sluggish pick-up?

[iseeu2]

I have a '90 celica and I was wondering if anybody knew what I could do to increase the low end pick-up...From the first gear through pretty much the 4th...actually till i hit about 60 or 70 mph the pick-up laggs horribly...don't even mention hills too! It seems like I have to ride the clutch for a while to get it to even pick up at all when I'm shifting gears or the lagging is just unbearable. I can press the gas pedal to the floor and leave it there for 30 seconds and it won't speed up any faster. I know for a fact that it's not cause it's a '90 cause i was getting onto the highway behind another 90 celica and they just flew on. I just started getting into messing around w/ cars so I dont' really know much...At first i was thinking maybe the spark plugs? But I read somethin that made me think maybe if i changed out the intake/exhaust it might help..but I honestly only have a small picture of how everything works together to make the car speed up and stuff lol so i really don't know. Any tips would be great!

[Noobified]

Originally Posted by iseeu2

I have a '90 celica and I was wondering if anybody knew what I could do to increase the low end pick-up...From the first gear through pretty much the 4th...actually till i hit about 60 or 70 mph the pick-up laggs horribly...don't even mention hills too! It seems like I have to ride the clutch for a while to get it to even pick up at all when I'm shifting gears or the lagging is just unbearable. I can press the gas pedal to the floor and leave it there for 30 seconds and it won't speed up any faster.

Sounds like it may be the clutch. Go about 40-50mph or where ever you can get into 5th gear at about 2-3000 rpm and put the gas pedal to the floor. Watch the RPM's, if they climb (get higher) and the cars speed (mph/kmph) stays the same, you have a worn out clutch, Its slipping. It makes sense that might be the problem, because at about 60-70mph, the engine cant load the transmission as baddly (lack of power) as when its stopped/in lower gears, making it so it seems laggy at slow speeds, but ok in the higher speeds.

Good luck!

[iseeu2]

Hmmm.... I just tried that, but the speed climbed with the rpms, just they both started out climbing real slow and then the higher they got the faster they climbed. It's weird, some days it reacts instantly when I put on the gas, but some other days it takes forever. When I took it out now it reacted so fast, even in the lower gears when i jammed on the gas. Sometimes it feels kinda like a bubble when i press on the gas, like if i shift through the gear without lingering on the clutch it doesn't matter how hard i press on the gas, i can pump up and down and it won't do anything. I end up having to putch the clutch back on and pretty much shift again into the same gear but sit on the clutch for a while. Isn't that bad for the clutch anyways to ride it? It seems somedays like it won't move though if i don't coax it with the clutch. Maybe somedays i'm just shifting badly though hahaha, I've only been driving stick for about 4 months.