Hey guys, I am on vacationwith a car that is acting up and could use a little quick help. Background - I have a02 malibu with 82k miles on it. About 5000 miles ago I replaced the intake gaskets and I changed out the plugs and wires then too. A few weeks ago the girlfriend noticed that it seemed sluggish, so I put in a new fuel filter and it seemed to drive ok to me. Anyway, we brought it on vacation and I noticed that it seemed to be weak, now it has degraded to hesitating badly when taking off from a start. The strange thing to me is that it runs fine at full throttle regardless of rpm. Also, it runs fine at above 3000 rpm (it is like a switch coming on when the tac passes 3k). Idle is a little rough, but it is not truly missing at idle. I suspected an EGR valve, so I changed that last night and it did not do any good. The check engine light is not on, and I had the guy at autoze put their computer on it, and it did not show any codes. My next guess is to take it to the dealership in the morning and see if their computer can tell them anything. For some reason, I am a little suspicious of the plug wires, but I can not come up with a reason why they would work at high rpm's but not low. I am also thinking MAF sensor, but hate to throw another $100 at it without more than just a hunch. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

If you suspect the MAF ... try cleanig it.

 

I took the car to the dealership this morning, they ran a diagnostic on it, and then suggested the catalytic converter as the culprit. They were right, the muffler shop cut the old cat off and it was plugged up. The car purrs like a kitten now and runs better than it has in a while. It was worth the $95 diagnostic fee, because I would have never guessed a plugged cat at only 82k miles.