[jsche893]

I have a chrysler Sebring LXi, 2001. Its has a 3.0L V6. It is the same as the 2001 eclipse gt 3.0. I have done everything possible to get this car fixed. I have no engine light but yet the car has no power. I water locked my motor a year ago and it has been giving me the same problem ever since. No one can tell me what is wrong with it. I have replaced the MAF sensor, the crank sensor, the harmonic balancer, the MAP sensor, new air filter, new EGR Valve, fresh tune-up, wires,plugs, and distributor. Any ideas would help. The motor was fully taken apart by three garages. The compression is fine, all gaskets are new, the valves and pistons are fine. I have no idea what would be causing this.

The main problem is the. The car has absolutely no power. It struggles to get up hills and when you step all the way on the throttle the motor bogs instead of taking off. It seems like it is getting too much gas. The other thing that gets me is that the car eats gas like crazy and like it never did before. Idk what is causing this or what else to even try to fix it. And help would be great.

 

[AFD_281]

How long ago did you replace the MAF I was having a similar problem and cleaned the MAF but didnt help. I replaced it with a brand new one and now it runs great. Might also want to check for vac leaks.

 

[jsche893]

I have no idea where to even start looking for vacuum leaks.

 

[jsche893]

And the MAF was the first thing I replaced and it didn't help because we thought maybe when the water went through the intake it ruined the sensor. But I could try it again.

 

[AFD_281]

And the MAF was the first thing I replaced and it didn't help because we thought maybe when the water went through the intake it ruined the sensor. But I could try it again.

I'd check the sensor with a meter before replacing it to see what its reading. When you bought the MAF was it new or rebuilt?

 

[finesse49ers]

When you say the motor was fully taken apart by 3 garages at 3 different times do you mean each time down to the bare block - pistons and rods removed plus the head opened up and inspected?

 

[jsche893]

Only once was it taken about to the block. All rods and pistons are in great condition. The car is putting out perfect compression and the head gasket was replaced the last time it was taken apart about 5 months ago.

The MAF sensor was a rebuilt one not a brand new one. I got it from jegs racing because I thought it would be better to get one from them than from auto zone or somewhere else.

 

[finesse49ers]

Only once was it taken about to the block. All rods and pistons are in great condition. The car is putting out perfect compression and the head gasket was replaced the last time it was taken apart about 5 months ago.

The MAF sensor was a rebuilt one not a brand new one. I got it from jegs racing because I thought it would be better to get one from them than from auto zone or somewhere else.

Only once to the bare block and you saw the pistons and rods with your own eyes? If so then obviously something isn't right. You say the compression is perfect but what about the head? Did you bother having the head at least looked at by a machine shop?

 

[jsche893]

No I haven't yet. I never saw it with my own eyes. I had the shop do it and then paid a decent amount of money for it. They told me what they had done. I never had the head looked at by a machine shop. The compression was even checked by dealer and the said it was okay. I didn't let the dealer have it longer than that because of the amount of money they charge per hour. Not exactly rich or anything.

 

[finesse49ers]

No I haven't yet. I never saw it with my own eyes. I had the shop do it and then paid a decent amount of money for it. They told me what they had done. I never had the head looked at by a machine shop. The compression was even checked by dealer and the said it was okay. I didn't let the dealer have it longer than that because of the amount of money they charge per hour. Not exactly rich or anything.

Now things are starting to clear up because you can't say for certain the motor's internals are in good shape. I'd like to know what the compression test numbers were. I honestly can't believe you didn't have the head looked at by a machine shop from a motor that was hydrolocked. You just let it dry out and slapped it back on?

I'll share a personal experience with you. I once drove through a HUGE amount of water one night in my GTS over 2 years ago. The car shut off midway through the puddle but I still had momentum and I immediately started the car back up and made it through. The car was misfiring like crazy but eventually all the water escaped, however it left me with a permanent (which I found out later after doing a full tune up and checking injectors) Cylinder 1 misfire. Since I was about to turn my 3G over to PharmEcis for its current build I stopped worrying about it. I drove that car daily for at least 6 months more until I brought it to him. When Pharm took the head off he saw a lot of carbon build up on Cyl 1 and he thought that was the cause (which is a legit cause) for the misfire and we left it at that. Well 1 year and a half later specifically last week Pharm finally gets around to stripping the motor down completely. He saw something which he couldn't believe and called me to inform me of that. He then sent me pics and I couldn't believe it also but knew it was true. Want to guess what we saw? Here it is:

A bent rod. You'd never think I could drive a car for over 6 months racking up 6000+ miles with that but I did. Not saying that this is your case (it shouldn't be if the mechanics who tore your motor down were competent) but it just goes to show you that there could be a problem even when things seem fine. Have your heads checked. Water is a powerful force.

 

[jsche893]

I appreciate the advice. Do you have any idea of how much that would cost? I think I might just do a complete motor swap. And put a new one in if that is the case.

 

[jsche893]

my compression readings were...

cyl 1 - 190
cyl 2 - 188
cyl 3 - 188
cyl 4 - 191
cyl 5 - 189
cyl 6 - 190

 

[HRT]

finesse49ers that's amazing, I woudn't have expected that the engine would still run for that long either. How did the #1 cyl walls look?

I agree that I would also suspect internal damage from a hydrolocked motor; it's a shame the first shop (that did the bare-block teardown) didn't have anything inspected by a machine shop. That would've been the best time to do a rebuild because everything was out and apart- or even just to swap in a junkyard engine.

But to give some optimism here- could you just have a clogged exhaust? A catalytic converter's pellet bed can break up into pieces and choke the exhaust closed. I've been in cars with clogged cats where the gas is to the floorboard but the car barely moves. Replacing the cat = the car runs excellent again. Of course the catalytic converter will usually only clog up on *very* old cars, but going through the water might've dislodged something (or, sucked something in, like a fish?).

To "accurately" check you'll need an exhaust backpressure gauge. First measure before the catalytic converter. If backpressure is off the charts, then there's a clog. To find the part that's clogged, keep moving the gauge backwards until backpressure goes to zero. (The pieces from a broken-up catalytic converter could get pushed backwards and clog either a pipe or the muffler.)

Another (maybe easier) way to check is to just unbolt the whole exhaust and see if the engine runs better... if the exhaust's rusted solid though this won't be that easy

 

[finesse49ers]

finesse49ers that's amazing, I woudn't have expected that the engine would still run for that long either. How did the #1 cyl walls look?

I haven't seen it yet but Pharm says the wall looked normal. I was EXTREMELY lucky.

 

[jsche893]

My cats are fully rusted onto my exhaust manifolds. Could I just disconnect the exhaust manifolds?

 

[Kaos' Spyder]

im having a similar issue now... just put new ngk Ix iridium plugs and ngk wires in the other day.. today i go to pass someone and as soon as rpms hit 4k its like the car shuts off and comes back on right away... im thinkin throttle position sensor but not sure...