car idling rough

[dtldiaspora]

so i've changed the o2 sensor and my egr valve but the car still idling rough and vibrating a lot but when i put it in neutral it doesnt vibrate at all, any help appreciated

[blueolds01]

is it throwing any engine codes yet?

[dtldiaspora]

last week it was throwing 3 codes, one for 02 sensor , other for egr valve, and 1 was a random misfire on cylinder 1, but i dont know if the misfire was because of the first 2,

[rustyballs_69]

so i've changed the o2 sensor and my egr valve but the car still idling rough and vibrating a lot but when i put it in neutral it doesnt vibrate at all, any help appreciated

Does it with mine also. I think the 3400's are just like that.

[TheEdgeofSanity]

has your "SES" light came on flashing? it could possibly be a bad coil pack or a loose sparkplug wire... check it out...

[blueolds01]

i just got done fixing a random miss fire in mine, it turned out to be the upper intake manifold gasket. the first thing you need to do is figure out if its in the ignition system or if you have a vacum leak.

you might want to have the code erased and see what codes come back. double check everything(the egr and o2 stuff) just to be sure its in there right.

[pawzbear]

has your "SES" light came on flashing? it could possibly be a bad coil pack or a loose sparkplug wire... check it out...

yah bad coil packs are pretty common with these cars. Mine was misfiring b/c of a bad one.. and not throwing any codes. Get it completely diagnosed, dont depend on a scanner alone and throw parts at a car. Its never a good idea.
well, actually, its fairly easy to check the plugs and coil pack on your own, if you have a lil bit of skills. (If i remember right, you have to torque the covers back on correctly) its been awhile tho =/

[dtldiaspora]

my ses light is on but isnt flashing, like i said its only thrown those 3 codes...

i've had the spark plug wire checked with a meter that was misfiring and it was fine, we even switched the wire from 3 to 1 to see if that helps any...

im thinking that since you said you had a problem with the upper intake gasket, it could be a possibility whats wrong with mine since the mechanic messed up my valve cover gaskets 2 times and im about to take it back to him again for the 3rd time to fix again, i even noticed that when i was taking my egr valve it wasnt on there completely as tight as that shoulda been so that had me iritated as well, it was loose enough that i moved it when i was taking one of the bolts off that wasnt even one of the mounting bolts...

i got a friend that ill ask to help me check the coil packs sometime this week also to rule that out also...

[blueolds01]

to tell for sure if you have a vacum leak get a vacum gadge from the auto store (like 10-15 bucks) there should be about 15-18 lbs of pressure. mine was 13 when we checked it. it could also be a leaky injector, the lower intake manifold gasket, or the tb gasket. what did your mechanic touch?

[dtldiaspora]

the whole top end of the motor lol, he had to replace the lifters get the heads machined etc, cause i had blown my head gasket and all that other fun stuff, i dont got the actually sheet in front of me atm but besides that he replaced my ignition wires, spark plugs, and my cat

[blueolds01]

chances are its a bad gasket some were then and you have a vacum leak. i'd tell him it was his fault and now he has to fix it...lol

to tell whcih gasket for sure, we used windex..yes windex...and sprayed a ton of it around certian areas were the gaskets are. the engine smooth out when we sprayed it at part of the upper intake manifold. i would use the same idea to tell which gasket is bad on your car.

[dtldiaspora]

lol ok ill try the windex idea tomorrow when i get home from work

[dtldiaspora]

ok so while i was at work i was looking around underneath the engine then noticed that there was a lil bit of what looks like water coming out the exhaust, i noticed it because you could see where it had dripped onto the ground and you can see what looks like white smoke coming out the exhaust! and you can smell gas,would this hint towards an injector problem?

[AsianAlero]

what brand sensors did you put in?

[dtldiaspora]

the 02 sensor? bosch

[blueolds01]

white smoke means oil...

[CharleyO99Alero]

***

I don't think oil smoke would be white but instead black. White smoke usually indicates a water or coolant leak.

***

[AsianAlero]

white smoke is actually worse in most cases when its black you can just forget about it. and believe it or not but the brand of sensor you pick could play a huge part kind of like people who buy bosch plugs and have problems same scenario. i get smoke too and my engine only has about 20k on it. but the cat has about 130k so it prolly is just my cat being old

[blueolds01]

oil def burns white... white smoke is usually caused by bad piston rings, or bad valve seals. black smoke is generally carbon...

i dont think the smoke has anything to do with the random miss fire.

[AsianAlero]

in some cases having your wires crossing in the wrong route could cause a misfire problem. if your wires don't cross correctly you could get EMI or electro magnetic interference which can cause a misfire condition.

