loss of power ...

[Hoot]

i was out running some errands today and on the way back home i was going up hill for about a mile and a half and all of a sudden there was a loss of power and it sounded like the fans were running extra hard. i kept giving it gas and the fan noise rose with the throttle and the power was rally wimpy. once i hit level ground , about a block later the power came back and it drove as normal. i drove around the block and took it easy for a while then i gave it some throttle and uped the rpms and all was well, or so it appeared.

i should also mention that the weather here, san francisco bay area, is unusally hot over the last few days. i have also been having the all to common Disco "high idle" issue over the last few weeks. alos i have just replaced my thermostat and the upper and lower radiator hoses. i dont know if any of these things are related or not but i thought i should paint a clear picture.

so does anyone have any ideas as to why the loss of power? any help is appreicated.

 

[Steve83]

Sounds like a transmission fault...

 

[Hoot]

what would cause a transmission fault? what is the remedy? a new transmission? if it is in fact my transmission, how do i check this?

 

[sven]

Start by checking the Trans fluid level. Maybe if its too low, the transmission slips as your going up a hill (oil starvation).

 

[scubaman99]

Hey Hoot

What year and how many miles...

my 95 DI was doing something similar... under hard acceleration it had no power....

AKA going on 680 through the pass from Freemont over to pleasenton... my rig "felt" like the ****** was slipping bad... no power, crawled over the pass doing 45mph...

took into the shop fearing the worst.... thinking my ****** was slipping and was shot. BUT it turned out to be a clogged fuel filter. apparently the engine was fuel starved and when i "stepped" on it the ****** would kick down as normal but never get enought power out of the fuel starved engine so it just roared... but never got any power.

my suggestion if you havent changed your fuel filter lately is to do that first... if that doesnt work.. then you might be in store for more $$$$

KEN

 

[Hoot]

ken, its a 96 se 78,800mile on it. i changed the fuel filter not to long ago less than a year ago. trans problems would suck hard. no one has mentioned my other fear yet, and thats the ever famous "sticky valves" if its either one im screwed. the wife already is talking about how we should sell it... damn..she just yelled at me for spending too much time on Dweb..

 

[Steve83]

damn..she just yelled at me for spending too much time on Dweb..

Tell her not to slam the door on her way out!

 

[Scott H]

It's normal. What your hearing in the fan clutch kick in, it sucks about 10hp or so. You don't hear it very often, cause it rarley cold enough in SF for it to kick in. You will hear the roar of the fan when you first start your rover, after a couple of min it goes away. When it gets hot that fanclutch locks the fan up, and cools the engine. It just sucks HP to do it.

I wouldnt worry about it.

 

[Reed]

If you are hearing the fan, you might want to look at the Temp gauge. As Ken said, the engine needs to be warmer than usual for it to kick in. If you also have the A/C on you may want to turn that off, as it too will rob you of a bit of power.

I had the same problem a few years ago going ove Hwy 17. Suddenly no power, again it turned out to be the fuel filter. Must have gotten some bad gas somewhere.

 

[Snwbord24]

All this advice is great, but the first thing I would check is the transmission fluid. My fluid was low last weekend at Pismo and it foamed up causing the loss of power thru the transmission. Eventually it was too foamed up to even work at all. It's a cheap place to look and is a likely culprit.

 

[Peter-man99]

Hey jason,
Man if its not the brakes its something else, that sucks! I know you changed out fuel filter not too long ago (as you helped me a ton with mine) but I was talking to mechanic up here and he said that the filter for the disco is rediculously small and should be changed every 20-25k miles. I don't know how much you drive in a year but just a heads up. Perhaps the 20-25k was a little less but the mechanic said its a lot better to do that one too often instead of the occasional $400 fuel pump. Talk to you later, good luck

Peter

 

[p m]

filter for the disco is rediculously small and should be changed every 20-25k miles.

Peter, I may be pushing my luck, but my '96 D1 is still on its factory fuel filter, at 153kmi.

 

[Peter-man99]

tick, tick, tick... Just kidding Peter, each car is different that is one thing I have learned here on Dweb. More power to you!

I don't doubt that you can put more miles on the fuel filters than what the mechanic told me. I have a buddy that just swaped his out on his Audi that had 100k plus on it and the fuel filter had never been changed. He said that there was little difference but that it did smooth out his idle and his engine turned over quicker.

I just did mine and I got the car with 76k and I changed it at 83k. I don't know if it had ever been done before I got it. After a couple days I picked up the old one and tried to blow through it just to see how well air would flow through there. I was really tough to get any air through there. So I was glad I did it.