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| Formerly awesome Metro now not so awesome; Huge loss of power and awful low rpm performance | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 25 2011, 09:19 AM (1,008 Views) | |
| irishman72 | Apr 25 2011, 09:19 AM Post #1 |
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Howdy, y’all. I’ve been digging through the past posts here for a couple of weeks and haven’t fixed the car yet. Time for my own now. 91 Metro hatch with a 5-speed with 270xxx miles. In-car rebuild @ 230,000. I thought I’d posted this here last night but can’t find it. My apologies if this is in some other part of the forum and I’ve posted it twice accidentally. The problem: No power at low RPM and greatly reduced power at higher rpm. This happened gradually over maybe 6 weeks. Three months ago I could start moving at idle in 1st gear by playing the clutch, and could start using the throttle in 3rd. The car was zippy and lively and fun and got 35-39 mpg without any extra effort. Now, when I start it cold and before revving to high rpm, it chugs horribly, bogs down like it’s running rich, sounds badly out of time (it isn’t) and won’t rev at all unless I put my foot to the floor and hold it there until it slowly (10-12 seconds) builds to 3000 rpm or so. Once up there it revs okay but only at high rpm, and with much less power than before. My 2nd gear synchro is gone and I have to double clutch when downshifting. Even with no load, it takes a whole lot longer to rev high enough to shift. The car is drivable, but not nearly as fun. I don’t let my wife use it (though honestly, that died with the 2nd gear synchro) and don’t carry my kids around in it anymore. Nor do I pull into small gaps in traffic quite so bravely as before. ----------------------------------------------- So far I’ve changed, with no significant improvement or worsening in performance, the following: --Coil, plug wires, distributor cap, rotor and spark plugs --Throttle body assembly --Fuel filter (*that* was surprisingly difficult) --MAP Sensor --PCV valve (not related to the problem but the old one was toast) Timing belt is okay and has not slipped. Timing is at 6 degrees btdc. I disconnected the exhaust at the manifold and fired it up. No improvement. Compression test, both hot and cold with throttle wide open, is 128-132-130ish. This sounds low to me but is roughly the same as it was 4 months ago when the car ran awesome. Fuel pressure roughly @ spec in the Haynes manual. Check engine light flashes 15 sometimes, but has been doing this for 18 months. No other codes. One thing I’ve not tried is swapping in a brand new alternator. Three months ago the original one died and I swapped in the one from my spare motor. It worked but had a weird ZZZZZZ noise that fluctuated irrespective on engine rpm. I figure it was brushes wearing themselves in. It occurs to me now that this noise has all but stopped, and I didn’t notice because of the other problems the car was having. Currently, voltage while running is 14.6v, right where it ought to be. Can the alternator throw the correct voltage, but not enough amperage? I’ve never taken this car to a mechanic for anything but smog stuff, and I don’t want to start now. Any thoughts? Has anyone ever run into this before? Thanks in advance. Irishman Edited by irishman72, Apr 25 2011, 09:21 AM.
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| 96Geoman | Apr 25 2011, 09:23 AM Post #2 |
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Try removing the oxygen sensor before the converter to relieve back pressure. This test will show if the converter is clogged. With low compression figures, my guess is that the engine is burning oil and slowly plugging up the catalytic converter. |
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| irishman72 | Apr 25 2011, 10:37 AM Post #3 |
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I removed the entire exhaust pipe at the manifold and it still ran about the same, just louder. Too much? Does it need some back pressure? |
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| mcmancuso | Apr 25 2011, 10:38 AM Post #4 |
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no it'll run fine open header. |
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| Johnny Mullet | Apr 25 2011, 08:48 PM Post #5 |
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Fear the Mullet
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Timing belt jumped a tooth? |
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| chubart | Apr 25 2011, 09:09 PM Post #6 |
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That's what I was thinking JM, possibly off a tooth at the cam. Double check the belt and teeth make sure they're all good! Make sure you're marks are lined up. This happened to me the first time I put everything back together, it sounds similar to what i had before i got everything back to normal. I'm guessing when you did the fuel pressure check that let you know the fuel injector was good right? |
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| irishman72 | Apr 26 2011, 07:55 AM Post #7 |
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Timing belt's good. But putting it back together, I fired it up with the air cleaner off. The 3-way tube connected to the PCV valve and the valve cover was visibly spewing oily mist. That'd be ring blow-by, right? Dang. |
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9:35 AM Jul 11