Well for the first time for me with all of my TRs’ my daily driver GN hiccupped. It has 96000 miles on it and other than normal service it was still running on all assembly parts. Today about a block away from home it starting cutting out when it hit 2nd gear. Lots of black smoke from tail pipe and didn’t like much throttle. I could stabilize it in neutral and start out again but as soon as it hit 2nd it would fall apart. Definitely an electrical problem because of the rich condition. The cut out was all cylinders so I knew it wasn’t the coil. Next thought was the ignition module but because of the rich condition I ruled that out. Remember the system design, no spark = no injector drive. It would idle fine so I started with the basics. The old beat on the mass sensor with your fist was first. It staled right away. Then I unplugged it and the engine ran fine in the computer back up mode. My experience with GN mass sensors is they don’t fail very often unlike other GM cars that use the same design. I installed a new one from my reserve parts stock and everything is fine. Got lucky with a 10 minute fix.
Being with a Buick dealer for 30 years and working closely with Buick Technical Service I started looking for a cause. I live in California and lately it has gotten into the very low 30’s at night, very unusual. When the problem occurred the air temp was about 39 degrees. Soldiered electrical components don’t like expansion and contraction caused by extreme temperature changes. I cut the old sensor apart and sure enough there was a cracked soldier joint. The extreme cold had caused it to contract and break connection. The 96000 miles of vibration didn’t help things either.
My point is if you can keep your car in a climate-controlled environment it will help preserve some of these parts. Looks like a heated garage is in the future. LOL
Where exactly was this cracked solder joint? I have a bad one too, but could not find anything bad about it, maybe just because I don't know where to look.
Brian
Brian the glue joint must be cut and you will have two halfs. This will expose the circut board in the rectangle box above the plug connector. That's what the rebuilders do is simply re-sodier the joints. They only sodier the cracks they see and sometimes they are so small the naked eye can't pick them up. That's why they are unreliable.
Thanks, I'll try that. Any suggestions on what to use to cut it open?
Phil Aubrey = Yoda?
Thanks for the info Phil!