An intermittant miss at idle with A/C on only

DEBLAZE

MEMBER
PONTIAC GRAND AM

I am trying to figure out a problem with a 1997 Grand Am SE w/ the 2.4 litre. When idling it is smooth as can be (in gear or out of gear) until you turn on the air conditioner. As soon as you turn it on the motor starts to miss. From what I've witnessed it seems to be an intermittant miss. Since I am an old school shade tree mechanic I don't have a good guess as to why the air conditioner would cause this. There is a noticable pop at the tail pipe. This is not my car, but the owner says that it has been bad enough to cause a severe hesitation starting from an idle and has even caused the car to die occasionally. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

4 Replies

XOWEY

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113 POSTS

Does it drive normally with the A/C off? :

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Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 AT 11:14 AM

DEBLAZE

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I haven't heard it miss yet with the a/c off. I hope I'm not thinking too much into it but it seemss strange that the a/c would have such an effect. I put the car in gear and let it idle so that there would be a similar "load" as the a/c with the a/c off and it idles fine that way too.