loosing speed on the roads & hills

joserivas19 · 07-10-2013, 12:34 PM

Good morning all,

So i have been having some issues with my alero for almost a year now and havent been able to figure out whats wrong with it. I hope you guys might be able to point me in the right direction.

So when i am going on the road, specially on the FWY (speed limit here in western WA is 60) all of a sudden i start loosing speed, my foot is all the way down on the pedal, and nothing. Then all of a sudden it'll kick back into speed. and it does it every few mins. And when im going up any hill, i cant get it to go past 20mph. There is like a knocking sound on the back part of the engine. When i put the stethoscope to listen, sounds like its coming from the middle rear cylinder, but im not sure.

i took it to a local shop a few months ago so they could diagnose it and possibly fix it. They took off the intake manidold, looked at the pushrods and lifters and told me they were ok. Then they wanted to charge me $2,500 to pull the engine to look at the camshaft. He said i was military and therefore could afford it. I told him to "F" off and that i could get a rebuilt engine for that price, and just gave him the $500 for taking the intake off and putting it back on.

I have no codes that pop up or any lights for that matter. I hope this info is useful to you guys. Oh, and its an automatic too. I really appreciate the help in advance. thanks guys.

a.graham52 · 07-10-2013, 03:12 PM

hows your tuneup? plugs, wires, air filte,r fuel filter etc.

could be a plugged cat. one way to test is to remove the 02 sensor before yor cat and take a quick drive. noisy as hell but if you ahve your power back then you need an ew cat.

[ion] C2 · 07-10-2013, 04:04 PM

have you removed your cat yet?

do it

joserivas19 · 07-10-2013, 11:12 PM

I removed the original one back in 04 and ran without a cat till 2011. then I put a high flow cat on it. so the new cat is about 2 yrs old.

I have an o2 override plug that I will use when I disconnect the o2 like a.graham suggests. I hope its something as easy as the cat vice an engine or tranny. I will keep you guys posted. Thanks a.graham and Ion.

xXManwhoreXx · 07-11-2013, 02:28 AM

I don't know much about cels on these cars if it was pulling timing would it pop a cel

a.graham52 · 07-11-2013, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xXManwhoreXx

I don't know much about cels on these cars if it was pulling timing would it pop a cel

depends on why its pulling timming.

xXManwhoreXx · 07-11-2013, 08:37 AM

If it was his cat I feel like he would have the problem more than when he was driving up hill

a.graham52 · 07-11-2013, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xXManwhoreXx

If it was his cat I feel like he would have the problem more than when he was driving up hill

not necessarily, if the cats not completely plugged then it may be letting enough exhaust by to act normal, once on load with my exhaust and more heat, then it shows its restricted. loosing power uphill is a common complaint with a plugged cat actually.

xXManwhoreXx · 07-11-2013, 09:10 AM

Makes sense I guess.

guiguilandry · 07-11-2013, 02:10 PM

yep I'm with them... try to remove the cat...

joserivas19 · 07-11-2013, 02:22 PM

yeah, im gonna give it a shot today after i get the battery back from autozone. it was dead yesterday so i took it to get charged. hopefully its just that and nothing more serious.

i also had a local shop install a muffler to make it more quiet, i wonder if that is contributing to the issue also?