When you have this loss of power event upon taking off from a stand still, what do the engine RPMs do?
Meaning, when you give it gas to get going, do the RPMs rev high and yet you aren't getting anywhere yet? Or do they stay pretty low even though your foot is pressing on the gas and the car should be picking up speed?
I have had experiences on my own car like this. It was two different things though. The plugged trans filter was starving the transmission of fluid and so even though I was giving it lots of gas, it just had no oomph and wouldn't go anywhere. The RPMs went way up in this case. I would shut the car off (which I think would let the plugged filter relax momentarily and allow some fluid by) and then when I turned it on again, I got going for at least another few blocks. I changed the filter and this never happened again.
Years before that though, and before I did any work on the shift computer, it was changing gears erratically. I later realized one of the governor leads was melted after laying on top of the exhaust crossover pipe. A test you can do to see if the computer is at fault or not, is to pull the fuse for the shift computer and see how it behaves. The default gear when there is no electrical power to the shift computer is supposed to be 3rd gear. What it feels like when you only have the 3rd and final gear in a DeLorean, is that the car will have no power leaving from a stand still. The car will eventually be okay once you creep up to highway speeds, but will feel like there is next to no power while driving at low speeds in that 3rd gear. Don't drive it like this any longer than you need to to confirm where there problem is. Good troubleshooting test though and easy to do.
Thanks! Good call on the RPMs. I’ll take a look at that next time I’m out.
Here is a video. It is dropping RPMs a bit. Sorry it's so shaky, I got on the gas pretty good and it was bucking a lot.
Probably need to see the speedo too. If the car feels like it stops pulling as the rpm climbs then I would say the trans is slipping but they generally don't catch themselves like that. Doesn't look like it's starting in second gear either.
Probably need to see the speedo too. If the car feels like it stops pulling as the rpm climbs then I would say the trans is slipping but they generally don't catch themselves like that. Doesn't look like it's starting in second gear either.
I’ll try to do one with the speedo tomorrow. I don’t think it’s starting in 2nd. It smoothly shifts to 2nd at the end of the video.
I don't know what exactly is going on, but I would not want to drive that car much more like it is. Start doing diagnostics in the garage with it parked. Continuing to put the transmission through that sort of thing could presumably cause more damage than there is already.
There are a series of checks to do on the auto trans that would be a good idea for you right now. It's in the shop manual. Go through all of those things along with visual inspections of the shift computer harness. Check the fluid, change it, inspect and / or change the filter.
Park the car until you know more about what it isn't by going through the suggestions in this thread already made for you.
In the "From Stopped" vid, it seems to me that the GC isn't calling for a shift because the RPM isn't reaching the level required for the accelerator position, until it finally works its way up and shifts. IE It doesn't sound like the surging is caused by shifting or slipping, but bogging (in the ~3000 RMP range, each gear).
Could be my old ears ;-)
Just in case:
Originally Posted by SShaw
Is there place that has information on using a light box? I'm not familiar with that.
Originally Posted by Jonathan
When you have this loss of power event upon taking off from a stand still, what do the engine RPMs do?
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