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08 2.4L Malibu stumble/stall issue?


irv

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My son's 2008 2.4 Chevy Malibu stumbles and outright stalls on him sometimes, especially after/during a rain or washing his car. I have replaced the plugs and shortly afterwards, it stalled on me less than 100 yrds away.

I have looked at electrical connections, the battery, fuses, etc, under the hood but all seems good? 

Something, imo, is definitely getting wet/damp which is causing this. 
He washed the car Saturday, took it for a quick drive after, then yesterday, after driving home from work, (it was fine on his way to work) it stumbled on him again. He video'd it this time and it sounds like it is running on 2-3 cylinders. I took it for a drive immediately after and it ran great???

The car doesn't throw any codes either. 

Has anyone else came across this before, and if so, what did you discover?

It's getting frustrating to say the least, and of course, my son is nervous to drive it.

Thanks in advance. cheers

Waler's Malibu 08.jpg

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1 hour ago, Bigfish said:

I'd clean the MAF. 

Could be a sensor going bad. Do you have an obdII reader?

MAF has been cleaned twice and all looks good. Code reading reads nothing but intermittent problem but that leads to no sensor at all.

1 hour ago, steve6 said:

Should have bought that $6000 high mileage jetta off Tommy!

Has the security key recall been done? fuel filter last done?

The key recall didn't apply to this vehicle. I shook/twisted the key while running and nothing changed. Imo, it's a moisture problem. Something gets damp and then it acts up. The funny/peculiar part is, the car will start and run fine and after about 5-10 minutes, the stumble/stalling will happen. I drove it this morning after redoing all the ground wires and dielectric greasing a bunch of connectors I could get to. 

55 minutes ago, Oggy said:

Sounds like a coil pack. With the engine running and a using spray bottle water down the coil pack and see if it acts up

I just come in from trying that. Unfortunately the car wouldn't run with the black engine cover removed. I assume it was either the throttle body/MAF or a air line being removed from that lid that didn't let it run? I tried twice and thought I buggered something but once I put it back on an connected the snorkel and hose, it fired right up. I did unplug each coil and applied dielectric grease to them but it stays really dry under that cover so I don't think that is my problem? 

Thanks guys. :bc:

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1 hour ago, Poncho said:

Has it thrown any codes?....

No, no codes. That's what's making this problem so difficult. I have nothing to go by! :wall:

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1 hour ago, ZRSledhead said:

+1 on likely a coil pack, same for spray with water to figure out which one. Also common to have valve cover leaking oil, accumulates in the plug hole n shorts the coil out.

Don't think it's a coil pack as the car would continue to run if one went down. No oil leaks anywhere on this vehicle, and almost impossible to get oil up top where the plugs are, imo.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Yukon Cornelious said:

Throttle position sensor going bad? Moisture getting in somewhere. 

Can you run the car after washing and go for a run with the code reader? May not be enough of a short/ voltage to throw a code just yet...

That's the thing, Yukon, no codes so no idea what is going bad, if anything, or if it just a moisture problem somewhere?

I need to get or borrow a live date code reader so I can read what is going on while under way. It has been scoped/read just idling once already but all it showed was an intermittent problem that didn't lead to anything, unfortunately.  

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Valve / cam cover gasket seals the spark plug tubes, gasket starts to go bad, oil accumulates in the holes and shorts out the coil(s). Video above is nice n all but falls short of telling you the most important part to blow clean, plug hole after you remove the coil / before plug comes out.

Edited by ZRSledhead
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2 hours ago, ZRSledhead said:

Valve / cam cover gasket seals the spark plug tubes, gasket starts to go bad, oil accumulates in the holes and shorts out the coil(s). Video above is nice n all but falls short of telling you the most important part to blow clean, plug hole after you remove the coil / before plug comes out.

I'm not saying it isn't possible, just saying it is unlikely based on the design of the engine, that, imo, has no place to accumulate oil up there if there was a leak. That was just a quick vid to show the location of the plugs on the 2.4L. I blew out everything, cleaned up top good before I even thought of removing the coils and plugs. The amount of crud/leaves/pine needles, etc, up there was shocking actually. It was easy to tell the previous owner lived in the country.

His plugs looked good when I removed them. The new ones did nothing to cure this problem, unfortunately, as the car stumbled then stalled about 200 yrds down the street right after I changed them.:wall:

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25 minutes ago, ZRSledhead said:

There is a reason people in the know finally quit trying to help.

 

:dunno: Did I offend you in someway, ZR? 

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  • 2 weeks later...
20 minutes ago, mrholmquist said:

any progress on the car

 

It hasn't acted up now for a couple weeks or more. My son took my truck to work during some rain so I took his car out a couple times during and I got nothing. No stumble or stalling so at this point, I have no idea what was going on or is still going on? He has washed it a couple times as well and still nothing.

Not saying it's over as I really didn't do much other than put dielectric grease on quite a few connectors as well as redoing all his grounds, etc, so who knows? 

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On 7/4/2019 at 11:01 PM, irv said:

It hasn't acted up now for a couple weeks or more. My son took my truck to work during some rain so I took his car out a couple times during and I got nothing. No stumble or stalling so at this point, I have no idea what was going on or is still going on? He has washed it a couple times as well and still nothing.

Not saying it's over as I really didn't do much other than put dielectric grease on quite a few connectors as well as redoing all his grounds, etc, so who knows? 

Electrical gremlins are the worst. 

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