Hey all, Hate to make my first forum appearence needing your guys help..but ive been reading alot of info on this site for awhile. Completly new to the bonnevilles , Live up in Calgary,Alberta Canada just picked up my 94' bonne ssei 3.8 */c about 2 months ago,230xxxkms on her and ran perfect..no issues what so ever. Now is a different story so ill get to it.
Starting about a week ago i started noticing a huge drop/lag in power and thought something has to be up, but dident think to much of it at the time, now within the last couple days ive got some issues, The car has alot of studdering/ bucking /hesitation /lag when you give it throttle, it does not want to accelerate and she will fight the whole way BUT if you pin the throttle 5/10 times she will lag with nothing for about 2-3 seconds then blast off like a rocket? It does have a iradic idel and sometimes hard to start but not always, and it never stalls out (knock on wood.. ) I have changed the plugs/wires/fuel filter/air filter is good/ and i have NO SES light on what so ever. I was getting the low coolant level warning before the issues but now that has not came on sinse.I read a post on here and made sure the o2 sensor wire was not touching or close to the #6 wire and no difference.Im stumped as what the problem could be at this point, i dont know alot about these cars so any help would be great as were to go from this point?

Clean the MAF, also it could be the cat, is it the original?

OH yeah i forgot to mention i cleaned the MAF right when this started and it dident change anything, Everything has just progressed worse within a week, to the point where its almost undriveable to work ( i drive 45 mins highway everyday ) Another little sidenote is that before you could hold the throttle at speed and she would be fine and only have these problems under acceleration, but now even holding the throttle she starts bucking like its gunna cut out, just falling flat on her face kinda thing. As for the cat i have no idea if its orginal, i got no receipts with the previous owner.

Spray with carb cleaner to search for vacuum leaks. If the idle changes, you found one. Make sure you spray around the base of the EGR.

Get a spray bottle and spray the engine compartment with water at night, in the dark, with the engine running. Look for arcing.

thanks for the quick tips, ill go give the water spray test a shot right now. Any specific areas to spray? and avoid spraying?

You will want to mist the plug wires and coils

ok just did a quick water spray test and personally i could not see any arching, never done this test before. i decided to take her for a quick spin while she was cold from sitting and i noticed she had a ton of performance and like she had no problems at all at first, although i could hear what i think is a misfire, but as soon as she warmed up she started with all the same issues. Could this be cat related?

If the cat is clogged you will get back pressure and the engine will start loading up.

Unhook the wire for the Throttle Position Sensor, take it for a rip. The car won't kick down a gear when you accelerate, but if the power comes back, then you probably found your problem. Note that your ses light will come on when you do this. Next, unhook the MAF wire, and see if that does anything. If these two tests are futile, then I would start looking for a bad ignition coil.

okay update for today is, just getting worse, has a consistently ruff idel now, all the same issues as before with even more power lose it seems. something new i came across was the cars fans are consistently running and it "cycles" quickly? if that makes sense..doesent seem normal to me, i also looked around and around one of the injectors the area seems "wet" there no pooling or anything just theres a wet looking mess aroudn it, kinda brownish looking only around that injector (middle front ) sorry i forgot to get the #. I tried running no TPS, no difference what so ever, Tried running no MAF , made the car run even worse, had an idel like an old muscle car with a huge cam lol. I have it booked in tomorrow to get a scan test evenwith no SES light on..i dont wanna waste my money for nothing to come up, Tried spraying the egr valve with carb cleaner but as far as i could see, no leaks =* im not a pro mechanic maybe im missing something here.. any other suggestions?