[dtldiaspora]

i can clear the codes and they will be gone for about 20 mins then they come back, i rev'd it up in park to 4k and didnt set off a misfire and put it in gear and didnt cause a misfire, i even when on a side rode on my friends property and floored it from a stopped position and didnt cause a misfire,

im only getting 2 codes now which is p0301 and p0403, i dont get the o2 sensor code which was p0135 anymore. but like i said i've replaced the egr valve 2 days ago.

and from what i've read on the white smoke on the internet, is it might be a fuel injector or something because i am smelling a strong gas smell also, and i thought oil was black, and most cases white meant blown head gasket or somethinwith the gas?

[AsianAlero]

well egr only opens up at cruise speeds at around 2-2500 rpm but idk what else to tell you man

[dtldiaspora]

see here exactly all the stuff he did, or i should say at least charged me for

http://a868.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/106/l_b89cc1d07d3ba87c0d3c02b41d6810db.jpg

no picture really on these cause it was to dark outside but at least it shows what my car is sounding like atm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ36QxhV4bE - the sound of my car from the exhaust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noWXuTQat1w - the sound of my car from the engine bay

[AsianAlero]

that really doesnt sound good at all. i would not drive the car anymore cuz it could cause more damage. somethings slapping or knocking in there cant really tell. but did you get you head machined? if so i think that it has thrown off your timing. when you get your head machined they take off some surface area and when it mates back on to you block your timing chain is still made for oem specs and is longer than you need not buy much but enough to effect things. after you have your heads machined it will definetly throw off timing.

[blueolds01]

that sounds horrible...wtf? did it always make that loud of a ticking noise?

[AsianAlero]

yeah i really think that having the head machined is the cause of all your problems because what ever was taken off is not being compensated by your timing chain

[dtldiaspora]

he said that the ticking noise is my cam, he said he wasnt that big of a deal that i would just have to deal with the ticking noise, i wish i had a bright light so you could see how much my engine is moving, the rattling noise you heard was also my exhaust rattling for some reason i dont know if its from the engine vibrating so much or what

[Cliff8928]

That totally sounds like they didn't put something back together right. I hope they didn't put one of the pushrods in wrong (they're different for intake and exhaust). Or maybe one of the rockers isn't tight? There isn't any adjustment for them either.

[01silveralero]

That totally sounds like they didn't put something back together right. I hope they didn't put one of the pushrods in wrong (they're different for intake and exhaust). Or maybe one of the rockers isn't tight? There isn't any adjustment for them either.

that could be possible. if iirc the diffence is .2" between the intake and exhaust pushrods

[dtldiaspora]

today me and my friends dad where looking underneath the hood to see what else we can find and we found out my fuel injector pressure regulator is leaking gas, so that explains the horrible gas mileage and more than likely my misfire

[dtldiaspora]

ok now im confused, b4 i went ahead and bought that piece the past couplke days i been lookin periodically underneath the hood at the fuel pressure regulator and i have yet to see gas on it again since i saw it on there the other day...

[blueolds01]

id go to another shop and ask them what they think of it. its hard to help you out over the internet, not knowing the smells, sounds, and what everything looks like.

[TheEdgeofSanity]

all i have to say is get it looked at by another mechanic a.s.a.p. because it sounds like something was put together wrong. I'd be afraid of blowing the engine up if it sounded like that

[dtldiaspora]

ok so i took it back today to the mechanic asked them about the idle etc, and i found out they just fired the guy who had worked on my car lol, cause he messed some things up go figure that, but i found out when they machined my heads that they boarded them out at least,

[blueolds01]

i hope there gonna fix your car for free.... if not, wait till it blows up then sue them...lol

but seriously they should def look it over for free to make sure the guy that worked on your car didnt screw anything up, it sure does sound like he did...

[dtldiaspora]

ya they are fixing it for free because its still under warranty

[dtldiaspora]

haha life sucks sometimes, so i took my car back to the mechanic last week and he just now got around to looking at it today, and he has informed me that the guy that had worked on my car cracked my intake manifold, and messed up the valve job, so now hes gonna hae to redo everything that was done, and send me heads back to the machine shop!

[TheEdgeofSanity]

that really really sucks...at least its free though. how are you getting around in the time being?

[dtldiaspora]

a friend

[alerored04]

that does sound like a loose rocker.

[blueolds01]

i'd ask for some future credit for the shop, maybe you can get an exhaust system put on sometime. its worth asking.

[AlexSchu02AleroV6]

Well lets get it straight.... oil does NOT burn white... it burns BLUE. Don't use bosch for the v6 Alero's, they are too picky and it causes lots of problems. Stick with AC Delco and you will be fine

[Vinalero]

Well lets get it straight.... oil does NOT burn white... it burns BLUE. Don't use bosch for the v6 Alero's, they are too picky and it causes lots of problems. Stick with AC Delco and you will be fine

Burning white generally means coolant in the oil, not good...

[dtldiaspora]

actually it was more than likely rings on the piston as when i took the motor apart last weekend my rings came off a little to easy