Hello, I have been having trouble with what seems to be the same problem for some time now. I bought this car about eight months ago and was told it always started hard if left outside (I live in Manitoba, Canada so this seemed only natural in our winters). I have a heated garage so this was not a problem. But I did find that it started hard after sitting outside in only moderate cold for just a couple hours (it has a newer strong battery in it).
Also, I noticed that it did not get nearly the gas mileage it was meant to get. Since then the gas mileage has remained poor, it still starts rough, but now the acceleration is constantly terrible. It takes a full mile to get to 100 km/hour (60 mph).
Also, on two occasions the car has refused to go past 45 k mph. One of these occasions was after I went through some mud on my road, and the other was a after driving in a torrential rain. When this happened, the car would not rev extremely high, it would simply bog down and refuse to go faster. I have also noticed it is especially sluggish in high humidity.
The other symptom that I have suspected might be related is a loss of breaking. It is not that I lose my breaks altogether, I will just have to stomp them pretty good. This problem comes and goes from one stop to the next, but it does seem to happen when the car is feeling particularly sluggish.
I have replaced the spark plugs, the wires, the ignition coil, the throttle body gasket (it had come apart and needed replacing), the o2 sensor, and cleaned the MAF sensor. For a time I thought I might have water in my tank so I put in gas-line antifreeze. It did seem to help with the rough starting for a time, but I wonder if it was a placebo affect. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Tuesday, January 7th, 2020 AT 12:49 PM
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