12-02-2019, 11:46 AM
Hi all -
I've got an '89 Sidekick, manual, 4wd, 1.3l engine. It is something of a beater - what I use in the woods to get firewood and haul other materials. Over the last few months, it has started, intermittently, to run, but seemingly on very "low Power," almost like only 2 cylinders are firing and getting power to the transmission. When this happens I have to totally floor the gas pedal to go anywhere. Most of the times it has happened over the last month or so, it will finally get itself "right" again, giving me full power. Today I struggled with it for 1/2 hour, just trying to pull it back into my garage - I'd have to rev it, then slowly let off the clutch, maybe move five feet before it almost stalled out, or did. Finally, after about 10-15 minutes of that, and after I really floored it, it came fully back to life, a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust - but almost like by giving it so much throttle i had pushed out some sort of blockage.
I am not super-proficient with engines, so I'm really unclear as to what I should do. I was going to do a compression test after reading some other posts about somewhat similar issues. I was also thinking I should do something of a tune-up with new plugs, wires, and a fuel filter.
It didn't seem like it would be a timing belt issue, since eventually it does seem to run on all four cylinders, but, again, i am no expert.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I've got an '89 Sidekick, manual, 4wd, 1.3l engine. It is something of a beater - what I use in the woods to get firewood and haul other materials. Over the last few months, it has started, intermittently, to run, but seemingly on very "low Power," almost like only 2 cylinders are firing and getting power to the transmission. When this happens I have to totally floor the gas pedal to go anywhere. Most of the times it has happened over the last month or so, it will finally get itself "right" again, giving me full power. Today I struggled with it for 1/2 hour, just trying to pull it back into my garage - I'd have to rev it, then slowly let off the clutch, maybe move five feet before it almost stalled out, or did. Finally, after about 10-15 minutes of that, and after I really floored it, it came fully back to life, a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust - but almost like by giving it so much throttle i had pushed out some sort of blockage.
I am not super-proficient with engines, so I'm really unclear as to what I should do. I was going to do a compression test after reading some other posts about somewhat similar issues. I was also thinking I should do something of a tune-up with new plugs, wires, and a fuel filter.
It didn't seem like it would be a timing belt issue, since eventually it does seem to run on all four cylinders, but, again, i am no expert.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!