My car's being funny... but not in a fun way. I have an 06' SS with 20k and all stock except for cold air. There have been codes that indicate "System too rich; Bank 1" which cue the SES light. My milage has gone down significantly and I smell raw gas fumes coming from the exhaust. My power is also **** poor!

I've been having problems for a while. The most significant and noticable problem has been with cold starts. If I were to start my car in the morning or night (temp. 60 degrees), and just drive off, the car will chug and sometimes die out as i shift into second and third gears. Once it's warmed up, it's still sluggish but it will not chug.

While changing my plugs today, (I figured that foul plugs might have caused the power issue) they looked black and burnt up. After i put the new plugs in and drove around the block for 5 minutes, I popped the hood, pulled the new plugs back out and noticed the same black deposits. I presume this is a result of the system too rich.

So far the GM dealer and my warranty have been useless in solving the problem. All they can do is clear the code, and if there isn't a code they won't go any further with the problem. So now I'm totally bummed out and I don't know what to do, for I am far from being an expert in this area. Any thoughts, ideas or information would be helpful and much appreciated. Thanks!

...One more thing...How do i change my profile name?

 

try to see if someone could reflash your stock tune that might be the case

 

IDK, pm the administrator. Jonyyb

 

...try getting it reflash...my car acted weird today..i hear a squeaky noise when i drive...could it be the rotors?...pads?...i dont whats causing this noise...and it goes away and comes back later....

 

Thread jacker^

Anyway, Have you looked into the cat being clogged? When mine went, I smelt raw fuel in the exhaust, power was shitty as hell, and it barely started sometimes.

 

Ok, what are you gapping your plugs at? The weird thing about a to lean code is that you may see it and be running rich as hell, the O2 sensor reads just that, OXYGEN, now if you are not getting a good burn from your spark plugs being not gapped correctly, there will be left over fuel and o2 in your exhaust stream, the o2 sensor will see the unburned o2 only, not the fuel, and in turn will dump more fuel, thinking it was lean, causing even more problems, clogged cat, bad gas milage, ect.

Might be a good place to start.

 

Ok so the gm guys finally explored my problem a little deeper. The cat converter was melted on the bottom, they replaced the plugs, put in a new mass airflow sensor, and replaced an o2 sensor(at the cat i imagine). As of now(being the past week that i've had it back) there have been no new codes, but i still have the same issues as before ie. raw gas smell, chugs at cold start, and low power. what do you mean by reflash the system?

 

Tell those idiots to change the damn cat, they did everything but what they needed to do to fix it

 

Oh yeah those idiots did change the cat. heres something else i noticed but haven't explained. when i start the car and give a good rev up, a few huge plumes of black exhaust come out the pipe. do you think that this could be an internal engine problem? pistion rings, seals, etc...? could the cold air intake have a negative effect on the engine performance without re-tuning?

*** info please *** Reflash the system... anyone???

 

*Insert Experience* Your Cat "could" be clogged, like the others have said. That would cause the car to add more fuel, and richen it up. That could cause your code etc. But is not likely the cause of this problem (though clogged cats in general are common on the Cobalt and quite deadly as well).

>LIKELY REASON< You put a CAI on the car. Chances are that the filter was oiled, like most aftermarket filters. You more than likely have an oil coated MAF sensor. That causes the cars to throw SYSTEM RICH BANK1 codes. It will make your car Bog when you floor it, and cause the car to get about 5 less mpg. It can also give your car a jumpy idle where it will fluctuate by about 500-750rpms total when you come to a stop. The bad news is that a new MAF sensor costs about $60 on a good day, and you still run the risk of recoating it when you install it back into your intake. You could save some money first and try a can of Electrical Parts cleaner and lightly blast the MAF with that to clean the residue off (invisible residue).

FYI - The eBay intakes (about $70) are notorious for coating MAFs from my experience. I would say 3/4 of them will gum a MAF. I do not see as many problems with the K&N, FUJITA, etc.

 

Thanks. good ideas. keep em comin!