Car Starting Problems

Hey there.
I have a 98 GTP with 172,000 k on it. For a while now I've been having to hold down the gas a little bit to get the car to start. Even then sometimes it will idle down below 500 rpm's then stall. The car will not start at all unless the gas is depressed.......

I've been reading a ton of articles on this forum and just can't figure it out.
I've recently replaced the plugs / wires / fuel filter and several other maintance items.

Please help...
Thanks...

Check the idle air control valve.

How is this part checked? I mean is there a way to determine if its bad?

Well... I decided to order a downpipe from ZZ Performance... I'm going with the theory that my cat is clogged considering it all stock with 172k on it. It scheduled to arrive on the 3rd. I'll let you know the results when I bolt it up.

There being delivered today - can't wait to throw them on there...

Well..... I got the catless downpipe installed last night after using a lot of PB Blaster...

I'll be damned but my car starts just fine as of now. No longer do I have to press the gas to get it to fire up... I guess the cat and was clogged and it was simply chocking the car... It will be interesting to see if my fuel economy goes up too.

Good job.

Thanks for posting your fix.

Ok - I'm back, it turns out that removing the cat didn't fix my car. Its been acting up again - actually soon after I switched cat.... This is driving me crazy. From what I've read I'm just guessing Mass Air Flow Sensor / or Crank Position Sensor / or Idle Air Control Valve, but who knows.... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated before I drive this thing into a wall.

Alright Rook - I took the Idle Air Control Valve off last night and it looked liked a piece of burnt charcoal. I replace it for 32 bucks and all the problems seem to have gone away.... I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks!

thanks for all that info man, seriously. this may be unrelated but i have a 1999 dodge stratus doing the SAME EXACT thing...so im gonna try replacing it on that car, its my second car as of now cuz i bought my grand prix...but im looking to sell it soon heh so thanks...if anything, atleast u got a downpipe out of this :-D

Your Stratus has the 2.5 v6? I have an '01 Strat R/T Coupe with the 3.0 V6. Very similar engines, and cleaning the throttle body/IAC helps them a lot.

yeah it does, wow rook we have pretty much the same cars all over eh? hahaha yeah i took the TB and IAT apart today, come to find out...theres oil ALL over my intake tubes, and inside the TB....gogo blown head gasket eh? i was like YEAH BOUT TO CLEAN OFF MY IAT, GET THIS CAR BACK ON THE ROAD...then i saw pools of oil and wanted to cry. not ONLY that, vbut i did a full tune up on the car before i bought my GP, changed the oil, plugs, wires, gaskets on the VC's....yeah, come to find this out i check the oil....theres no oil in the car hahahaha...which is odd because a) i havent driven the car since i bought the grand prix, did the tune up not 4 days before i bought my grand prix, and where it sat there was no oil underneath...somethings leaking somewhere, terribly...hahahaha all well :p what i get for buyin a dodge