MaxHeadroom

I've been having the same problems for a short time. Stalling, hesitation/stumbling on accelleration, rough idle, etc. The knock sensor needs to be replaced, has been for a while. I know that is affecting the performance some. The other day it cut off and wouldn't start. After about an hour of me poking around under the hood it finally started. So I decided to try something. I went to Advance auto parts and bought a can of electrical contact cleaner. I unplugged EVERY electrical connection, one at a time, and sprayed the contacts on both sides. The throttle pos sensor, maf, each coil pack, power transistor, ign relays, etc, everything! Plugged them back in and wiggled them some to make sure they were clean. Theres was quite a bit of corrosion on some of them, but after 10 years of never being touched thats normal. After that the damm thing runs great no stalling not much hesitation, probly the knock sensor still (i'm fixing that this weekend). I can say it really made a difference. So there it is, try it and post your results, I'm curious to see if it helps anybody else.
Good Luck!

rhard49

which connector is the knock sensor I have 2 red ones at the rear of the engine by the fuel rail a rectangular one with a jesus clip on it and a small square slide on one which I had already cleaned both single wire connections.

Agamemnon

I've done that, kind of, and it did not solve the problem, but I only clean the obvious connectors that I can find, so perhaps I'm missing a few (or a lot!)

Can you give us a list of connectors that need to be cleaned? And their location too, of course!

The knock sensor's hidden underneath the intake manifold, isn't it?

MaxHeadroom

Yea the knock is under the manifold, that sux. I'll try to get a pic of my motor scanned and point out everything. But here's an explanation. I cleaned the plugs/connectors to the - knock sensor connector/it's a 2 wire conector that has a lead the goes under the manifold on the driver side of the block, the throttle position sensor/on the side of the throttle body, the crankshaft position sensor/looks like a distributor, the power transistor/ next to the crank sensor, the maf sensor/you know where that is, all of the coil pack plugs, the plugs for the vtc solenoids, and any other plug in connector that looked like it might be important. I did find plenty of corrosion in a lot of them. You can get the electrical contact cleaner at any auto parts store. Did it early this morning and it's ran fine all day.

Agamemnon

Hmmm, it looks like the knock sensor connector that I'm missing. So it's underneath the intake manifold? I'm assuming you'd have to look from the back of the engine to find it (from the firewall side)?

I did clean some of the connectors underneath the throttle body, there are 3 of them I think, one seem to be attached to the IACV thingy.

I also put dielectric grease on them. It's supposed to protect them from moisture, I think. Can we put dielectric grease inside the connectors itself? I only put them on around the outside of the connectors, especially where the cables come out, since the rubber boots on some on my connectors have disintegrated, exposing the cables.