Let me set the scene. Imagine that you are driving any manual car. You go to shift from 2nd to 3rd, but you accidentally put it into 5th. the car starts to sputter some as you do not have enough speed/power/pressure built up to maintain driving the car in 5th. The car shutters every so often, as though it were trying to stall…
Now, take that idea and apply it to a 1994 Olds 88 (automatic). it doesn’t happen often, but if I am cruising at around 2000 RPM (I am guessing, as I have no tac) and sometimes the car shutters and seems to skip, or mis fire, but it reminds me of the times when I was young and learning to drive a manual and went from 2nd to 5th accidentally.
The car has been doing this for awhile now (1-1.5 years), and while I am not sure if it is related, about 3 months ago, my ABS light came on and stayed on. Now I believe that I have to replace my brake booster to satisfy the ABS light, but the engine seems perplexing. I had two ideas: (background info, new air filter installed, and recent oil change, same problem exists)
1- Misfire on the spark plug/bad plug wire(s). I am not sure, but doubtful on this one, as I assumed that it would be an ever present problem every single time, not intermittently
2- Timing Chain - Not sure, but doubtful for the same reason as above.
Any help, advice would be great. I do not like to pay someone to do something I know I can do myself, but I am having a hard time diagnosing this one.
Engine 3800 V-6
Oil Change dont 1500 ago with syntheic blend
Air Filter 4500 miles
Mileage 176000
Th
The timing chain is not an issue. If it had jumped time or something you’d have more than just an occasional hesitation.
Ignition issues (e.g. plugs & wires) very well could be an issue. If you have any question about them due to time and/or mileage since they were changed then you should just change them.
Also add in a new fuel filter to that. So with new plugs & wires & fuel filter see where things stand.