[Russell's MK1]

well, today I went up a very steep hill and came to a complete stop at a stop sign at the top when i tried to go i gassed it a lot, but it only went up to like 3000 Rpms and didn't get enough gas and then I stalled. I tried gassing more, but thats all the rpms went up to, its like the pedal is not responsive. Also, the other day i was traveling up a hill, but not as steep...i was in 3rd gear and was stuck in 3rd...at around 2900 rpms...I tried gassing more, and it wouldnt gain any more speed. Any ideas? Could it just be that it's an old car? It's an 86 NA. Thanks

 

[RulerofEarth]

If you were low on gas the fuel might not be reaching the pump in an efficient enough manner.

 

[Russell's MK1]

If you were low on gas the fuel might not be reaching the pump in an efficient enough manner.

i had a little less than half tank.

 

[alexchannell]

should try shifting into second and see if the car behaves differintly...could be you desperatly need a tuneup if this is normal for the car.

 

[Russell's MK1]

I just noticed this yesterday afternoon, after i got off school.

 

[Alan]

seafoam

 

[Russell's MK1]

would seafoam help?

 

[mikeym]

don't use seafoam...

anything like that in my opinion can really screw up ur car... i was always taught to never pour anything other than oil in your crankcase....

u can try it in the gas i suppose... i dunno, not too keen on it... i have some friends who's cars got worse afterwards or developed leaks...

i would give ur car a tuneup anyway... if u haven't yet... new plugs, dist. cap and rotor, wires, fuel filter, maybe coil

~mikeym

 

[ewaustin]

I used seafoam in my 4A-GE with good results, half went in the gas tank and half went in the crank case. It idled smoother and cleaned a lot of junk out of the oil. It went from ok looking to BLACK after about 5 minutes of running.

How's your cat? sounds almost like a plugged cat to me.

 

[Russell's MK1]

my cat is like 4 or 5 months old...bad already?

 

[Siccished]

I love playing the guessing game!
Maybe need a new shift knob?


-When was ur last tune up?
-Any other problems or did you do somethin recently that could have led to this problem?
-Tried that listed scenario in a lower gear to see if there is any difference?

 

[TheAmazingDave]

Does your temperature gauge start climbing when this happens? Sounds like it may be starving for fuel. The same thing happened to my Astro van and it turned out that the in-tank filter was plugged up.

 

[Russell's MK1]

my temperature gauge didnt climb, although it does go over normal occasionally....and it does take me a long time to fully warm up...after 5 mins it still idles at 2000 rpms....alan thinks its my thermostat, could this be related?

 

[Russell's MK1]

I love playing the guessing game!
Maybe need a new shift knob?


-When was ur last tune up?
-Any other problems or did you do somethin recently that could have led to this problem?
-Tried that listed scenario in a lower gear to see if there is any difference?

the last tune up .....was well....like 2 months ago...but it was just replacing spark plugs, (3 out of 4....running on 1 old one (it was late and my friend broke 2 of my new spark plugs, so just put back old one) spark plug wires and replaced vaccum tubes, coolant flush, thats all for tune up...

 

[ewaustin]

Dude, I wish my MR2 had vacuum tubes, or did you mean vacuum lines?

 

[alexchannell]

Dude, I wish my MR2 had vacuum tubes, or did you mean vacuum lines?

Umm, tubes are exactly what those are, and they are under a degree of vacuum, hence vacuum tubes. His terminology is fine.
Vacuum tubes, however, ALSO refer to the electrical component.