I've got a 95 GS. Cold Air Intake, urethane motor mounts, brand new plugs, and Accel wires. Everything else is stock.

Yesterday on my way to work my rad hose came off. I made it to the parking lot, attached it again, and clamped it down tight.

10 hours later, I make sure it's all good, then drive home. Car runs great most of the way, but at a stop light right before my street, I put the car in 1st and start to move, and it stalls out on me. Weird, because I was only just beginning to release the clutch and there is no reason it should have stalled. I check my temp... it's high, but not "in the red". I try to start the car again and it just won't have it. Kept cranking, but nothing. Eventually it finally fired up. Seemed to have a rough time getting going, but it fired up and I drove home fine (no complete stops since).

I get it in the driveway (1-2 min after it stalled), and shut it off. I try starting it again just to see, and it started fine, although chugged a bit at idle. I shut the car off, pop the hood to have a quick look, and it smells like oil burning. Now, I did put oil in the car yesterday and spilled some on the valve cover and a small bit on the exhaust manifold. So I figure that's probably what smelled/was smoking, and call it a night.


This morning, I start the car up and it starts fine. However, it won't rev past 2000RPM. It just backfires a lot when it gets there. I wish I had a sound clip, but it revs fine right up to about 1700-1800, then it's just like hitting a rev limiter, just a constant popping sound from the exhaust. If I shift gears it's fine, again only until about 2000RPM.

I had a similar problem with my old ECU where it would cut of at 3000RPM after about 15 min of driving normally. I'm kind of hoping that maybe the replacement I got (out of a wrecker's) was from a 95 as well, or that somehow I cooked it (I can get another one easy).

However, given my overheating issue last night, I'm much more concerned that maybe my gauge was sticking and I warped the head, or ruined something internally.

I need help, I can't drive like this and I need my car for work.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Also, when I was bringing the car back to the driveway, there was a high-pitched squeal sort of sound coming from under the hood.

If you blew off a radiator hose, your first intention should be to add some coolant ASAP. Bottom line. You blow a hose off you're going to lose a decent amount of coolant. Sounds like you drove it far too long after that hose came off. The 'temp' gauge in our car is almost a dummy gauge. It may not have been in the red, but by that point it's already a serious issue.

Also when you put new plugs in, did you gap them properly? .048 to .050 is the standard gap.

Originally posted by xcasbonx
If you blew off a radiator hose, your first intention should be to add some coolant ASAP. Bottom line. You blow a hose off you're going to lose a decent amount of coolant. Sounds like you drove it far too long after that hose came off. The 'temp' gauge in our car is almost a dummy gauge. It may not have been in the red, but by that point it's already a serious issue. Also when you put new plugs in, did you gap them properly? .048 to .050 is the standard gap.

They were gapped properly (0.48) and I did add coolant right away. Shut the car off, added coolant, chilled for 15 min, drove home. The other day my car threw a code "Coil #2 primary circuit", but that went away the other day as well.

Also, this may sound stupid, and I haven't checked into this yet (But will after)... is it possible I added a bit too much oil yesterday? Would this cause problems?


Also, forgot to mention in original post (updated now), but when I was bringing it back to the driveway, there was a really high-pitched squeal sound coming from the car. Went away when I turned it off.

Hey i had the same problem when I had a new engine installed in my car like a few months back. I had to have the cam sensor replaced and from that point on everything has been good in that area. Not sure if it is something your looking into but what you describe was like what i experienced.

Check your MAP sensor.

Originally posted by xlr82x
Hey i had the same problem when I had a new engine installed in my car like a few months back. I had to have the cam sensor replaced and from that point on everything has been good in that area. Not sure if it is something your looking into but what you describe was like what i experienced.

Ok, thanks. I had a bit of a stuttering issue a little while ago, cleaned off the camshaft position sensor and put a new seal thing in it and it has run fine since. I suppose replacing it altogether can't hurt.

Will check MAP sensor as well. Where does it plug into on these cars?

Originally posted by Harashi
Where does it plug into on these cars?

Passenger side of the intake manifold.

Originally posted by DarkOne

Originally posted by Harashi Where does it plug into on these cars?

Passenger side of the intake manifold.

Ok, well I don't have my tools handy so i couldn't unplug it or anything, but when I spilled oil yesterday filling up the car, it turns out the MAP is located right where a bunch of oil decided to land.

Possible that this is causing my problem? Or contributing to it, at least? Short of trying a new MAP, how would I determine if mine is faulty?

Originally posted by Harashi

Originally posted by DarkOne

Originally posted by Harashi Where does it plug into on these cars?

Passenger side of the intake manifold.

Ok, well I don't have my tools handy so i couldn't unplug it or anything, but when I spilled oil yesterday filling up the car, it turns out the MAP is located right where a bunch of oil decided to land. Possible that this is causing my problem? Or contributing to it, at least? Short of trying a new MAP, how would I determine if mine is faulty?

Clean out the plug and harness end if they're oily.

Originally posted by DarkOne

Originally posted by Harashi

Originally posted by DarkOne

Originally posted by Harashi Where does it plug into on these cars?

Passenger side of the intake manifold.

Ok, well I don't have my tools handy so i couldn't unplug it or anything, but when I spilled oil yesterday filling up the car, it turns out the MAP is located right where a bunch of oil decided to land. Possible that this is causing my problem? Or contributing to it, at least? Short of trying a new MAP, how would I determine if mine is faulty?

Clean out the plug and harness end if they're oily.

I took both sensors out and cleaned them a bit. The actual sensor wasn't really dirty. Camshaft sensor was a bit, but hardly enough to worry about (I did clean it though).

I'm getting my friend to bring his compression tester tomorrow, to make sure I didn't kill the motor.

What are the chances that it could be my ECU? I had similar symptoms with my old one, although they were inconsistent (car is a 95, not sure what year the current ecu is though, didn't say at the wrecker's when i pulled it).