At speed surging then TOTAL loss of power?!?!

[DaPurpleRT]

OK, tonight she really acted up. Aside from her normal surging/bad idle she started stammering like she was mentally handicapped. This was really what it sounded like, she'd go

dhut, dhut, dhut, dhut and it'd sound feel like I was hitting a rev limiter. It liked to do this at about 1/4 throttle at random times. It then progressed to doing this thing where it just made a lot of noise when the gas is pressed, BARELY moves, engine sounds loud and low and the rpms climb soooooooooo slow. All the way down she'll downshift and accelerate but this is acceleration you might find on a high end powerwheels (seriously). When she does this it gives the check engine light and if I put it in P and rev it up, it'll rev slow like that to about 2500 then rev normal and the light goes off, let off and it'll go back down to barely idling at like 500rpm. It did this for as long as several minutes then it just decides to go like normal?

Now, I was told it may be the fuel filter, so three questions:

1. Does this sound like it may be the fuel filter?

2. On my ECU, it clicked like crazy, ahd caps replaced and now it clicks, but rarely. Could my ECU be damaged and be the cause of ALL this?

3. It's leaking at the exhaust manifold where the studs are backing out, would that cause this?


If not these, what is it fellas??

TIA, I really appreciate your help guys!

-Ryan
Not giving up yet, but nearing it!

 

[girlieracr4g63]

I had a problem sorta like this once..I was geting on it and all of a sudden I freaked..The car started sputtering and acting crazy. I let off and then tried alittle again. Same problem...Come to find out it was the ex. mani studs backing out.. I hope its something that easy to fix

 

[steve]

Originally posted by DaPurpleRT
When she does this it gives the check engine light and if I put it in P and rev it up, it'll rev slow like that to about 2500 then rev normal and the light goes off, let off and it'll go back down to barely idling at like 500rpm.

The answer to your problem lies behind that CEL light. The problem as you describe it sounds like one or more cyls is dropping out. It could be a spark problem or an injector problem or something else.
Read the code and work from there.

Steve

 

[DaPurpleRT]

Can Advance Autoparts read these cars computers?

Also, will the code still show up on the scanner if the light isn't on at the time, does it store it?

Finally, is there anyway I can get the code myself and check it online to see what it is? Thanks.

 

[steve]

You can easily read them yourself on 1G's.
http://www.ecanfix.com/~mdhamilton/errorcodes.html
I don't think the autoparts stores can read OBD 1 coded with their scanners but a simple analog voltmeter or a $3 12v radio shack piezo buzzer and some clips does the job.