Need Advice: Chevy Astro with Stumble/Hesitation Problem

[boonsur]

I am planning to buy a Chevy Astro Van as an extra/winter vehicle. I found a real nice one, at a decent price. However, the lady I talked to said it has a stumbling/hesitation problem. It supposedly only does it occasionally (every couple of days), while traveling down the road, and it corrects itself right away. Otherwise it runs strong.



I am going to drive it in the next few days, to get a firsthand. Just wondering what might cause this. I had an old Astro that had a faulty knock sensor. Could it be this, or another sensor? Could it be a fueling or transmission problem? What might I look for, and how much would it take to fix it.



BTW, it has over 100k miles - anything else I should look for?



Any ideas/input???

 

[TPCDrafting]

I'm not a mechanic, but the first things I'd look at would be the spark plugs, one or more might be fouled. Check the plug wires too. Fuel filter would be next. I'd grill that lady about her maintenance schedule. Take it to a mechanic before buying and have them plug it in to their puter incase it's something else. Just my haypenny.

 

[wyosteve]

I don't know what year the Astro is, but we have a 97 GMC Safari that had the same trouble. Turns out there is a design flaw where one or more fuel injectors crack and allow gas to flow down the wiring harness into the ECM thereby causing an occasional short circuit. In our case they replaced the ECM under warranty, but injector replacement ran $1000. They also tried to talk us into replacing the entire wiring harness to the tune of $1700, but I told them I'd take my chances with the old harness. No problems since then.