Engine Not Making Power (Intermittently)

The Car: 2009 Chevy Aveo 5 Door, Manual Transmission.

The Problem: While driving (at highway speeds, in town speeds, in reverse) The engine will intermittently (in 1 -2 second bursts) stop making power as if the gas pedal was at ilde. Since the car has throttle by wire, I would suspect the throttle body or pedal, however when I press in the clutch the engine will rev just fine. I took the car to a local shop, but they weren't to crazy to troubleshoot this one since there's no check engine lights and the throttle body checks out on their diagnostic tools. They suggested a dealership - Not really where I want to go. Has anyone else expirienced, or heard of this?

sounds like you should not be going highway speeds in reverse..

how often are the bursts? daily? hourly? all the time? sounds like plugs and or coil pack, might be o2, all of whch should through a code, so since you don't have any check the plugs. How many miles do you have? the plug change interval is 25k miles.

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Originally Posted by bencan

The Car: 2009 Chevy Aveo 5 Door, Manual Transmission.

The Problem: While driving (at highway speeds, in town speeds, in reverse) The engine will intermittently (in 1 -2 second bursts) stop making power as if the gas pedal was at ilde. Since the car has throttle by wire, I would suspect the throttle body or pedal, however when I press in the clutch the engine will rev just fine. I took the car to a local shop, but they weren't to crazy to troubleshoot this one since there's no check engine lights and the throttle body checks out on their diagnostic tools. They suggested a dealership - Not really where I want to go. Has anyone else expirienced, or heard of this?

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Seeing that it's a 2009 it should still be under warranty. Why would you not want a dealer to do the warranty work?

On mine they had to change the gas pedal itself - although the car didn't have any hesitation symptoms. (Mine's an automatic and the shifts felt poorly defined.)

From what I've heard it might also be the throttle position sensor. GM's electronics leave something to be desired...

petrified.rabbit:

The "bursts" happen daily. Recently the check engine light came on due to a faulty O2 sensor and it was replaced. I don't think that's it. The car just turned 40,000 miles and I'm quite sure that the plugs are original. I'll take a look at them tonight.

Thymeclock:

My wife has had the car since before we were married and when I asked about the warranty she said it was expired. I assumed it went to 30,000 miles, maybe I'm wrong. Was the check engine light illuminated before your pedal was changed?

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My wife has had the car since before we were married and when I asked about the warranty she said it was expired. I assumed it went to 30,000 miles, maybe I'm wrong. Was the check engine light illuminated before your pedal was changed?

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Your warranty is 100,000 miles or 5 years (click here).

My engine check light was not on. My complaint was retarded shift points, although the car seemed to run fine. When they checked the car thoroughly (it was only a few months old) they found the gas pedal was not reading properly. It didn't really help the points at which it shifts, but after the pedal was replaced you could feel the points at which it shifted more distinctly.

She might have been thinking of the 3 year 36k mile bumper to bumper, but yes, as thymeclock stated it has a 100k mile warranty on the drivetrain.

the warranty does not cover stuff that should have been done under routine maintenance, so you still have to check your own spark plugs.

I had this exact problem on my Aveo, it was the O2 sensor but for some reason it just randomly went away a few months ago and hasn't come back yet. The thing the dealer told me was it could have been the fuel pump or injector itself, where it's such a new car, low KMs and only 1-2 second bursts I can't really say much mine were maybe 5-10 second bursts.

Anyway, drive it into your local GM, the one you purchased it from if possible and have them look at it. It's most likely something minor, but could be anything and without lights and whatnot now backyard mechanics will either not find the problem, say it's something else, or not bother. GM won't screw you around too much.

Update:

I took the car to the local GM dealer last Thursday. The mechanics said they could find nothing wrong with the car: there were no codes, it drove fine and that they were stumped. I brought the car home that evening, and changed the spark plugs. The plugs were definitely worn - the gaps were all around .055. After installing 4 shiny new NGK iridium plugs and a few days of driving the car has run flawlessly. Problem solved for $12.00. Thanks Aveo Fourm!

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Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

sounds like you should not be going highway speeds in reverse..

how often are the bursts? daily? hourly? all the time? sounds like plugs and or coil pack, might be o2, all of whch should through a code, so since you don't have any check the plugs. How many miles do you have? the plug change interval is 25k miles.

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Rabbit wins again :D

Good to see it got fixed

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. The car is acting up again only more frequently (every time we drive it) and more severely now the engine idles poorly. I thought I was saved when the check engine light illuminated, so I dropped the car off at the dealer. They read the code: Low Idle RPM. They cleaned the throttle body and asked us to drive the car to look for a change - there's no difference. The car is starting to feel a lot like a SAAB I had with a bad ignition cassette (I think Chevy calls it an ignition coil pack). What do you think?

coil pack could prematurely kill the plugs. pull them again and see what they look like? look over the coil pack for any discoloration, wear, abnormalities.. You would not be the first with a bad coil pack, even on the newer model..

if everything looks fine try having them run live data and riding with you, if the o2 or something acts out of range.. you will see it.


have you had any work done to the car before?