Bad opti?

[SoulTerror]

Really pissed at my car right now, yesterday I was trying to bleed some of the air out of my coolant system and I unscrewed the one bolt too far and it fell out and it shot a good amount of coolant all over the car. The screw had fell down right on top of the area where the opti is and there was coolant down there as well. I used a small cup of water to try to rinse the bolt down after I lost sight of it (probably a bad idea, but I wasn't thinking very well) Anyway got a new bleeder valve today, fill up the radiator, leave cap off, start car and it was running fine, level in radiator went down like it was suppose too, put some more coolant in it to top it off. Put the radiator cap back on and then all of a sudden the car started to run like shit!!!

It stalled out and I went to restart it and now it will barely restart, and when it does it is barely running and then it just stales out. I'm pretty sure it's the opti, but any other idea's? I'm really sick of this car and if it's the opti it's gone! I've had enough of this POS!

[98blackbeauty]

Maybe you'll get lucky and if you let it dry out it will be OK.

[2EVUL4U]

Could be something as simple as the belt. If coolant soaked the belt it could be slipping on your pulleys, cuasing the alternator to under-perform. With all the electricals our cars have, the stock alternator barely puts out enough juice as it is. Take a hose & spray down the front of the engine well, using care not to get water in the alternator or OPTI. After you let that dry off, start it again & see how it runs. If it still runs poorly, then you can start looking at other problems (such as a bad OPTI,etc.)

[Gaspo]

same thing happened to me. my fried my opti. put a msd in it and sold the car

[nascarnate326]

Why is it a POS?

Technically the one part you dont get wet/mess with on a LT1 is the part that you guy wet. IMO it sucks but fix it and move on. Lots of stuff pisses me off on my car, I just fix it and move on to the next thing.


I would try and let the car dry out, open hood if you can. Your opti is vented so some moisture should be pulled out and put back into the intake.

How much coolant on the opti? My old one was COVERED in oil but it still ran. That really sucks though.

Do you have a CEL on?

[SoulTerror]

Car sat over night so it should be plenty dry.

Reasons the car is a POS is in the year I've had the car:
-replaced motor
-transmission was rebuilt
-replaced starter cone
-had to get alternator bolt replaced
-needs a new engine bay wire harness
-oil pressure scares me with how low it gets when engine get's hot
-gas gauge don't work
-lot's of different dash lights come on and off

Just ask Icepick about how scary and POS my car is. This car is suppose to be my DD and something breaks on it every two weeks it seems like.

I don't think it's the belts because the car was running fine then just died and I seem to have plenty of power.

[ICEPICK]

it could be a few diffrent things, ignition modual, coil, bad wire, plugged fuel filter, opti, it takes about 2 hours or a little more if you go slow and rebuild the opti...... but yes, his car has had everything done, i helped with the starter, all last summer and winter it was getting motor replaced, then the trans went out.. what 1 month later, put it up for winter, pulled it out had it going for a week the clink clunk, starter cone snapped, repair and replace, 1 week later his car died going onto work, had to pull his alt at work, then 2 days later wires problem under the hood also causing charging problem, shall i go on, lol

[SoulTerror]

Charging wire was the reason the alt had to be repaired. Wire broke and the bolt broke off in Alt. I had to recrimp the wire the day after I put the alt back in though. I'm just fed up, I'll try again tomorrow to see if it runs any better.

[SoulTerror]

Went out after work to try it. It started right up, ran fine for a few seconds then ran like crap again.

[ICEPICK]

that sounds like somthing diffrent, if the opti is out genrally its out, you may have a bad sensor or ignition modual, i just did a car that had that, wouldnt even fire with the bad opti, yours runs and starts. you might need to look it up, seems to be somthing diffrent, could even be a bad fuel pump or filter is clogged. loose wire.

[SoulTerror]

Car has been running for a while since I filled it up, so I doubt it's the gas itself. I know you can get a fuel pressure gauge to check the filter, but I have no idea how to use one. Fuel pump was replaced the day I got the car and I don't see why a wire would all of a sudden go loose. Just seems like a coincidence for me to have this problem the day after loosing fluid over the engine.

[Sic96]

Well like the other guy said, it's not your opti. If it was, it wouldnt start and run fine for a minute, it'd be bad right off the bat if it even started at all. You said you need to replace your engine wiring harness, think that might have something to do with it? If your wires are bad and they jsut became soaked in coolant or water or whatever, then maybe that's the problem. Idk, jsut giving you an idea. But I guarantee it's not your opti.

[98blackbeauty]

Opti's do go bad and can fail on an intermitant basis. Antifreeze does not evaporate very fast like water I would give it a week to dry out then if still causes problems your going to need an opti.

[ONeill121003]

I had a bad opti that would allow me to drive for anywhere up to 10 minutes, but then it'd start to backfire and spit and buck after warming up. When I pulled the bad opti, I had tons of moisture in there, which presumably would heat up, turn into a vapor inside of the opti then start causing problems. This was NOT a vented cap. Just my .02

[SoulTerror]

Mine is supposedly vented according to the mechanic that put the engine in.