Intermittant Loss of Power

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 10th, 2006, 12:59 pm

Ok.. This has been going on for a little while with my RS. I have been through the valve train and the fuel injectors. There are no CEL codes and no ATX codes either.

So here is the symptom.. at seemingly random times, my car just suddenly feels like it has lost 20 HP. The throttle response becomes sluggish, and my fuel economy goes in the toilet. There seems to be no rythme or reason as to when it can occur. I can be cruising normally and go to accelerate and no power. It can be running great and if I come to a stop light and the light changes.. no power.

There is no misfiring. The idle seems normal w/ no fluctuations. The spark plugs do look a bit abnormal. #1 & #4 plugs are nice & tan.. normal. #2 & #3 plugs are blackened and show abnormal carbon build up.. like these 2 cylinders have been running rich. Its not tragic.. but its not normal either.

Things I am planning to check...

Fuel Filter & FPR
Ignition System (Going to do the HEI upgrade anyway)
ECU
EGR system.

Just curious if anyone else has had a similar symptom. Btw.. this occurs regardless of fuel level in the tank. And seems to occur randomly with regards to electrical load on the engine.

Tunes67

Typhoonk · Post by **Typhoonk** » March 10th, 2006, 2:22 pm

Have your TPS tested
Have your alternator output tested

then just do what u do man

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 10th, 2006, 2:45 pm

TPS was tested and adjusted when I did my throttle body last spring. The alternator was replaced a month and a half ago. And this issue has been around since I bought the car.. its really not that big of a deal.. its just annoying that I havent figured it out yet LOL

Tunes67

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 10th, 2006, 3:56 pm

I have pretty much a similar issue - for me the power comes back if i brake on a front incline road (front lower than back) for a few minutes with the ATX in "Drive". I have tried a lot of things and at this point i think its a tranny problem and i am thinking about getting an ATX from BP.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 10th, 2006, 4:12 pm

Honestly.. I have a gut feeling its the torque converter.. I just dont want it to be the torque converter LOL

Tunes67

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » March 12th, 2006, 12:25 pm

i'm having a bit of the same problem aswell tunes question your distrubtion cap do you notice if the lower two plug wires are a bit loose , or you notice it takes less pressure to pull them off then the others.
i'm not totally sure yet but i'm going to buy a new cap and rotor to see if i get a tighter fit. I belive that it may be loose enough to keep contact with the plug but also enough that it not giving a full spark / or allowing the full current to flow (you get the idea) so i'm going to try that with in the next couple of weeks (got to wait for pay day) then i'll post back with any changes

Reaper
Greg

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 12th, 2006, 1:02 pm

I'll double check my cap & plug wires.. but I havent noticed them being loose. I also recently had the cap & wires off a few weeks ago when I did the lifter job on the engine. I do have a question for you though.. is your car a ATX or MTX car?

Tunes67

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 12th, 2006, 2:55 pm

Sorry to hijack this thread -
Assuming its an ATX problem - is it safe to try this seafoam transtune
http://www.seafoamsales.com/transTuneConsumer.htm
I mean its like $4 a bottle - if it wont hurt anything might as well try it - Anyone against using this in our ATX?
I am also going to try adding seafoam to the engine oil ...

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » March 12th, 2006, 7:09 pm

i'm a lazy bastard it's a automatic

Greg

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 12th, 2006, 11:22 pm

Interesting.. and maybe even ominous.. 3 people with the same symptom and all 3 cars are 94 ATX RS cars. I also replaced my fuel filter, and tranny filter today. The fuel filter was a FRAM... my god the humanity... Anyway... I cracked it open and found that while it was in need of changing... I didnt find anything nasty or that would impede fuel flow. My tranny filter was pretty much as expected. Especially since I have now done 4 fluid changes and 2 filter changes in the past 2 months to try and clean it up some. My fluid when I started this was a somewhat cloudy red color.. I am happy to say that when I drained it today.. the fluid was a much clearer red with almost no milky cloudyness to it. The fluid should be decent now and with normal changes I shouldnt need to do the filter again for a couple of years at least.

Tunes67

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 12th, 2006, 11:29 pm

Aries.. I have never used the seafoam tranny product.. As you can see in my post above.. I just flushed the tranny fluid the hard way over a couple of months to get the fluid clean. Seafoam in engine applications is good stuff... just follow the directions on the can and you should be fine. As for the tranny stuff... My tranny seemed fairly clean inside when I removed the pan... was just the fluid that seemed nasty.. There was also a fair amount of particulate on the magnets the first time I did the filter. She seems pretty clean now. Seems to shift quite nice as well. Oh and just so you guys know.. after draining and removing the pan... it takes exactly 3 quarts of tranny fluid to get it back full. You wont find this stat in the manual or any of the cheesy chiltons manuals either. Sorta pissed me off.. took me 2 hours of trial and error (over filled it the first time cause the manual doesnt specify how much fluid the torque converter retains when you drain the pan) to find out how much was the correct amount to refill it after the job was done. Cheers

Tunes67

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 19th, 2006, 2:36 pm

I just added some seafoam to the engine oil and seafom transtune to the tranny - i see a bit of a increase in torque, the engine pulls harder than before in 2nd gear and gets upto 45 real fast - after 3 hours engine started running rough but the power difference hasnt gone away yet - i got an oil change 1.5 weeks ago and now the oil looks like crap - i guess seafoam really does clean the engine internals - cant wait to get an oil change. I dont know if there are any long term effects - so i cant recommend that every one try it - but it works for me.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 19th, 2006, 3:16 pm

Its been a week now since I did the filter change and fluid purge to the tranny. At the same time I also replaced the fuel filter and 2 vacuum hoses; the ventilation hose from the intake to the flex hose and the PCV hose. For the past week now.. She hasnt entered gutless mode once. Since I did all of this at once.. I cant really say which repair took care of my problem.. and since the problem was intermittant and random.. I cant really say its gone for good after only a week. I can say its never gone a week before without entering gutless mode at least a couple of times.

Also.. I have stumbled across the reason I have a rough idle..

http://www.mx-3.com/tsb/b006-95-1.gif

&

http://www.mx-3.com/tsb/b006-95-2.gif

I didnt realize how bad my motor mounts were until I was refilling my transmission with fluid and had my buddy shifting gears while I was under my hood. When he hit drive... the whole engine moved front to back almost 6 inches!! Never realized it had so much travel. So I started searching and apparently.. for our 94's specifically.. there was a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) about the motor mounts. Just wanted to share that in case you guys also have rough idle and or your engine moves a lot when shifting gears or you get hard shifts.. my motor mounts are more or less gone LOL. I will be removing them at some point this summer after my GS is done and I will be filling them if not replacing them. Cheers

Tunes67

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » March 19th, 2006, 9:13 pm

Yep - been there done that - mounts were one of the first things i changed - i got a good deal on the mounts from http://stopshopanddrive.com . The only mount that was in good condition was the passenger side mount that bolts to the timing cover area. Everything else was torn and rattling. When i did the tranny mount, I stripped 2 of the nuts that are welded to the chassis - so the bolts are not holding properly and now there is a little bit of "clunk" whenever the tranny downshifts. I am thinking of wrapping some teflon tape on the bolts so they would tighten and hold properly. The new mounts would be much stiffer - dont be surprised if more vibration comes thru to the interior after you change the mounts. It will help a lot idle problems and the shifts would be smoother.