04 aveo losing power on acceleration

[frenchyfrs]

i have a manual transmission on my 04 aveo with 152,000 miles
i have to keep downshifting to maintain speed (power) especially up hills
and it is slow to accelerate
starts fine
idles fine
no check engine light at all
never serviced the tranny or fuel filter
can anyone help with what to check before i send it to the garage?
the mechanic said to look for obvious things and he thought a small animal might have made a nest in it
thanks

[PoisonIvy]

Have you done air filter, spark plugs, wires?

[frenchyfrs]

Have you done air filter, spark plugs, wires?

i replaced them a yr ago
could it be that
i just drove it and was at 4500 rpm at 30mph

[itratis]

Clutch?

[exodus0784]

10 year old beater that had barely 100hp out the door... I'd expect it to be down on power

1. Is the air filter clean? Replace it if it's dirty.
2. Is the air intake hose cracked? It tends to crack inside the ribs. Move it around (remove it, would be better) to check.
3. I bet every single vacuum hose is falling apart, replace them if cracked.
4. Are you sure you don't have an air/fuel/spark issue? Run it up to 5.5k-6k in second.... hold it (not on the rev limitter)... does it start to misfire? If it does, you'll need to figure out why. Easiest/cheapest thing to do is replace plugs/wires. Beyond that, you could start throwing more expensive parts at it (ignition coil, injectors, fuel pump, etc), but it's better to take it to a REAL technician and have them figure it out, unless you have a proper GM diagnostic tool/oscilliscope/fuel pressure gauge/however you could test an injector/etc.
5. For the clutch, you would see RPMs increase, while vehicle speed stays the same, or slows down (RPM doesn't match vehicle speed the way it should). Downshifting would actually resolve this if the clutch isn't too far gone, clutches tend to slip more in higher gears.
6. Compression/leakdown test? Maybe the engine is just tired... rings/valve seals/etc. It's a cheap 10 year old car, with 150k miles... I wouldn't be too surprised.

[frenchyfrs]

10 year old beater that had barely 100hp out the door... I'd expect it to be down on power

1. Is the air filter clean? Replace it if it's dirty.
2. Is the air intake hose cracked? It tends to crack inside the ribs. Move it around (remove it, would be better) to check.
3. I bet every single vacuum hose is falling apart, replace them if cracked.
4. Are you sure you don't have an air/fuel/spark issue? Run it up to 5.5k-6k in second.... hold it (not on the rev limitter)... does it start to misfire? If it does, you'll need to figure out why. Easiest/cheapest thing to do is replace plugs/wires. Beyond that, you could start throwing more expensive parts at it (ignition coil, injectors, fuel pump, etc), but it's better to take it to a REAL technician and have them figure it out, unless you have a proper GM diagnostic tool/oscilliscope/fuel pressure gauge/however you could test an injector/etc.
5. For the clutch, you would see RPMs increase, while vehicle speed stays the same, or slows down (RPM doesn't match vehicle speed the way it should). Downshifting would actually resolve this if the clutch isn't too far gone, clutches tend to slip more in higher gears.
6. Compression/leakdown test? Maybe the engine is just tired... rings/valve seals/etc. It's a cheap 10 year old car, with 150k miles... I wouldn't be too surprised.

The vehicle rpms increases while speed decreases.
Does anyone have a link that shows step by step on how to replace the clutch?
Thank you for your help.