My car won't go over 120.
 

I don't drive it like that much and this is not some thread about racing so please don't lock it.... I have a 98 SE and I have no speed limiter... It used to go well over 130 I never took it much over that but i'm sure it would go higher....anyway, it will not go over 120 anymore... is there some problem that could be causing that??? I have no idea where to start looking...thanks

I bet it's the feul filter. Change it. From now on every 15K miles.

DW

how many times did you try to go past 120 and it wouldn't? were they at the same time? how much gas did you have?

Is the car an automatic? ... If so, make sure to turn OD off.

for your information, my car will not go over 120 with less than a 1/4 - 1/8 of a tank of gas. so why don't you stop running your mouth about sh!t.

wouldnt u want OD ON for top speed runs? you would get to the top of 3rd, and need to go somewhere, and doesnt OD add ratio to that gear? either im totally wrong, or ur confused

Leave OD off until you redline in top gear and then switch it on.

Could be knock sensor. You lose a good 20-30HP at the top-end with the KS gone bad, so that would knock down the top-speed a lot.

yea so when ur doing 120+... turn OD on

You know it's weird, when I had an auto I could easily get to 140 with just I/Y/E. Now with my 5spd, it's a little more difficult to accomplish this unless I spray......

That's because of the gearing. 5th gear is very short and the engine doesn't have the top-end. MEVI will fix that, though. :)

wow a lot of responses.
fuel filter was changed at 99,000 that's about 14K ago.
i have never looked at my throttle body though, i guess i'll clean that first and try again before looking at the knock sensor....thanks for the ideas though.

edit: also I did have fuel don't remember how much exactly but it was over half a tank for sure...i don't know if this happens on every max but if my fuel light is on, it won't go over a 100 mph

Just to clarify. The easiest way to get to top speed is to get to redline the THIRD gear, with OD OFF. If you leave OD on, the car will shift into 4th gear at about 6100rpm. This is no good.

Turn off OD until you get here:
http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...17_29_full.jpg

Then when you turn OD back on, the car will shift into 4th gear at a better RPM for acceleration. It will be very slow, but you'll keep going.

I can get to an indicated 135mph just about anywhere, more sometimes if the conditions are right.

always did and always do....nice example... as i said on my first post i used to take it well over 130...but no more, i hope it's just the throttle body.

Should you be taking pictures at 129 mph?

With the 5-speed, the gearing is shorter, so you should be accelerating faster than with the automatic. At 80 mph in the 5-speed, you can still downshift to 3rd gear, blip the throttle to get the revs to around 4K rpms before engaging. 3rd will take you strongly to 90ish mph before the lack of an MEVI really hits you on the top end, then shift to 4th to take you to 115-120 mph. The oomph gets lost again around then. Shift to 5th and it will take you to the car's top speed.

Interestingly, you can almost never reach redline in 4th gear (on the 5-speed) because of the lack of a VI. Some guys report redlining in 4th. That must be going downhill or something. I always assume straight flat roads so you are getting more or less exactly what the car can give, without the aid of gravity.


Oh and by the way, I really don't think cleaning the throttle body will fix top end. Bottom end, yes, but top end? :gotme:

DW

that was for smoothmax right??? i'm an auto...i don't know what the heck i should do but since tomorrow is saturday i'll clean my throttle body first and if that doesn't work i'll take it to the next step.

Oops. I thought you were stick too. Forget the gears parts. But I still think the same about the TB. Let's see what happens.

DW

Clean your battery terminals until they shine. I took a dremel to my battery terminals and connectors and I gained my top end power back. I was surprised at how much power was lost from having dirty connections.

I know this may sound like a dumb comment, but when was the last time you checked your air filter?

hopefully a friend took the pic, and he had his hands close to/on the wheel. :rolleyes:

That's interesting that you'd mention that. When I replaced my alternator, my car felt surprisingly stronger on the top end, so much so it caught me off guard the first time I drove it with the new ALT. I guess it just goes to show just how dependent our cars have become on some good voltage.

DW

Good current is a must for the VQ.

Don't know if this had anything to do with it but I cleaned my TB on saturday and took it for a spin later that night.... est speed 137 mph.. thanks for all the help guys and i'm not saying it's the TB that fixed it...even though it was dirty as hell... maybe my car's just playing tricks with me.

:sprint:

Seriously.

No comment

when i had the pop charger set up.. i was able to get to 140 much easier. Now that i have the CAI... 140 is hard to get to. BUt i like the low end gain.. its not like i hit 140 all the time.

I felt the same way to, when I converted from a CAI to hybrid. I think the CAI exaggerates the bad low end breathing of the stock fixed length intake manifold. WIth an MEVI, the CAI would work better. Also, 2 other things that are better on the CAI is that the CAI is totally linear, the car responds the same thru most of the rev band. WIth a POP/Hybrid, the torque curve has all these dips and bumps. Lastly, with the CAI, when you wanted it to be quiet, was dead quiet. The POP/Hybrid you can always hear even faintly, when cruising.

DW

So...what if I get to this point and then spray and turn the O/D back on, will it just go and go? I dont really have space to test it, but i'm just curious

wouldnt u top out 3rd (as your pic shows) and shift into OD to get more top speed?

I think those PICs, and statements, assume NA. With NOS, it's a whole different picture.

DW