I have a 89 max se auto. Today i was driving on the expressway and all of a sudden i couldn't really accelerate. I was going about 55 and i had to floor it to get a minimal acceleration out of the thing and while doing this the revs would almost redline. Does anyone know what is wrong with it? I should take it to the shop and get it checked out. also when i opened the hood up i saw that teh fans next to the radiator are not working. I was wondering if thoe are supposed to be going while the car is started and if that is part of the problem. I also smelled burning when i got out of the car. I dunno i think it's on it's last legs.

 

i don't know anything about this. but it sounds like your fans dies or got disconnected. so it overheated or something, could probably hurt acceleration and make the burning smell..?

 

You need to figure out if it's the engine or transmission. The transmission sounds like it's involved because you said the tach was redlining to maintain the same speed. That shouldn't happen if the transmission is doing its job (unless the tach is giving you the wrong reading somehow). Does the engine run normally when the car is standing still? Did the engine overheat?

 

mine does that everyonce in a while
just put it back in drive
it looks like it's in drive, but it really actually fell to neutral. i was crying the first time it happened cause i didn't want to lose my baby! but then i realized that's all that happened. you may have reached down to change the radio or not even touched it at all. it just revs up while you accelerate and don't even move. it's bad for the engine to keep reving it though. so next time either pull over and put your car in park and restart it OR you can just knock it back!
:-D good luck!!

 

the fans come on when needed... so that may not be your problem... like he said.. ive knoced my gearshift into neutral a few times.. no biggy

but if you have a real problem... sounds like a transmission problem... does it grip hard... are the gear shifts particulary abrubt.. or verry slow , have younoticed any other slippage ... of course you should check your fluids too