macming

I came back from a 2 hour drive, and I thought about having some fun, so I floored the car from 1st gear. However, the car felt a LOT slower for some reason. It still squeeled the tires from 1st and 2nd gear, but the car did not put me into the seat. My girlfriend thought of the same thing.

So the next day, I put in a bottle of fuel injector cleaner by Pennzole, and filled the car up with preimum gas. Then I floored my car again, and it feels even slower I filled up at a store that sells groceries so the gas there maybe a bit stale.

So what could be causing this? I drive my car pretty gentle most of the time, and 90% of my driving is on the highway without traffic. It only has 46,000 KM on it right now.

I'm thinking of replacing the air filter, but other than that, I can't think of anything.

Suggestions??

AscendantMax

iTrader: (7)

when was the last time you floored it? it could be a lot of variables affecting the car's performance.

macming

The last time I floored it was maybe 2 weeks ago. The factors I could think of could be bad/stale gasoline, dirty air filter, and the fuel injector cleaner could be playing a part.

HADA 11

My 04 SE felt down on power too, but the fuel economy was great. I reset the ECU and the car came alive, but the mileage took a dump. I generally drive it very conservetivly, and the ECU adapted to that.

I decided to have some fun with this tank of fuel, then "train" the ECU back into "lazy mode" or whatever it was upto before the ECU reset.

SilverMax_04

The mileage on your Canadian Max is about 28.5 K miles (46 K KM). You should have changed the air filter before now. I'm not familiar with the fuel injector cleaner that Pennzoil makes. It could be good or it could be not so good. I stick with Chevron's Techron because of its proven preformance. I dump in a bottle about 500 miles before each scheduled oil change and this has kept my 04 Max humming just fine at 46 K miles (about 74 K KM). Check out the Fluids and Lubes section of this site for the reasons for doing this fuel system clean-up before doing an oil change.

jsmithsole

iTrader: (5)

Wow, I drive the crap out of mine, flooring it more often than not (OK maybe not flooring it but I drive it hard, she loves me for it, so far. Knock on wood!!)

Galto2000

how do you reset the ECU? By starving the power or is there a reset button?

HADA 11

Here's how I did it;

http://www.technosquareinc.com/350reset.htm

tubells

macming: give it two tankfulls of sunoco's 94 and then tell us ure experience!!

Killah Kane

What is the purpose of resetting the ECU and what exactly will happen after it is reset? Also, Will any negative effects result from doing this?

kdejour

It should also reset your ecu to the factory settings. If the check engine light is off. The ecu is used to your gentle driving habits.

SilverMax_04

Sunoco has stopped selling 94 Octane premium in many markets -- just a BP has stopped selling Crystal Clear Ultimate Premium in many markets. The Governments' (Fed, state and sometimes local) regulations on so many different botique gasoline mixes for different cities and parts of states has made it almost impossible for an oil company to market a unique grade of gasoline in a market. So the unique and bettter grades (94 octane and Crystal Clear) get dropped, leaving only the run-of-the-mill grades.

You may not know it, but mid-grade gasolines are normally now blended from premium and regular when it is loaded into a tank truck for shipment to a gas station. There are not enough oil terminal storage tanks for 3 octane grades in the many different botique mixtures. So mid-grade gets blended into the trucks to eliminate the need to store 3 octane grades of each botique mix.

Tek-Niq

iTrader: (3)

its probably cause its hot outside man, cars don't like hot air..

macming

Isn't Sunoco 94 based on Ethnole? Ethnole mix will usually decrease performance because they only contain about 85% of gasoline's energy. However, I will keep that in mind next time I fill up and keep you posted. (Could be a while though, I live across the street from work right now, and I pretty much only drive the car when I go home to see the parents). That is only once every two weeks.

I'm going to pick up an new air filter this week, and I bought the car 10,000KM ago, so I'm not sure how the previous owner has maintained the car.

macming

That is probably a big factor as well. It has been pretty hot and humid around here lately, but the decrease in performance still worries me.

I'm going to try to reset the ECU and see how it goes

SilverMax_04

You live in Canada and my knowledge (as Bobo can confirm) of the oil industry in Canada is not as good as it is about the industry in the USA. My answer is based on the USA. (I suspect -- but don't know for certain -- that it is essentially the same in Canada).

Sunoco 94 used to be based on the unique production from Sunoco's refineries. With the advent of so many different botique grades of gasolines for different markets in the USA, most common carrier product pipelines essentially eliminated the ability of oil companies to ship unique products unless that oil company had their own unique tanks for the exclusive use of that unique product at each end of the pipeline, at each intermediate terminal and where ever the pipeline company had to break-out the product in the process of shipping it. In the past the pipeline company would often provide these unique product tanks -- but no more. This has caused companies with unique products (like Sunoco 94 and BP Crystal Clear Ultimate) to discontinue these unique products in most markets supplied by common carrier pipelines.
What does this mean for locations that get their product from common carrier pipelines? (I will use premium gasoline as a product example). The pipeline company in conjunction with all oil companies that ship premium gasoline in that pipeline meet and agree upon the specifications of premium gasoline at each terminal location. Frequently, most of these specs are set by either the Federal Government or state and/or local governments. Premium gasoline products with unique specs, like 94 octane where everyone else is shipping 93 (or even 91) octane, have to provide all tankage (as discussed above). These products (because of the much higher extra shipping cost associated with building special tanks) are usually dropped by the oil company in favor of one with a common product spec (in the case of premium either 93 or 91 octane). All companies make their premium to the agreed upon spec (including octane) and all of this product is moved to one (or in some cases two) tanks at each terminal. All companies draw product from that tank and inject that "comingled product" (that all must meet the common spec) with their own additive package to produce their company's premium gasoline. But all premium gasoline from that terminal starts at the same base (agreed upon) octane number.

If a market requires ethanol in all gasoline, the base specs of the gasoline is adjusted to take advantage of the octane boost that occurs when blending 10% ethanol into the base product. However, if Sunoco is the only company in a market blending ethanol into base gasoline, it will be able to produce higher octane premium than the competition. That could well be the case in some Canadian markets -- I doubt if that is happening in any US market. If Sunoco is doing this unique blending, that would raise the octane of its premium by something more than 1 octane number (probably about 1.5 octane number) above the competition that is not using ethanol.

You are correct that ethanol in gasoline reduces the mileage of that gasoline because the ethanol has less energy per unit volume than gasoline without ethanol. However, the loss is not 15 % less energy if only 10 % ethanol is blended into the gasoline -- the loss is about 4% to 5% (if I remember correctly). * * * Hope this helps you.

04BlackMaxx

Are the tires shot and no longer sticky....if theres just slippin and no grippin like you said...thats going to affect how your pushed back in the seat. Unlikely I guess, but it might be a contributing factor.

Snobgoblin

Clean your fuel injectors.. Maybe its just my imagination.. But i cleaned mine and it seems like i get better gas mileage. My car also feels a little faster and smother.

Tek-Niq

iTrader: (3)

this can happen, the car will feel like crap if its too hot. It won't accelarate quick or nothing.

get a cold air intake or so, it has been hot here these past few days and I've haven't felt a drop in performance yet, but that could be my mods working with me.