Joho22

iTrader: (5)

First snow of the year,
went to go meet the girl out by the ridge and about half way there
I notice Im losing speed and my foot is on the accelerator. CEL pops on.
I tap the gas, no rpms, no gaining speed, nothing. i keep my foot on the gas and somehow the car is maintaining a steady 40mph but looks like no rpms.

Immediately I am worried and pull over. I keep the engine on and try to rev
and absolutely nothing. no rpms, no rev to the engine squat.
I see either a lot of exhaust or steam from the engine and really start to worry.

I shut the engine off, and check the oil, which is spot on and was just changed less than a week ago. I check for leaks of any form on the snow, and I see nothing. I check the cold air intanke, I check everything that I can in the engine bay that I don't need to dismantle. I don't see a thing wrong.

Confused I sit back in the driver seat, engine fires right up, I rev the engine and it seems to be all systems go. Engine revs fine, no rough idle, no problem accelerating or shifting but just the check engine light is still on.

I drive to the ridge and ... ya know... ahem.

Once thats over I start my car again, drive home and check engine light is still on.
I take a sick day from work to get the CEL scanned, and it ends up being an air lein in cam 4. Its happened a few times, i just cleared the ECU. Wasn't worried.

I drive it for the day and I notice that its just not driving right. Not strange enough that a guest driver would notice, but I did.

I really have a bad feeling about this. I took the car off the road and its been sitting in the driveway since this happened. I have narrowed it down in my mind to a few possibilities.

I believe its the timing belt, I neglected to get it changed when I bought the bike and just scheduled it to be done (yes, i deserve all bad comments that are coming...). Transmission I ruled out cause if it wouldn't rev in neutral, that's not a tranny issue. Accelerator pedal / cable. I think that might have something to do with it, but why would it be corrected by turning the car off then back on?

Anyone else have any ideas?

otter

iTrader: (14)

Your car is going into limp mode. Pull the code again, but from what you described, I'm guessing that unmetered air is getting into the engine, or the MAF is faulty. First thing I'd do is pull out the MAF and clean it with some MAF cleaner.

Joho22

iTrader: (5)

are you serious?!?!?!?!?
thats all it is!?!??!
(whats a maf cleaner... where do i get one?)

otter

iTrader: (14)

Local auto parts store, wherever they keep the aerosol cleaners. Comes in a can, looks just like a can of brake cleaner, except it's called MAF cleaner. That's just a starting point, if the MAF is failing, you'll have to replace it. I'd pull the code again to see if it's the same as the last one.

Joho22

iTrader: (5)

I did some researching in the forums, I heard some people talking about contact cleaner with MAF's. Just stick to maf specialty stuff you say? Otter, you have never steered me wrong before.

otter

iTrader: (14)

stick with the maf cleaner, it'll do the best job without you having to touch the filament. It's cheap, will only cost you $4-5.

Joho22

iTrader: (5)

adn you were straight up right.
ran better last night that it has in a long time.
That may be due to me driving a ford taurus for a week...
and then hopped in the lancer.

I felt like I got in a race car!

+1 Otter.