car is a 2.2 2000 sunfire. All started during 500 KM trip. I didn't let the engine go over 2000RPM as i didn't know if this louder sounding throttle was bad wear of something. The responsiveness of the acceleration is still there just sounds like an exhaust hole but it wasn't. All my fluids were good.

Thought It was the spark plug wires so checked resistance, replaced them anyways, Didn't change actually plugs yet. Left my torque wrench at home. I think its a loss of 1 cylinder?

Loss of power:
Its not shifting smooth and throttle sounds louder when flooring it at any speed past 2000RPM and is jerky/skipping from 3000 to 4500 RPM.

Bad fuel economy within last month. didn't reach highway speeds till this trip, which i had to keep the engine at 2000RMP for 80-90KM/H just to keep the engine throttle noise lower as it sound rough as soon as I hit 110 or 3000 of hard acceleration at any speed.

going up a hill at any speed 50KM/H and up, the noise of the throttle is a lot rougher starting at 2000RMP.

When i say " rough throttle, i mean it sounds like the engine is at its peak of work, the sound you hear when you floor it at 100KM/h to reach 130KM/H.



More details which will define what is exactly happening below:
When the car is stopped, and I floor it, I observe the tachometer as this is whats noticeably different and jerky

Normally you see it move smoothly and evenly. But what i see is jerky, It will jerk up from 2000RPM to 3500-4000. The needle will work its way smoothly to 2000 RPM. Then somewhere around 60km/h during this fast acceleration test, it will jump/skip from 2000 RPM to 3000-3500RP M. This is all happening at lower speeds around 50- 60KM/K at wide open throttle. The sound comparable if you were driving at 110km/h and floored till 130KM/H. That normal noise level from smooth acceleration is what i hear from 30KM/H and up during flooring it or WOT. The sound it makes during this hard acceleration (or any) is like its working harder and sounds louder, and the smoothness of the shifting is abnormal. weather i'm doing 40km/h or 80km/h, the acceleration seems jerk from 2500 to 4500-5000RPM very fast. sometimes having to let go of the gas as its not shifting normal.

Before I left, I did check the air filter as i don't know when the last owner checked. Had this car for 3 months. Filter looked okay. But the 2 bottom plastic holes for the screws to hold down the filter broke somehow. only the top 2 are holding down the filter, leaving a bit of a hole for unfiltered air. Is this the cause? I'm going to tape it to see if that's what affecting the air vacuum seal which is apparently a reason for the problems below.

Let me know what you think. I'm out of town and want to fix this to get home efficiently. I'm going out now to change the plugs.

Forgot to mention, when doing 100KM/H, and i start going up average hill. There is a big jump in throttle noise and rpm. Its sounds like its doing 130KM/h when I'm going 90KM/h up hill so i slow down to 80KM/H because it sounds bad on the engine.

I'm stuck out of town and have school/work tomorrow, any help is really needed.

Car starts normally. 77000KM, No error codes on dash. What should i do? Is it okay to drive it like this?

Car is only IDLING at 600RPM. I remember it being at least 1000RPM.

Older previous problem. the coolant crossover pipe sometimes will drip onto the exhaust manifold, causing it to burn and smoke a bit under the hood. I'm planing to fix this soon but i have this bigger problem.

Walter wrote:Car is only IDLING at 600RPM. I remember it being at least 1000RPM.

My cars idles at 600,,, 99 2.4... only idles at 1k when its cold, then back to 600 when it warms up...

as for the rest of it... it seems your problem isnt anything earth shattering, just seems different then it used to right? but you are kinda throwing alot of random information out here...
one thing that jumps out at me is this... WOT at low road speed puts your motor under much more load then pegging the throttle at highway speeds... so yeah, its gonna be louder.. same with going up a hill..

imagine riding a bike and think of when its hard to peddle... when starting moving, going up a hill.. it tires you out... now start peddling when your already flying down the road, it requires zero effort..
same principle for a car engine..

I know things like this are very frustrating.. But just remember your car is 10 years old now and wasnt exactly a sports car to begin with...

I would think maybe a tune up is in order... perhaps clean out your throttle body... it doesnt sound like anything is actually broken, just getting older... maybe someone can shed some more light but i dont think its anything to worry about... and yeah, drive the car...

Its not shifting up, if i floor it from 60km/h its jurks or skips up from 3300 to 4500RPM around 90KM/h then it doesn't stop rising till 6000RM so i let go of the gas of course and then it up shifts. I noticed this when i pass, i have to let go of the gas then press it back down, to allow it to shift and not redline.

thats how its supposed to work... lol... i love that about these cars, some cars wont redline no matter what you do...

you put your foot to the floor.. your car is in haul-ass mode... it will redline in every gear during WOT.. if you want it to shift before redline, lift off the gas..

I am a little confused as to what your getting at here tho

"floor it from 60km/h its jurks or skips up from 3300 to 4500RPM around 90KM/h then it doesn't stop rising till 6000RM"

but really... when you start playing with the throttle when at speed, you have alot of systems at work... your TCC solenoid will engage/disengage, your tranny tries to figure out what gear u should be in etc etc.. you have to expect it to do some "odd" things... you motor could just be catching up to the driveline speed and that seems like a quick surge through rpm..

again... maybe someone with more knowledge can correct me or add to this, but im not seeing a problem..

didnt notice this at first..

