, the cat was black and was fairly certain its the coil pack or module. So today I took off the coil pack just to understand how i would replace it. After lifting it up and screwing it back on the car ran fine, but after lifting it again and placing it back on the car is back to itself. I'm considering the problem exists in the wires between the module and coil pack because just lifting it off and moving them around seemed to make the difference, and that would be an easy fix, but I was wondering how you found out it was the module and not the coil pack. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Mark helpful

Your Answer:

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