Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Here's my symptoms, what's the diagnosis?

scansinboy · 08-17-2004, 05:39 AM

Here's what my car (91 Saturn SL, manual, SOHC, 180k) has been doing for the last few weeks.

Ill be driving along the freeway and suddenly there will be a loss of power in the engine, but not a loss of rpms, and then it will kick back in. At slower speeds, the engine will konk out, rpms dropping to 0, but then I can restart the engine, and keep going, so it's not the battery or the ignition. Sometimes it's bad and I have to start the engine 4 times or more to get out the driveway. At first I was thinking it was a clogged fuel line or fuel pump or impurities in the gas or something, but here's the wierd part. I'll rev the engine up to about 4 or 5k rpms for a few seconds and then it acts fine, except then, when I press the clutch in, it actually idles higher, around 2.5k rpms. So now i'm thinking it might be something to do with the throttle(?) or whatever makes the car idle at a certain speed. (Something sticky?) Anyone have any ideas? I'd like to narrow down the problem before I take it in so the mechanic has at least some idea of where to start.

08-17-2004, 05:39 AM	#1 (permalink)
scansinboy Insane Location: Milwaukee	Here's my symptoms, what's the diagnosis? Here's what my car (91 Saturn SL, manual, SOHC, 180k) has been doing for the last few weeks. Ill be driving along the freeway and suddenly there will be a loss of power in the engine, but not a loss of rpms, and then it will kick back in. At slower speeds, the engine will konk out, rpms dropping to 0, but then I can restart the engine, and keep going, so it's not the battery or the ignition. Sometimes it's bad and I have to start the engine 4 times or more to get out the driveway. At first I was thinking it was a clogged fuel line or fuel pump or impurities in the gas or something, but here's the wierd part. I'll rev the engine up to about 4 or 5k rpms for a few seconds and then it acts fine, except then, when I press the clutch in, it actually idles higher, around 2.5k rpms. So now i'm thinking it might be something to do with the throttle(?) or whatever makes the car idle at a certain speed. (Something sticky?) Anyone have any ideas? I'd like to narrow down the problem before I take it in so the mechanic has at least some idea of where to start. __________________ Don't blame me... I voted for Kodos!