93 Buick Centry feels "choked"

RABING2

MEMBER
1993 BUICK RIVIERA

I have a 93 Buick Centry with 115K mi. 6 cyl 3.3 L Fuel Injector

For the past 3 months, car has been idling normally, but has trouble accelerating. There is a delay when I push the accelerator and when the car actually accelerates.

The car also has a "choppy" (or pulsating) power delivery and in general feels sluggish. The "choppy" power is usually at low to medium speeds. I don't notice it as much at speeds over 45 mph.

The car has a history of overheating (i've put on 3 temperature sensors, 1 thermostat, several coolant flushes, and 1 new radiator fan). I had a new exhaust put on 6 months ago to replace one that leaked. Spark Plugs and fuel filters were replaced last week and performance has not improved. I also added some fuel injector cleaner to my gas tank to see if that would clear up the problem (and it hasn't).

I thought the problem was with the drive train, but it stalled out on me this morning and the normal idle speed makse me otherwise doubt that.

Aside from getting a new car, is there anything that can be done to fix this?

2 Replies

SERVICE WRITER

MECHANIC
9,123 POSTS

Determining Cost per mile to drive your car compared to a new car:

Add all of your repair bills from 36000 miles to the present mileage. Use these numbers because this is the mileage that the majority of the manufacturer’s warranties expire. Subtract the currant mileage from the 36,000-mile warranty expiration point. Then divide the dollars spent on repairs by this to get a dollars per mile figure. It usually comes out to about $.08 to $.25/mile. Which doesn’t mean much at this point. So to get a better comparison to what new car is going to be costing; the purchase price of a new car is divided by the first 36,000 miles that it is under warranty. Since a new car owner is getting “problem free driving” for 36,000 miles the purchase price should not be extended beyond this. Using a purchase price of $15,500 plus the sales tax, tags, title brings it to about $17,000 yielding about $.47/mile. This figure does not include oil changes, tire rotation, interest on a loan or an insurance premium increase. Now that means something. So you can save about $5,100.00 more annually when you drive 15,000 miles.