I have a 1991 Ford Taurus that has 30,000 miles on it. It was driven very infrequently by my grandmother. It is my car now and when I drive it up a hill it reduces speed to no more than 25 miles per hour. Also runs rough for a while after that. It has bad fumes when going up a hill. Could it be the catalytic converter? And what can I do about this?
2006-08-22 03:47:46 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
The car is old but the milage is low change your fuel filter it's way clogged!
2006-08-22 04:17:48 · answer #1 · answered by rookie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A catalytic converter is used to reduce the amount of junk put into the air by the car's exhaust. So if it's bad, then you'd have tons of smoke coming out and it would just be a big mess.
But if your car loses power, especially going uphill, your problem might be in the way you drive. I would assume that your car has an automatic transmission. So, when your going up a steep hill, shift the car from the "D" or drive, to the notch that says "2" or "1". It'll put the car in first or second gear, and it'll get up that hill much easir and it'll save you some gas.
2006-08-22 04:05:57 · answer #2 · answered by Nestor Q 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The only way to definately tell is by an exhaust analysis. Having said that!!! The symptoms are:
A loss of power when under load(like climbing a hill). at low speeds it would act normal.
The EXACT same symptoms would be present if you had a bad fuel filter.
I can't tell you where the filter is located, BUT you can go to Autozone and they can look it up on their computer and tell you EXACTLY where it's located. from worse case (in fuel tank) to best case (in fuel line between tank and engine) definately change the filter before doing anything else. Also, did this just happen or did it always do this? try putting some fuel additive in the fuel tank to clean everything up. The fact that it's 15 years old and soo low mileage implies that, maybe, it's just gummed up from lack of use(meaning old gas has been allowed to set in it) good luck
2006-08-22 04:08:29 · answer #3 · answered by dulcrayon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
first you find that you can not get the rpms out of the engine. I've seen them so bad that the engine start and than shuts down. when going up the hill put the trans. in netural and see if you step on the gas and the engine does repond. And if this is so take the cat off and try.>
2006-08-22 04:07:09 · answer #4 · answered by jeffrey k 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can take it and have it checked out,,,also look at it,,and see if it is getting hot on you,,a bad converter will almost get red after driving it,,and it will smell like it going to catch on fire,,if it is getting that hot,,you need to get it repaired,,but first i would have it checked out,,this can save you from spending a lot of money on it,,you can get a lot of good answer,s on here for it,,but you may wind up spending a lot of money,,based on some inexperienced answer you might get,,if you have it checked then you know for sure,,good luck with it,,i hope this helps.
2006-08-22 04:02:39 · answer #5 · answered by dodge man 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
usual a bad converter will have the smell of rotton eggs. I think the problems is elsewhere
2006-08-22 03:56:24 · answer #6 · answered by john 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sounds like it, get an exhaust pressure check, anything over 1 psi is bad
2006-08-22 04:02:02 · answer #7 · answered by Christian 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well you will lose power,it will smell like rotton eggs,and your plugs will be black(mine was)and you will have black smoke coming out your tail pipe.sometimes if it gets clogged up your car wont start.
2006-08-22 04:07:43 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
LOOK.UNDER.CAR.AND.SEE.IF.YOU.SEE.ANYTHING.RED.IF.SO.THE.CONVERT.IS.BAD.
2006-08-26 01:44:02 · answer #9 · answered by blackbutton100 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