Hello all...I recently purchased a 1995 Geo Prizm for a commuter car. I bought it knowing it had a miss and slight hesitation. Figured it just needed a tune up or had a vacuum leak. Brought it to a local shop and basically long story short I was charged $700 for a tune up. The mechanic said that shes good to go and that shes slow but she will get me where i need to go with great mileage and reliability. Mind you my daily driver before this is a 10 sec SRT8 charger. So i get the car and it no longer runs rough and all is well except for the "slow" part. Well my first outing im like holy crap this thing is slow but i figure it only seems that way because im used to my car. Well after crossing over a bridge a couple of times and only being able to get the car up to 50mph on the incline I began suspecting that something isnt right. So i looked up some performance specs and i see the car new was listed to do 0-60 in 9 sec and 1/4 in 17. Ok slow but A LOT faster than my car.
Take a look at this video and tell me if this is normal for a 3 speed auto 1.6. Also is the pressure in the fuel tank normal on these cars also? If it isnt normal any insight on what the problem may be will be GREATLY APPRECIATED!! Im suspecting clogged cat maybe??
Not sure about acceleration...seems alittle slow, I know my 5 speed could do it faster. As far as the pressure in the gas tank, thats normal, mine use to do that before the tank rusted thru (still holds gas, just can't fill it up lol)
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Not sure about acceleration...seems alittle slow, I know my 5 speed could do it faster. As far as the pressure in the gas tank, thats normal, mine use to do that before the tank rusted thru (still holds gas, just can't fill it up lol)
If you do a search on pressure in gas tank, you should find some posts relating to the evap can under the hood. When it gets clogged, it can apparently create some real problems, including rupturing the tank .
Chris
PS - Drove a 72' Cuda for a couple of years when I was in highschool, 340 slap shift. I didn't know much about cars then and reliability was a pain, but when it ran right, it ran fast. Not great off the line because it had stock 323 gears, but from 30 mph up she really went.
If you do a search on pressure in gas tank, you should find some posts relating to the evap can under the hood. When it gets clogged, it can apparently create some real problems, including rupturing the tank .
Chris
PS - Drove a 72' Cuda for a couple of years when I was in highschool, 340 slap shift. I didn't know much about cars then and reliability was a pain, but when it ran right, it ran fast. Not great off the line because it had stock 323 gears, but from 30 mph up she really went.
Thanks a lot! Ill do the search on that! 72 Cuda??! Bad a$$!
Having driven a 1.8 auto for a number of years and a 1.6 auto on occasion, the difference between the two is night and day. I'm going to suggest you play with the throttle cable from the throttle to the trans to see if you can get the trans to hold onto gears a little longer at part throttle and downshift a little sooner, that will help immensely. I want to say that you should take out slack, about 1/4 inch at a time with a hot engine and see how it does. Adding slack will cause it to upshift sooner and downshift less readily.
Having driven a 1.8 auto for a number of years and a 1.6 auto on occasion, the difference between the two is night and day. I'm going to suggest you play with the throttle cable from the throttle to the trans to see if you can get the trans to hold onto gears a little longer at part throttle and downshift a little sooner, that will help immensely. I want to say that you should take out slack, about 1/4 inch at a time with a hot engine and see how it does. Adding slack will cause it to upshift sooner and downshift less readily.
Makes sense! Ive already told a couple of friends that i hate how the car upshifts too soon which in turn seems to make the car really struggle. Glad to hear its easily adjustable! Thanks, ill give it a try.
HI, I have a 94 prizm, 1.6L, 3 speed auto, I had a problem with mine losing power, I removed the exhaust pipe at the cat and found that a peice of the inside of the cat had broken off and almost plugged the hole completely. I removed the chunk clogging the hole and that fixed the power loss, low power problem. Doesn't take much to check it and the gasket only cost a couple of bucks.
The Following User Says Thank You to marsala4 For This Useful Post:
HI, I have a 94 prizm, 1.6L, 3 speed auto, I had a problem with mine losing power, I removed the exhaust pipe at the cat and found that a peice of the inside of the cat had broken off and almost plugged the hole completely. I removed the chunk clogging the hole and that fixed the power loss, low power problem. Doesn't take much to check it and the gasket only cost a couple of bucks.
Cool! Thats exactly what im suspecting!! Even if that isnt the case im gonna punch out the cat to gain a little power. Being that the car has over 200k miles and i highly doubt the cat has ever been check i suspect its at the very least a little blocked up. I was thinking about changing the o2 sensors but from what ive read that if i dont have a check engine light/code then they must still be good. Thanks!
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Need your help!...Is this performance normal?
The mechanic said that shes good to go and that shes slow but she will get me where i need to go with great mileage and reliability. Mind you my daily driver before this is a 10 sec SRT8 charger. So i get the car and it no longer runs rough and all is well except for the "slow" part. Well my first outing im like holy crap this thing is slow but i figure it only seems that way because im used to my car. Well after crossing over a bridge a couple of times and only being able to get the car up to 50mph on the incline I began suspecting that something isnt right. So i looked up some performance specs and i see the car new was listed to do 0-60 in 9 sec and 1/4 in 17. Ok slow but A LOT faster than my car.
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