Recently bought an 86 Omni non-turbo 2.2 from an elderly lady. It was a one owner car from brand new. The car runs great when it's cold but as soon as it warms up after about 10 minutes of driving it shuts off and cranks really slow and hard or not at all. When starting cold vehicle cranks over normal and within spec but after warm up the battery jumps down to 9.8.... And now out of nowhere I've noticed a tapping from the head, assuming lifters. Need to know what this might be and if there is a place to get good quality parts. I live in Lancaster pa
Need help
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
Joined
·
1,425 Posts
Sounds to me a charging system problem,
If your loosing power then it's one place to look.
Check your charging system when parked and hook-up a volt meter and see whats happening there.
Check condition of battery,It may need to be replaced.
Also the taping noise coming from the head could also be because of insuficant spark to the plugs, ( I have noticed that before with a low voltage issue in an L body ) a low voltage to the plugs cause them to have a very weak spark and then a stall issue happens and it sounds like the car becomes a diesel sound before it dies out,
If your loosing power then it's one place to look.
Check your charging system when parked and hook-up a volt meter and see whats happening there.
Check condition of battery,It may need to be replaced.
Also the taping noise coming from the head could also be because of insuficant spark to the plugs, ( I have noticed that before with a low voltage issue in an L body ) a low voltage to the plugs cause them to have a very weak spark and then a stall issue happens and it sounds like the car becomes a diesel sound before it dies out,
Joined
·
2,514 Posts
I agree, check the output at the alternator, then check the output at the regulator. You should be seeing about 13.5V at the battery if it's charging correctly. You didn't post how many miles are on the car, but I actually wore out the brushes on my original alternator at about 125K miles. They physically lost contact with the rotor in the alternator. I did about a 40 mile round trip, and the truck just died about two miles from home. Battery was dead. Jumped it, and checked output, it was only reading about 11.5V. I got nothing on the output terminal of the alternator.
My car has 90k on it. I checked the charging system cold and it's charging @ 13.8 but after it warms up it's only charging @ around 12.8... I'm gonna assume that the alternator is bad and maybe the starter too. Now if the head does indeed turn into an internal issue, are there any good websites to get parts for it? I can't seem to have any luck.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
