Someone help me troubleshoot this problem please
06-14-2007, 09:08 AM
#1
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 115
Someone help me troubleshoot this problem please
I figured maybe its not the engine that’s the problem so maybe someone can give me an idea about what the problem might be. It’s a 1994 Firebird Formula with 124K miles on it.
The car starts right up every time, it has never once not started right up. I don’t get any jerking from the car. The rpms while in drive & at idle are stable. It has never stalled out and I never felt like it was about to stall out or anything. Transmission seems to shift pretty smooth. Im not getting any lights or anything except when the coolant was coming out.
Only problem it has is this. I definitely notice a loss of power from when I first bought the car a couple months back. When I accelerate either from a dead stop or while going around 45 mph, the car starts to vibrate in the 1500 rpm through the 2000-2300 rpm range. From a dead stop, the vibrating does not stop until about 3000 rpms. While going at higher speeds(40+), the vibrating stops around 2300 or so rpms. Sometimes I feel like the vibrating is coming from the engine bay, and other times I feel like its coming from my tail pipes or near that area.
The only other problems happened when I was being stupid 2 times. Its an automatic and I dropped it into (3) instead of (D) and clicked on that (performance transmission) button and ran the car really hard. The same thing happened both times. It started spitting coolant and I could notice a loss in power. I wont be doing that again.
Other than that, the car seems to be running fine. I was going to swap engines but im just not sure it is needed. Any help would be great.
The car starts right up every time, it has never once not started right up. I don’t get any jerking from the car. The rpms while in drive & at idle are stable. It has never stalled out and I never felt like it was about to stall out or anything. Transmission seems to shift pretty smooth. Im not getting any lights or anything except when the coolant was coming out.
Only problem it has is this. I definitely notice a loss of power from when I first bought the car a couple months back. When I accelerate either from a dead stop or while going around 45 mph, the car starts to vibrate in the 1500 rpm through the 2000-2300 rpm range. From a dead stop, the vibrating does not stop until about 3000 rpms. While going at higher speeds(40+), the vibrating stops around 2300 or so rpms. Sometimes I feel like the vibrating is coming from the engine bay, and other times I feel like its coming from my tail pipes or near that area.
The only other problems happened when I was being stupid 2 times. Its an automatic and I dropped it into (3) instead of (D) and clicked on that (performance transmission) button and ran the car really hard. The same thing happened both times. It started spitting coolant and I could notice a loss in power. I wont be doing that again.
Other than that, the car seems to be running fine. I was going to swap engines but im just not sure it is needed. Any help would be great.
06-14-2007, 12:13 PM
#2
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 115
more info
1. When im going 45 and step on it, the vibration stops, it picks up really well, etc. Basically the car feels like it should.
2. RPM's never go up while my speed stays the same, no slipping that i can notice anyway.
3. You said you have vibrating around 1500-1600 rpms because of your exhaust, i think(im not sure tho) that i might have a similar thing going on with my car. I have a K&N & flowmasters exhaust. It was on the car when i goit it and i dont know if it is damaged or what not. I did notice this past weekend that either something under the car or a muffler is making a vibrating sound. Not the kind of car vibrating i referred to earlier, but im just telling you about the muffler because maybe it is damaged and its a small part of the overall problem(possibly)
4. When i ran it hard, it wasnt spitting coolant. It was smoking a little this past time and my mechanic was at my house. I think the temp got to around 260 or so, it is usually around 210 - 240, the fan comes on and it goes back down. It does not heat up too quickly, i'd say as normally as any other car ive owned. But this time it got up to around 260+ before it went down. He took off the coolant cap, not the reserve bottle) and when i turned my car on, it would gush out. We saw that a hose had a hole in it, probably from over heating so we replaced the hose. Then we put coolant in and while my car was on @ idle, the coolant would come out.
We put a whole bottle of coolant in plus refilled the bottle with water about 7 times and it still kept coming out. The coolant light was on at that point as well. I decided to just keep filling it up with water if needed the next week or so until i could take it back to the original mechanic to fix it but, I ran the car easy for a couple of days and it is running alright now. No coolant light, no overheating, etc. It just has that damn annoying vibration and maybe its just psychological but it feels like a loss of some power. Or maybe im just scared to run it really hard at this point at higher speeds. i am certain ther is a lower end power loss though, that is certain. Top end, maybe not.
1. When im going 45 and step on it, the vibration stops, it picks up really well, etc. Basically the car feels like it should.
2. RPM's never go up while my speed stays the same, no slipping that i can notice anyway.
3. You said you have vibrating around 1500-1600 rpms because of your exhaust, i think(im not sure tho) that i might have a similar thing going on with my car. I have a K&N & flowmasters exhaust. It was on the car when i goit it and i dont know if it is damaged or what not. I did notice this past weekend that either something under the car or a muffler is making a vibrating sound. Not the kind of car vibrating i referred to earlier, but im just telling you about the muffler because maybe it is damaged and its a small part of the overall problem(possibly)
4. When i ran it hard, it wasnt spitting coolant. It was smoking a little this past time and my mechanic was at my house. I think the temp got to around 260 or so, it is usually around 210 - 240, the fan comes on and it goes back down. It does not heat up too quickly, i'd say as normally as any other car ive owned. But this time it got up to around 260+ before it went down. He took off the coolant cap, not the reserve bottle) and when i turned my car on, it would gush out. We saw that a hose had a hole in it, probably from over heating so we replaced the hose. Then we put coolant in and while my car was on @ idle, the coolant would come out.
We put a whole bottle of coolant in plus refilled the bottle with water about 7 times and it still kept coming out. The coolant light was on at that point as well. I decided to just keep filling it up with water if needed the next week or so until i could take it back to the original mechanic to fix it but, I ran the car easy for a couple of days and it is running alright now. No coolant light, no overheating, etc. It just has that damn annoying vibration and maybe its just psychological but it feels like a loss of some power. Or maybe im just scared to run it really hard at this point at higher speeds. i am certain ther is a lower end power loss though, that is certain. Top end, maybe not.
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