Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Groggy exceloration, low RPM's

Well, I cleaned them and reset the computer. The car starts up slightly faster, and hasn't tried to stall will in park. It does sputter though when at idle at a stop light.

Now you said something about the belt jumping. Do you mean losing it's grip and slipping across the teeth of the pully?

As for the acceleration prob, I assume that you have towed a trailer or driven something with a heavy load before. The engine sounds like it is straining, and it wants to go, it just cant. I thought about transmission problems, but it is nothing like what happened at my work. We have a 01 ram 1500, and the transmission took a crap. It was stuck in second gear. Cost 2K to fix. My car is experiencing nothing like that. It shifts fine, it just doesn't want to go. Vacuum leak is starting to sound more and more likely.

Later models will often give a CEL if the timing belt has jumped.

In your case you just have to pull the cover off and rotate the engine to see if the timing marks still line up. When the belt gets old and stiff or the tensioner gets weak the belt will bounce around and hit the cover. If one of the ripples makes it over one of the teeth on a gear, the timing is permanently off.

I bought a used van a couple of years ago cheap because it ran like sh!t. Found out they had just put a new timing belt on it at the Dealer, but it was off one tooth. Ha ha, nobody's perfect!

If the plugs and wires are good the idle should be smooth even if there is a vacuum leak, although the RPM's will wander around. If the idle goes up and down till it almost stalls, a vacuum leak is a good bet.

UNfortunately I'm not super techinically minded when it comes to cars. Have a question about a computer, I can probably answer it. But thats another area all together.

When you say rotate the engine, you dont mean take it out do you? Or do you mean get the pulleys to turn? I've taken off the cover before to see what the noise was. So I know how to do that. But how would I go about rotating the engine?

Also, How would I go about changing a timing belt? Is there any dismanteling of the engine, or is it just a simple switch?

Sorry for all the questions, But thanks for all the answers

-Rob

Cool! We have an old ILM laser (circa 1984) that uses microchannel bus and I need an adapter card to IDE so I can replace the dead RLL hard drive. Know where I can get one???

No kidding.




The tensioner puts tension on the belt (imagine that) and when it's rotated against the spring, the belt falls off.
Keep in mind the serpintine belt must be off first!

The crank is rotated clockwise (battery disconnected, of course) with a socket on the crank bolt. Do not rotate the crank with the timing belt off!

The slots in the back of the cam pulleys should line up with the scallops faceing up, and the second mark on the crank...

Just get a Haynes manual - they have pictures.

Buy a Haynes and/or a Chilton manual. They will help quite a bit with info on how to change the timing belt, and a lot of other stuff

Well thanks for the help. I should have enough info to check it out. I'm just trying to get Ideas as to what is wrong. I have a Chilton manual. That is what I have been using ever since the problem started. It's just a little brief, I was just hoping for some input from the people around here. Archives are a little sparse with their info.

Thanks though.

As for your laser, Check an electronics store. I don't know if you have a Fry's Electronics near you, or on the internet try Tigerdirect.com. It's wholesale, lots of stuff you might like.

-Rob