Hello! I have a Pontiac Bonneville 98 SE that bucks and stalls after about
10 minutes of driving. I think that it might be a tranny problem, as it only
seems to to do it in low gear. The check engine light flicks on and
off,whenever the bucking starts. As long as i have my foot on the
accelerator, It won't die. Once it dies, I can pop it into neutral, and it
will start back up, but i immediately have to accelerate in order to keep it
'alive'. This has been an ongoing problem, that I've tolerated for about a
year, because nothing else seems to be going wrong, and I really don't have
the money to throw parts at it. I have taken it into three different shops
for other problems in the past year, and mentioned this, but no one seems to
be able to diagnose it, and one of them even ran a diagnostic on it, and
pulled no codes. My roomate rented a diagnostic machine today, though, and
it pulled up the code for a mass airflow sensor. Could this actually be the
problem?
I am not too terribly handy with cars. Also im sorry if this problem is redundant, I'm new here.

Bumping

If your getting a mass air flow code you need to replace it. it costs 130.00 and you can do it yourself! I have been having awefull troubles with my bonneville and the mass air flow was the only thing that set the engine light.
Replace it and see if it helps. I am told that the mass air flow will creat the problems your having!
I got mine at advance auto, but auto zone is about the same price. and they come with a 1 yr replacement. there is a core charge of about $70 so you have to return the old one.

Some times the code is not really the problem. To test your MAF, unplug it and drive around. If the car runs better, then replace the MAF. You will get a SES light for this. Just drive normal, no hard driving. The TPS could be the problem as well, there is a test procedure in the tech info for that. Check for vacuum leaks. Does this happen when starting or while driving, going straight or turning? Could be a bad knock sensor giving a bad reading and pulling a ton of timing.

i had a similar problem with my 99 bonniville. after replacing a few things it turned out that i needed to replace my plug wires. it ran fine afterwards. so my advise is to check all 6 plug wires for resistance. good luck