Sciguyjim

I have an 89 Firebird TA, 5.0L, TPFI engine. My brother in law had the exact same car. I take meticulous care of mine and he didn't. Yet I continue to have something that sounds like slight pinging with any acceleration. It gets loud on hard accel. I use Rapidfire plugs and they were checked last year, they're about 5 years old. I only put about 4-5,000 miles on the car per year. I also hsd the injectors Motorvac cleaned last year. My air cleaner is a new Fram. Timing is ok. I used to use 93 octane but switched to 89 octane gas. I didn't notice any change in the high pitched clicking sounds.

The shops I've gone to don't seem to do a good job of getting rid of the clicking and high pitched hissing I hear on accel. If it goes away, it comes back in a few weeks.

My MPG seems less than it did a few years ago, and it has seemed sluggish to me. It did better a few years ago before this area switched to gasohol, so I assumed the lower MPG and slower response was due to that.

My brother in law recently drove my car and commented that he had to push the accelerator down more than on his car to get a similar response.

Anyone have any ideas what might be going on? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

IROC5.7TPI

You got yourself a bad EGR valve. Its located on the base intake under the upper plenum. It shouldn't cost much to replace if you do the work yourself.

As for the reason why it went bad..... I would say use better fuel with a higher octane and also beat the snot out of it once in a while to clear it out

Sciguyjim

I have had trouble with the EGR valve in the past due to bits of carbon lodging in it. About a year ago someone told me some companies were making screens that could be installed before the valve but my shop said there were none for my car.

Unfortunately I can't do the work myself and I think it costs about $200 for the shop to clean the valve because it is so inaccessable. Thanks.

DarthIROC

why cant you do the work yourself??

IROC5.7TPI

The upper plenum and throttle body are all that need to be removed to get to the EGR. Anyone thats done the job can do it in less than a 1/2 hour, but for a 1st timer it may take an hour or so. The valve itself is cheap. I think $200 is getting ripped off.

Sciguyjim

1) Lack of proper tools.
2) Lack of knowledge of tools, parts, and procedure necessary.
3) Condo association has rules against anyone doing car repairs on the property, and I don't have a friend I can go to.

I think $200 is a ripoff too for such a simple problem that's so easy to fix (if it wasn't so inaccessable.)

IROC5.7TPI

I understand your dilemma... What I would do is buy your own EGR valve so that whoever is installing it won't have the opportunity to mark up the price on the part, then ask them how many hours the book calls for on labor time. It shouldn't be more than 2 hours max, but it should be less than that. Multiply the labor hours times the shops labor rate per hour and you should be able to do the math and come up with a lot less than $200. Just don't make the mistake of taking it to the same place that screwed you last time

Sciguyjim

Sounds good, I'll do that and save a few bucks at least. Thanks.