No Acceleration

1998 CHEVROLET LUMINA
120,000 MILES
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HOOTY
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  • 6 POSTS
The car still has good take-off. I can accelerate normally up to 25mph but then it stops accelerating and is very laboring to get up to 40mph and higher. A relative of our told us of a similar issue and they cleaned the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor and everything was fine. I disconnected my MAF and the car runs great! I replaced the MAF but the car returns to the same problem as soon as I connect the sensor back up. What's the deal?
Jun 4, 2011 at 1:19 PM
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JDL
  • ASE Certified Mechanic
  • 16,098 POSTS
  • ASE Certified Mechanic
Any applicable trouble codes? What is litre size of engine? Check ref voltage and ground for the maf sensor. Is the maf sensor new?
Jun 4, 2011 at 3:56 PM
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HOOTY
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No trouble codes have appeared except when I disconnected the MAF sensor. I have a 3.1L The MAF sensor is new but did not make a difference in the performance. I'll check the voltages and reply back tomorrow.
Jun 5, 2011 at 1:43 AM
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JDL
  • ASE Certified Mechanic
  • 16,098 POSTS
  • ASE Certified Mechanic
At the sensor, pink is voltage, yellow is signal from maf to computer, black wire with white tracer is ground.
Jun 5, 2011 at 4:46 PM
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HOOTY
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I checked the voltage and it reads 12.2V. We noticed something else when driving. It makes high-pitched sound and occasionally sounds like a water sprinkler when the accelerator is depressed about half way. The sound disappears when I let off the accelerator or floor it. I also noticed a significant power increase when the sound disappeared. From the inside, it sounds like the source is directly behind the steering wheel. I thought it may be a vacuum leak but I was not able to locate it. I pulled off the brake assist hose and plugged it but we were able to get the sound to come back. Could this be related?
Jun 5, 2011 at 9:16 PM
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JDL
  • ASE Certified Mechanic
  • 16,098 POSTS
  • ASE Certified Mechanic
I don't know about the sound? I keep going back to maf sensor. Use a test lite between voltage and ground at the maf connector.

Clean the throttle-body, check tps. Make sure the maf wiring isn't routed over plug wires.
Jun 6, 2011 at 2:26 PM
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