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91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ?


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LuminaGuy
New User

Oct 17, 2010, 1:17 PM

Post #1 of 7 (3794 views)
91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ? Sign In

hi there I have a 91 chevy Lumina 3.1 Sedan, I need to replace my engine wiring harness due to some frayed wires.. I tried to use a 93 grand am engine wiring harness that looked exactly the same but did not work .. My question is .. can I use a 91 Lumina 3.1 "EURO" engine wiring harness on 3.1 sedan ... thx


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Oct 17, 2010, 3:40 PM

Post #2 of 7 (3763 views)
Re: 91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ? Sign In

Why a whole harness? I'd sooner just fix the ones you can see have a problem,

T



LuminaGuy
New User

Oct 17, 2010, 5:47 PM

Post #3 of 7 (3753 views)
Re: 91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ? Sign In

Thats a great point, Im not a mechanic.. but this is the best I can explain. Its a 91, but only has 56,000 miles on it(the main reason why I even forked out any money to fix it and its never been in an accident) so For about 4-5 months this problem has been building up, the car would always start right up but started stalling idling at red lights but would start right back up and would drive fine for days/weeks with no problems. Finally one day it refused to start after running about 20 mins, then after it sat for 8 hrs it would crank over but continued to die around that 15-25 min idle mark, it didn't seem like the fans we're turning on but the engine wasn't overheating.. clearly it seemed like a fuel pump or sensor issue. So we did a test on fuel pump and psi came back normal. We tried several times but the car showed NO CODES. So we started with Crank Position Sensor, temperature sensor, coil packs, ignition module, map sensor, Throttle position sensor, main belt, water pump, even a new computer which was my last purchase aside from noticing the lower engine wiring harness had a fray in it so we taped that up and eventually replaced it with the incorrect model engine wiring harness... Ive read other forums on this issue and this model and after trying to change out all the sensors, the main computer seemed like the last most possible solution. Since putting on the lower wiring harness the car will not start probably for obvious reasons if its not the correct harness even though it looked exactly the same.. So the whole engine wiring harness has been pulled and I thought maybe a fuseable link or short somewhere might be the culprit but have no idea how to test 50 different wires if they are bad or not ..

There is one solution that was recommended that maybe the catalytic converter was clogged/creating back pressure to the engine and making it die so the option to cut it off and straight pipe it was and still is an option if the engine harness issue doesn't pan out...

I have to say, after replacing all the obvious sensors Im really frustrated and have run out of ideas.... Without being able to produce the original problem I can't even take it in to get a diagnostic at a shop. So I seen an engine wiring harness for a 3.1 euro and just wanted to be sure it would work on my sweet 3.1 sedan.

Any ideas or insight would greatly be appreciated ...
also if anyone could recommend any links to used car part site or preferred junk yards that do shipping


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Oct 17, 2010, 6:28 PM

Post #4 of 7 (3740 views)
Re: 91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ? Sign In

You have spent a lot of money at guessing.

* What frayed the wire you just tapped up? There's a clue there.

* Did I read it right you already put in a wrong wiring harness that didn't help?

* You don't need to cut a converter off to know one is a problem! Yikes. You can tell that a few ways - one easy one is a simple vacuum gauge.

Any good salvage yard should know what harness is correct.

General: GMs and others have issues with things that plug in.

If a fusible link has failed it would show it.

If it's the wrong harness in there now you need a new or salvage yard to help as said,

T



(This post was edited by Tom Greenleaf on Oct 17, 2010, 6:31 PM)


LuminaGuy
New User

Oct 21, 2010, 2:00 PM

Post #5 of 7 (3723 views)
Re: 91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ? Sign In

thanks for the help tom, here is a slight update to the situation ...
the car started up today after we put in a new battery...I think we exhausted the old battery and couldn't get a good charge on it. It took a good 10+ turns of the key to get it turn over but it was sitting for a couple weeks. It ran for about 10-15 mins and then would stall if we tried to give the engine some gas... This is good news I think since it doesn't look like the wiring harness and is showing symptoms of the original problem. The question came up it could be a bad fuel injector(s) ... and maybe clogged fuel filter/or pump

1) Could a bad fuel injector(s) cause the car to run for a few minutes and then start stalling after it warms up a bit OR after giving it some gas?

2) the mystery to this problem in the first place is how it will turn over when cold, it might stall after 5mins ..start right back up...run another couple of mins ..stall ..start right back then finally after about 20 mins finally refuse to turn over until it sits for a few hours.

Any recommendations to test this further?
Thanks!


Sidom
Veteran / Moderator
Sidom profile image

Oct 21, 2010, 3:06 PM

Post #6 of 7 (3713 views)
Re: 91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ? Sign In

This is kind of a long thread that I haven't read so I'll just answer you 2 questions real quick & hopefully I'm not missing anything....

A shorted fuel injector could cause a no start, usually they don't come back but when it's not starting you need to find out what you are missing spark or fuel. If it's spark get a noid light & check injector pulse. If there is no pulse, if you can get to the injectors easily, disconnect them all, if the pulse comes back, you have a shorted injector....

As far as not cranking, when it's not starting go down to the starter and check the small wire at the solenoid for 12v when the key is turned. If there is no power, 1st make sure the security light isn't flashing and there no other alarms installed. If all the checks out, get a diagram for the starting system, start at the beginning and see where you are losing power......


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Oct 21, 2010, 3:22 PM

Post #7 of 7 (3710 views)
Re: 91 Lumina 3.1 EZ engine wiring ? Sign In

No harm in a new fuel filter IMO.

I doubt injectors as I haven't run into any that were intermittent like that.

Noid them anyway when down.

Does it have spark when down?

Check that fuel pressure is up and can hold.

Part of trouble but not the whole issue is if battery was disconnected and a memory saver not used the dang thing has to "re-learn" which can take a while. It could stall but would keep starting and you could go but not plain quit running over that.

Go easy on the starter with multiple tries or you add that to the list!

Check some of the above and see what you find is the best I can suggest for now,

T







 
 
 






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