Please help me help a friend out.

me19875 · Post by **me19875** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:26 am

So a good friend of mine has a 89 beretta 2.8 automatic. I hear it's had all sorts of insane electrical problems in the past that it keeps on eating map sensors etc. Currently It's acting like it's got a spark and/or ignition control issue. It runs like crap all the time, no power, wants to stall, doesn't change with rpm or temperature. The one defining characteristic that sticks out in my mind is the fact that it feels like an issue with sensing the TPS sensor or knowing the engine revs. If you push your foot down somewhat quickly like you normally do like when you're accelerating from a stop, it hesitates bad and does nothing, then when you let off a bit it starts to go foward. If you push the pedal down very slowly and consistently, it will actually go somewhere. Still runs like garbage, but it actually moves. It's almost like when you move the pedal the car doesn't know it is and can't react to the change unless you do it very slowly. It has a lean code, but doesn't act at all like it has a vacuum leak. There was a new tps sensor in the trunk, so I installed that even though the resistance values across the sweep were pretty similar to the old part. No change.

There are so many things it could be, and I have very few diagnostic tools when it comes to a situation like this on a OBD I car. I don't want to waste a ton of her money or my time. I figure on a car this old with these kind of symptoms there are probably several common pattern failures or just wacky things that go wrong with them that I should look into first, I'm just hoping someone could help point me in the right direction.

Post by **3X00-Modified** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:10 am

with a lean code things to check is the O2 sensor... That could definitely be one, but also I would look into fuel pressure and see if you are showing signs of a failing fuel pump. Injectors could also be funky, best check for that is to ohm them out and see if they are near the 16ohms they should be, and then after that I would have the ICM, and coils all tested to see if they are ok and possibly just change the crank sensor in the rear of the block since those are known to go bad.

ifixalot · Post by **ifixalot** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:02 am

Maybe my memory is bad but as I recall, I measured 11-12 ohms on the injectors of my daughter's car. Weather 16 or 12 ohms, what is important to
look for, is one or two that are a lot different then the rest. In this case i found one that had 4 ohms which was bad. But it didn't cause
a hesitation just a really bumpy idle.
You have to go over everything. You can't rely on a message board and hope somebody says, "yeah I had that, it was the thingy"
You could have bad plug wires, low fuel pressure, a bad regulator etc.

Post by **3X00-Modified** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:10 am

Yeah your right 12-13, I remembered wrong from that other thread.

Bosch says 16ohms but most everyone has measured 12-13.

berettaboi · Post by **berettaboi** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:27 pm

you can try a set of coil packs and likely an ICM (under the coilpacks), get them off of most GM vehicles from the same age. usually start having issues as they heat up, and above certain throttle position (1/3-1/2 throttle it will start misfiring).

what is the rest of the 'tune up' history on the car? how old are the plugs and wires? fuel filter? lots to look into.

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