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Re: Engine Power Loss, Need Help please!

Chris I had a simular thing happen to me with my 98 z3 last week. Was the a clogged cat. I went with the oe cat. What a difference. My rocket ship is back. I too thought the trans was gone.

In agreement with FredR, installed the Remus and

removed it at great cost (drone was so bad I removed the Remus after about 4 months and purchased a brand new stock catback b/c I had already disposed of the original stock catback). The aftermarket catbacks drone at the automatics normal rpm range. The only solution is the OE catback.

If you had a manual transmission, I would go with Remus. But with an automatic, stick with stock.

I wouldn't waste my time w/ aftermarket cats.

They have proven to be difficult. Depending on where you live in Texas you might be under a mandatory emissions test as part of your annual state inspection. I know factory cats are expensive but they are the best choice. IMHO

I would also be very selective in choosing a cat back exhaust system. With a 1.9 auto a lot of the systems get a very loud drowning sound. I have a Hartge badged Supersprint that is too loud. After a 6800 mile road trip this month I can tell you it wasn't pleasant inside. YMMV
Fred
96 1.9 Z3 black/tan/black
97 M3/4 estoril/gray
08 Kubota 3400 HST orange/charcoal
08 GMC Sierra stealth gray/gray

Also Whats a good after market exhaust and cats?

besides remus and scorpion? ansa any good? How about magnaflow? Might need to replace the stock one in the near future. Also what are good high flow cats? Random tech and Magnaflow I hear are good anyone have experince with these?

Think its fixed!!!!!!!!

Ok so we took the exhaust off and took it to a shop and they said the cat was indeed bad so we ended up breaking up the honey comb in the cat and vola the car is working great. It was fun to rev the engine without the exhaust on and just the headers boy is this baby loud lol. Anyways we flushed the cat out and the exhust with a hose after we broke up and got all the honeycomb ceramic (or w/e the cat is made out of) out of the exhaust and hooked it back up. It works great now. I think this was the problem but still not sure took it for a ride and seems to rev good and it is not over heating. Also the transmission is working fine again. Thank you guys for all your help as always! you guys rock!

Ill let you all know if theres any changes.

Have you checked the trans fluid level?

Like Fred said this is the first likely problem. The symptoms you've given lead that direction.

Re: Engine Power Loss, Need Help please!

Yes, I know that the engine would rev at higher rpms, but the speed on the speedometer looked like it was hardly moving. I even tried putting the car in thrid and nothing changed. I saw the rpms on the tach and also wierd enough the car was not ideling rough at all. Normally it idles rough but nothing different than normal. The check engine light did not come on until we started messing with the MAF the next day, which was yesterday. At first I thought it was the transmission because it was as if the engine was running and it had no place to transfer the power. But we can still drive it today it just can only be driven for a couple blocks untill it completely dies. So my only guess to why it over heated that night was because I was on the Highway and was reving into the high rpms just to get it off the road. As far as the coolent levels I would guess that they were low since I have not checked it all summer and it runs in this Texas heat. We took off the cap in the parking lot about 45mins after I shut off the engine and steam and coolent came bubbling out. It took about a half a gallon to a gallon of water when we got ready to start it back up again.

Today we disconnected the exhaust from the header and it seems like it was better so were thinking maybe the cat died. So we are going to remove the exhaust and get a better look.

Are you sure that the transmission isn't slipping?

If the engine will increase in rpm but the car won't accelerate it's the transmission.
Fred
96 1.9 Z3 black/tan/black
97 M3/4 estoril/gray
08 Kubota 3400 HST orange/charcoal
08 GMC Sierra stealth gray/gray

Re: Engine Power Loss, Need Help please!

Are you sure that it was revving higher RPMs but not moving faster when this happened? Did you see this on the tach? Did you see a check engine light? Was the engine idling rough before you started working on it? Not idling (dieing)? Any idea why it overheated? Was the fluid low?

Engine Power Loss, Need Help please!

Hey everyone its Chris again back with another problem on the Z3. I looked back and searched the forums found some people with the same problem but no one said how they fixed it, if they could. Anyways I was on my way to work last night and noticed that when I pushed down on the gas something was wrong. The engine didnt seem like it reved like it does normally. I was reving higher rpms but the speed didnt move hardly at all. Then I stopped messing with that and just tried to get to work. I was getting ready to take an exit I tried pushing down on the gas again and still had the same results only this time instead of me traveling 70mph I slowed down to 60, then it got worse and worse to about 25mph just to get off the road. At this point the engine was over heated almost in the red but not quite. So I pulled into a parking lot and waited to get some help. Today We replaced the fuel filter and it didnt seem like fuel was under presure so could be the fuel pump along with many other things I know. Also the exhaust in the last couple weeks has not sounded good either, almost like a strong rattle not sure if there's a connection there or not but could be. We tried also removing the air box and the MAF sensor and seemsed to help but not much. Lastly the car now idles at about 500rpms and sounds like it has 50hp.

Anyways open to any ideas or suggestions. Thank you guys as always you guys are very helpful on here.

The car is a 1996 1.9 Z3 automatic. Oil changed regualarly and overall well taken care of. If you remember we rebuilt the engine about a year or so ago and it has worked great since.

My email lucky15234@yahoo.com