Quote:

Had this car for 3 months.

and your in Sudbury... cold weather man! trust me... im in niagara falls and this -20 crap lately sucks for us and our cars... fuel economy will go downhill (colder air is denser, so your car dumps more fuel.. or tries to), you prolly get that nice clunk when putting it into gear first thing in the morning etc... its normal, especially for us Canadians.. lol

and i see your just worried about getting home.. i know there are certain circumstances where this is incorrect, But 99% of the time, if you have no CEL.. there is nothing seriously wrong with your car.

Yeah i put on 2000 KM specifically from 2 trips, within a month. I just noticed this today at highway speeds. In town, with trying to drive smooth for gas efficiency it wasn't noticeable.
I brought it to Canadian tire because it was my only option today. They hooked up a the scanner, there were no prior or current error codes of any kind. He did say it could be louder than normal because my air filter cover wasn't tightly seated (held by 2 bolts) allowing more air in. But not a big deal.

He test drove it for 5KM, took it up to 130KM/H and said he didn't notice any louder than usually sound or irregular shifting but didn't go WOT with it for anything. He did note that there was small hole in the exhaust. He said that cheap auto transmission tend to just do that normally. He referred me to a transmission shop and that was it.

I had put in 4 quarts of transmission fluid in thought the 500KM drive as I thought the roaring was from the transmission. Since there is no tranny. dip stick on this car I wanted to be safe. I had it drained when I got there.
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Check the cat make sure its not becoming plugged. A 1/2 plugged catalytic converter will rob power and might cause the engine to try and compensate by adding more fuel and when you add that to a hole in the exhaust might well indeed be the problem.

Good luck

Please post the fix once you figure it all out thx

The tachometer rises smoothly and evenly from 1 to 3, then moves very fast 3.5 to reline without shifting. Roaring starts at 3.

I knew there was a problem when I first when up an average hill at 100km/h on the highway. It roars a lot more and never sounded this way at any speed on a hill . It seemed it wasn't in the right gear. So I then put it into 3rd gear and slowed to 70KM/H, and the throttle still sounded rough for low speed. So i think i just brought it down to 60km/h at 2000 rpm back in Drive so that it didn't sound bad.

I hope its just the small hole in the exhaust and the air filter cabin that is not air tight.

The counter guy did mention that was a possibility but when i was speaking to the tech, If that was possible, he said that it would defiantly be noticeable if it was clogged. I think he said it would be bogging if it was clogged (its not). Nothing's irregular with idling other than shifting which is okay from what he and Paul say.

Would the smoke under the hood from burning coolant have any affects on the air intake system if it gets in. I seen some Coolant splash dots around the loose filter cover.


How do you check for a 1/2 clogged cat?

ok.. i have read this a couple times now... and forgive me if this seems basic...

"floor it from 60km/h its jurks or skips up from 3300 to 4500RPM around 90KM/h then it doesn't stop rising till 6000RM"

are you sure its not simply downshifting to 3rd? thats whats happens when you peg the throttle, it helps acceleration...
like i said before... i dont want to seem like a dick or anything, but alot of things you are describing as problems seem like normal operation of a car.. other then that coolant leak, i dont think you have anything to worry about..

I appreciate all the help, I think i was all the details a first but I was able to tell when it happens and recreate the issue on the way back home. This is defiantly more accurate than my first post. I didn't go WOT for this trip, anytime I wanted to test it I pushed the pedal down 3/4 and got a delayed reaction at a couple points.

Car ticks in the reverse gear.

I agree with the post above it seems normal in terms of up and downshifting. I now think its only a fuel system problem. Because the issues only start to happen below 1/2 a tank of gas, at that point its noticeable in terms of louder throttle noise if I accelerate starting from 80km/h to 100km/h then after that its not any louder if i go any faster.

But below or at 1/4, Its starts to get rough in sound starting at 2200 rpm at 80km/h , the throttle is rough whether I'm accelerate on any up down or flat surface. But more noticeable uphill if i attempt to accelerate 80km/h, its rough till 95 It sounds rough in throttle with delayed acceleration going up hill
2 different times I pressed the pedal down 3/4 while at 80KM/h on a long hill. There's a 2-3 second delay before the car responds/accelerates. Just hangs there at what ever speed I'm doing like i didn't press the pedal. then jolts with a burst of power from 2500 to 3700 until i let go. I think its some type of gas delivery issue.

Also withing the last month or so, car is delayed in start up. Which i'm guess is normal. Its instantly starts no matter the weather if i have a full tank. But will always delay 1.5-2.5 seconds around a quarter tank. Even if the car was previously warm it will start within 2seconds.. I try not to park it with less than 1/4 tank now. Don't know if this is related or not.

So to clarify all the rough louder throttle starts exactly at 80km/h or 2200 rpm , its louder, on hills and I can hear a low ticking in reverse at idle.

As to a clogged car. The exhaust pipe was broken at the flex pipe i think. for 1 portion of my last trip. Could something have gotten inside? I don't know, just putting everything out there.

You need to either drain the tank (that entails removing it because no drain plug) or try adding a water eliminator. Here in the states we have a product called "Heet" in a yellow bottle. It mixes the water that ALL tanks get and helps to burn it off. Also keeps water out of the lines to prevent freezing. That should solve your 1/4 tank issues.

After reading all the posts here I'm inclined to believe you may have a transmission slipping a bit. It tries to compensate by downshifting early and ends up over reving some what. But this is only a guess. Ticking in reverse cant be good.

Thanks, I will look for this water eliminator. Hopefully that helps. If not i'll remove the tank.