FocusVince

Ugh, well I have an idea of what the problem is but I want some second opinions...
Yesterday I was driving home from work and all of the sudden I noticed that the car seemed louder and lost a lot of power. Under acceleration the exhaust sounds the same but somehow the engine seems louder. There is a lot of shaking under acceleration now and it seems like a lot of random noises too. I am almost positive that its the motor mounts (I need to get them done anyways..) but would they really get this bad, this fast? Just a few days ago the car was driving great and had plenty of power, and now its just barely drivable...
I also feel like it could be spark plug wires (again). Any opinions, I am getting really sick of these "little" issues.

tt383lt1

iTrader: (3)

is there any codes on. and i wont think motor mounts would make it so you lose power. any other syptoms

FocusVince

No codes, I don't know if its a loss of power, as much as maybe its not putting down power. When I accelerate there is a lot of shaking though..

vtec

iTrader: (1)

louder intake sound and loss of power makes me think clogged cat... but that wouldnt cause shaking.

FocusVince

There is no cat

ahritchie

iTrader: (1)

codes?

FocusVince

No codes, I'm going to get under the car and check the mounts and see if anything doesn't look right...

ahritchie

iTrader: (1)

If it is your motor mounts, you will hear all kinds of noises, exhaust, metal on metal banging ect (messing with your knock sensor?) Mine were shot and it didn't put down the power like it should and you could heard thumping when shifting gears/accelerating. Could have messed up wires or burnt them with all the extra movement with the motor in the engine bay (just a guess). Get that fixed first and go from there.

defaultexistence

iTrader: (11)

I'll start the bidding at $1,000

FocusVince

Something is really wrong...the engine isn't shaking at all, the car barely accelerates and the exhaust note has definately changed...maybe its the damn wires again, but the car is running worse that it ever has before, its VERY bad...

FocusVince

well I went out and started up, and I'm getting a little bit of white smoke...which would sound like a head gasket, would that cause a huge power loss?

the_merv

iTrader: (88)

Ya if you popped it you would lose power and have a mis-fire. Does the smoke smell sweet?

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

Water being injested constantly from said bad head gasket and hydro locking the rings. stop driving it. check water level. check the oil to see if the oil level has gone up or if it smells like coolant. Do the basics. We can throw a thousand scenarios at you but maybe one will stick. The info you are giving is a symptom not the problem so you need to dig in and see what it is. Check everything you have touched recently.

FocusVince

yeah I hear that...I smelled the exhaust and it doesn't smell right...I don't know what burning coolant smells like but I feel that the white smoke is a dead give away, and the smoke was still there after running for a few minutes.

the_merv

iTrader: (88)

It should smell sweet..like hot coolant.

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

Yea you will smell the destinct smell of coolant even if your exhaust is already smelly from a cam and no cats.

FocusVince

I'll check again later, its tempting to go all out and do gaskets, valve springs, roller rockers, etc. but that would cost way to much.

defaultexistence

iTrader: (11)

Could still be a heavily misfiring cylinder loading up from a burnt wire..

FocusVince

I'm not ruling that out either haha