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Engine lacks power all of a sudden
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 5:42 pm
by greengoblin0129
I was cruising around a couple days ago and my car just died. Got it restarted and since then the car has had pretty much no power to it. Check the codes yesterday and I got code 44, lean exhaust. Today it isn't showing a code. It rev's up every slow. Just did a full tune up on the car a couple weeks ago...cap, rotor, plugs, wires, oil, filters, ect. So far i've replaced the fuel filter and O2 sensor hoping that was it, but no. Also swapped out the ECM and no luck there either. What else could cause this? The car is a 87 GT 5speed.
Thanks, Ryan
Re: Engine lacks power all of a sudden
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 5:42 pm
by greengoblin0129
..
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 5:57 pm
by Series8217
Just keep throwing parts at it. You'll figure it out.
Check your fuel pressure.
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:33 pm
by TurboGT
Have you replaced your pick-up coil ever? I had some weird problems, like the car would die randomly and cut our up top, and that fixed it for me. Moisture can get inside the cap and cause poor connections.
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 12:46 am
by Chris-Nelson
Yes, as far as I'm concerned, the most problem causing electrical component on our cars is the Igntion Control Module located under the dist. cap bolted onto the distributor. It wears out somehow and makes all sorts of weird symptoms... Check that out next!
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 11:43 am
by p8ntman442
your timing chain may have jumped a tooth, do a compression check.
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 2:01 pm
by MNFatz
Clogged catalytic converter is a possibility. Unbolt it from the flange, tie it up out of the way and take a spin around the block.
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:16 am
by Kohburn
MNFatz wrote:Clogged catalytic converter is a possibility. Unbolt it from the flange, tie it up out of the way and take a spin around the block.
yeah - low fuel pressure, clogged cat are the main things that can cause behavior like that
most things having to do with the spark would make it a lot mroe rough.. however if the timing chain jumped a tooth (rare) or if the distributor shifted and retarded the timing its possible..
toss a timing light on it, check the fuel pressure, then check the cat con..
can borrow the timing light and fuel pressure guage from autozone.
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 12:15 pm
by rube
I can loan you a fuel pressure gauge and a laptop with winaldl if you like.
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:34 pm
by greengoblin0129
rube wrote:I can loan you a fuel pressure gauge and a laptop with winaldl if you like.
That would be great if I could borrow your fuel pressure gauge. Can't find any where that rents them. I ran winaldl and it pretty much said the car is running very lean. Posted pics of the data here:
http://www.fiero.com/forum/Forum2/HTML/076728.html
I replaced the fuel pump today and no luck there. I messed with the distributor and turned it either way seeing if it would run better, and it pretty much stayed the same. So I just put it back where it was. BTW I see your car everyday parked off 71st street lol.
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:38 pm
by Kohburn
you don't have an autozone near you? they don't rent, they loan. which means you pay its value and return it for a full refund - they usually have a set or two of each item that they loan out on a regular basis.
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:33 pm
by greengoblin0129
Kohburn wrote:you don't have an autozone near you? they don't rent, they loan. which means you pay its value and return it for a full refund - they usually have a set or two of each item that they loan out on a regular basis.
Yea I called them and they said they no longer do that, they only do that with 15 different tools now. Adavance auto said they no longer do it, got some chick at NAPA, she went to check on it and came back and said theres no one there to answer my question :scratch: . Also tried O'Reilly, no luck there either. If I could get it to school (Lincoln Tech) I could hook up to their equiment and test all my crap, but I don't think I could get the car that far with out it ended up on the side of the road. Its 40 miles away. If I can I might try to get it up there for open shop on saturday. I don't have the stuff here to diagnose the problem.
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:13 pm
by Kohburn
in that case try unbolting the exhaust before the catalytic converter - if the cat is clogged then that should make things feel better right away