Car lurks forward and has stalled/lost power

1999 PONTIAC FIREBIRD
160,000 MILES
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PAMDORA
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
Yesterday the vehicle started to lurk forward like it was gasping for air or had a quick surge of gas. It already had a rough idle, so my first thought was air intake. That night, I cleaned the throttle body. It was running well, with a random surge at about 2500rpm in 2nd gear during acceleration. When I filled up my gas tank, I put in injector cleaner. I didn't realize until it was in that it was also upper cylinder lubricant. The car didn't like that at all. It gave hard surges and rough idle. I also noticed that the voltage meter. It was like it was draining power from the battery. I continued to drive it, in hopes if I just get the gas run through the engine, it would smooth out. It did smooth out a little bit and only gave a surge when accelerating from dead stop. It finally stalled and lost power while sitting in line at a redlight. The computer is not throwing any codes so I'm not really sure what to hit next. Keep in mind that this probably my 3rd alternator since I bought the car in Oct. of '09.
Sep 5, 2012 at 7:36 PM
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KHLOW2008
  • CAR REPAIR CONTRIBUTOR
  • 41,814 POSTS
How many alternator is not the point. You still need to check if this alternator is providing the correct charge. There are other factors causing the alternator to fail within a short life span, such as design, harmonic damper, quality and if rebuilt, I don't trust them to work for too long.

Have you checked the spark plugs and related components? When misfiring occurs, the engine can seems to surge.
Sep 5, 2012 at 7:54 PM
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