mog703

2001 Chevy Impala 3.4l engine Over the past few months the impala has been getting more and more sluggish. Now(all of a sudden), it has virtually no power. Starts fine,idles perfectly but when you floor it ( in park as well as in gear) the engine bogs down big time and never really catches up. Timing problem? Can you adjust the timing in these newer cars? Changed the fuel filter and the fuel pressure is fine. Could bad plugs/wires cause this much power loss. Any ideas?? Thanks

Nomad76lj

i would go for a tune up first (plugs wiures filters)and see what that does for you first.

carpenterbill

check the air filter?

mog703

thanks, that(plugs/wires) was my next step. While picking up the plugs/wires today the sales guy said in addition to alot of other possibilities it sounded alot like a bad catalytic converter. The car has ~75,000 miles now and he noted that gm covers the converter 8yrs/80,000. Think these symptoms could be a converter? I did replace the air filter ~10,000mi before but I'm thinking this is much worse than a clogged air filter but I will check it out. Thanks for your time!! Jerry

mog703

Problem was the cataylitic converter. After doing the wires/plugs there was no change. The engine compartment got real hot,real fast. I thought mabe an exhaust blockage. I disconnected the cat at the motor. The car ran fine. Fortunatly the cat is covered under warranty by GM 8 years/80,000 mi. Thanks for your help!

NCHEVYHEVN

Yea, you could have saved yourself some money. Never just throw parts at a car. I see tons of people say just put plugs and wires on it but that's not how you go about fixing a vehicle. I guess that worked years ago or might not have. I don't know who started the whole fad of the plugs/wires routine but it's not the right way. I guess it may work once ever hundred times you have a problem but most of the time it's not even the problem.

You need to diagnose the problem.

I know you already fixed the problem though but I just wanted to pass along the info for the future.

Congrats you got it fixed though.

mog703

Thanks, I know what you're saying but I don't feel to bad about "throwing the other parts at the car" Sure I wish I would have thought of the cat first but you have to start somewhere. 79,000 miles on the car i figured it's due for plugs.wires and a fuel filter anyway(first change since new) So I only dropped ~ $40... Oh yea and alot of time, more thinking and reading stuff than working on the car. I don't really have any tech tool for diagnosis, but could you suggest a good diagnosis technique for my next auto repair adventure. Even though I only spent $40 before I found the problem it's still $40 I probably didn't have to spend. Thanks for the congrats It is a good feeling to finally figure something like that out. Thanks to all for your input!! PS Picked it up from the chevy dealership today, with the cat still under warranty(no thanks to gm,it's a fed. emissions thing) It didn't cost me a penny, and I got out of a potentially tough job. Thanks again

kcb37

I don't think you did anything wrong, however I will agree with NCHEVYHEVN that it would be better to check the plugs first. But if you had 79,000 I would have replaced them too.
As you said about time anyway. The best thing you can do when trying to find a problem is to start simple,(fuses, little stuff like that) but also basic air/fuel/and fire.
If your engine light comes on then you can take it to Advance Auto Parts or Auto-Zone and they will check it for free. That is the best place to start. Then start with the basics. If you plan on trying to keep this up yourself (fix what you can) I would suggest a Haynes or Chiltons manual. Haynes is easier to read, but Chiltons does have some stuff Haynes doesn't. I will also add that even without checking the plug before changing them I get the impression from you that you haven't done a lot of work on cars. You have to learn somewhere if you want to do it, sometimes your mistakes can be costly, just learn from them.
Hope this helps you out.

mog703

GREAT ADVICE! AS FOR BY NEXT "BREAKDOWN"? WE'LL SEE, BUT IF I DO ATTEMPT REPAIRS I'M SURE THIS FORUM WILL BE A BIG HELP. THANKS . LOOKING AT THE 06 IMPALA'S ANY BIG CHANGES?(from 2001) ANY REASON TO WAIT FOR THE 07 MODEL YEAR?

kcb37

I couldn't tell you that. Sorry.
If you go to a dealer they should be able to give you some kind of booklet or brochure, and it should tell changes from the past year or two.