I need HELP!!! I JUST BOUGHT THE CAR 3 DAYS AGO!!
 

I just bought a 88 n/a from this lady 3 days ago. She had all her maintenece papers and everything looked right. I test drove the car and it was fine, even tho the mileage was at 158K the engine still had alot of power. Well today when I turned on the car, I let it warm up about 10 min, then I start driving it. It was a stop sign and I was in neutral. the RPM just dropped and car stalled. First I thought maybe I stalled but when I try turning the car on again and left it in neutral, the rpm just goes up and then straight down and when reaching low rpm the car would shake then engine stalls. There was smoke coming from the middle section of the car, before where the catylic converter is. I could put in gears and it will still move, but feels like there are no power at all. If I rev the rpm I could keep the engine on but as soon as I let go the gas the rpm just drops. Does anyone know whats wrong with my car? I checked the oil and all the wirings and everything seems fine. PLEASE! I NEED HELP

Thank you....

Re:
 

Hmm, possible a prob with air intake?

I had a MR2 before and once moisture got into the intake somehow and froze overnight....car did pretty much the same exact thing...

After figguring it might be the moisture in the intake I let it sit overnight in the garage, and took out the blow dryer and tried to dry it up.....started fine the next morning and never had the prob again.


Not very likely it's the same thing but that's the only time I had anything like it happen and it wasn't traced back to motor issues.

I would suggest checking spark plugs/wires, etc....

sounds like a clogged cat. converter. was any pipe under the car glowing red ?

YES IT WAS GLOWING RED, my friend said it might be the vacum hose or the BAC hose. I'm not sure.....Have to check it tomorrw...

that is it dude. take it off and gut as a quick and cheap fix, or get a replacement or a straight pipe !!!

ITs worth it to do a quick compression test to eliminate doubt. Remove both lower plugs and crank teh engine and listen for 6 even pulses of air(feeling with your hand by the holes works better). You should get one pulse per hole per rotation with no skips. IF you can afford the $25 autozone tester it pretty much eliminztes any doubt, watch for even bounces of the needle to about 30psi when holding the check valve open while cranking. Over all compression shoudl reach 100 or so, less than that and youre engine is getting old.

Other than that, maybe a large intake leak, or loose wiring(shake adn juggle the harness around). Might check into gutting that cat also if the engine turns out to be good. A rotary (especially an old one) can blow at any minute folks...

My vote goes to a clogged cat. 156K on the odometer and I'll bet the exhaust is OEM.

- JB

I guess is either the clogged cat or the vacum hose/ bac hose.....does anyone have any experience how to change the hoses? wat kind of tools I need? and stuff like dat?

thanks