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Any ideas what could be wrong? No power.

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Old 05-12-2009, 02:50 PM
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Unhappy Any ideas what could be wrong? No power.

Just today my car acted like it was way under powered. Normally when I floor it the rpms go up immediatly, until today, now the rpms just go up very slowly. No power compared to what it should have. My motor oil level is fine, oil psi is about 40 psi at idle, and 55-60 psi at normal highway speeds. Coolant level is fine as well as the transmission fluid. It is a 2001 trans am ws6 with A4 transmission and 105,000 miles. Any ideas what could be wrong?
Old 05-12-2009, 03:01 PM
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More than likely fuel filter or cats
Old 05-12-2009, 03:04 PM
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if the rpms dont jump up when you punch it but rather rise slowly instead it sounds like the trans isn't downshifting properly. Could be an internal malfunction since you said the fluid level is normal. My car with 3.23s would shift to 2nd at 45, 3rd at 80 and 4th around 130 or so. if you punch it at 20 mph and dont get a shift at 45 or so you arent going into first on WOT but rather starting in second, which would explain what you are feeling. just a thought.
Old 05-12-2009, 04:39 PM
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fuel filter was replaced about 500 miles ago. I did get 2 DTC's though P0420 and P0430 can someone explain what affect the codes would have. I looked them up and said " catalyst system effentcny below threshold" and other code said something about the catalyst system also.
Old 05-12-2009, 04:44 PM
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Clogged cats
Old 05-12-2009, 04:47 PM
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what is best way to fix this problem, also what could have likely caused this?
Old 05-12-2009, 04:51 PM
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I agree plugged cats
Old 05-12-2009, 04:51 PM
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Either buy new cats or better yet get headers and an ORY. Then you don't have to worry about cats
Old 05-12-2009, 05:07 PM
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I was planning on getting pacesetter headers and ORY (ceramic) but I was not goin to do them until winter. Would my best option be to get the headers now instead of putting money into cats for 5 mos. or so? Also should I get an off road y-pipe or catted y-pipe? Finally with the pacesetter setup tie into my borla catback with out any issues? Sorry for all of the questions at once but I want to make the job is done right.
Old 05-12-2009, 05:59 PM
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I'd check the tranny I would think the car would still downshift even if the cats are clogged. Something you could try is when you floor it and it just startes to creep put the shifter down into 2 and see what happens... The ory should work but you may have to lengthen the end of the pipe to meet the cat back since there will be no cat.
Dan-
Old 05-12-2009, 07:13 PM
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my car without cats has done this several times, it usually goes away after a couple minutes driving, I think its a bad tps sensor on the throttle body
Old 05-12-2009, 09:18 PM
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See if you can rent,borrow or buy a back pressure gauge and check the back pressure. That will tell you for sure if it's plugged cats or not. Just take out both front o2 sensors and put the gauge in there and run the engine and see what you have. A plugged cat can misslead you thinking it's a trans problem.
Old 05-13-2009, 01:57 PM
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I went to the exhaust shop today, they said the "biscuit" in the passenger side cat was making some noise. Would the biscuit problem cause my car to run like **** or do I have a transmisson problem?
Old 05-13-2009, 02:48 PM
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The cat shouldn't make any noise. A rattle from the cat is a sign that it needs to be replaced/removed. If you dont want to buy the ORY yet, you can gut the cats and install O2 sims for the rear O2 sensors. You'll need them with the ORY anyway.
Old 05-16-2009, 01:48 AM
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does ur car shift if u drive normally if so clogged cats that like my camaro and also any ses lights?
Old 05-16-2009, 02:33 AM
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Don't do anything till you get a scan to see if the 02 sensors are switching properly. If the 02 sensor(s) are not working properly but have not yet completely failed, you WILL NOT necassarily get an SES light or code......but is causes exactly the symptoms you have.
Old 10-22-2009, 10:57 AM
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i'm wondering if i have the same problem, my driving issues are the same but i didn't get those codes i got P0141 which is the rear o2 so i'm thinking i may have a clogged cat. i'm goin to try to clean the MAF
Old 10-23-2009, 08:13 AM
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After driving the car for a while open the hood in the garage and see if the cats are glowing red. If a cat is not getting sufficient airflow they overheat and can get red hot. The rear O2 out of spec code is the one for catalyst effeciency below threshold.




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