hey guys,

this sucks. I'm selling my vehicle, no bites here on yotatech but everything was all good mechanically and the engine with everything going just smooth as can be..

so today I took it to a potential buyer and it just doesn't react well at all when I press down on the gas, and goes in little spurts - and even those aren't impressive at all. nothing's going well. so I do hear every 5 or 6 seconds but pretty sporadically some hits or bangs down below to the right of my foot . they're almost "clicky" sounding. have no idea what it is as I mostly work with body / detailing and some simple engine work. could it be the exhaust?

auto transmission does shift smoothly but something's up. so the motor oil also started leaking a bit last week, but even then drove fine as I replaced some fluid. so what could it be?

gotta sell also before may 10. I did do an "engine brite" was my last thing I did to make it look good - could it have oversprayed into something? not good! help!

thanks!

 

Well, I'll tell you it's not water in the carb...you don't have one. Hope you get it sorted out though.

 

that's right, i'm an idiot. fuel injection. no carb. thanks huskyrunner for the heads up. been a long day for me

 

Sounds like your catalytic converter is clogging. You can check by loosening the bolts to the downpipe on the exhaust to give your exhaust somewhere to escape. It'll be loud but if you develop power after doing that, your cat is clogged.

 

sounds good - I'll check it tomorrow morning and let you know. thanks!

 

I had a similar problem with my '93 quite a while back. Shortly after I had bought it from a friend and started driving it, I noticed a type of clicking noise likely very similar to the one you are hearing. I found out that it was due to the fact that the spark plugs had probably never been changed in over 180k miles. Not good. The air filter was also atrocious. These two conditions caused the exhaust system to become blocked by carbon deposits from unburnt fuel. After replacing the spark plugs and air filter and blowing the crap out of the exhaust system, it ran great again. You are likely having the same problem. So check/replace spark plugs and air filter, and anything else that it may need. Then clean out your exhaust. It should run fine after that.

 

let me know how it goes.

 

sounds like your truck anit happy about you selling her

 

I know mine wouldn't be. I'd never do it either.

 

yeah I know, she's been through a lot. I bought her in november because I rolled my black 3rd gen, thinking i'd need a lot of parts from the red one.... turns out I didn't and so I bought used parts at junk yards, etc. to fix up my black one.... so now I don't need a second 3rd gen. trying to fix her up and treat her right so that she sells to an owner that will be happy with her

 

I think it's the cat... i loosened the bolts to the downpipe a bit and got more power out of it and more response. the air filter seems pretty decent - i'll replace it tomorrow with amsoil I think. we'll see about the spark plugs later this week. so now what to do? do I remove the cat and clean it out or how should I blow all that crap out? or do I buy a new one?

 

If your cat is clogged, take it to a vet.

If your cat is clogged it's because the honeycomb stuff inside has broken down to the point of collapsing, blocking airflow. You'll need a new one. Get a high flow cat and you've got yourself another selling point.

Before you replace it though, take it off and shake it. If it rattles, it's really shot.

 

Yep, you're in for a cat replacement. I got one at Midas for about $200. The factory bolt on is around $800.

 

Yo,
Put a vacuum gage on the engine. Low vacuum at idle is a sign of clogged converter. With runner parked, rev engine and then immediately shut it down and listen for air blowing back through intake when you open the throttle. Also, may be fuel filter and the noise something else.