Junk!!

[angie69]

I am about to lose my mind. I have a 2011 Chevy Aveo 72,000 miles in idle state rpm bumps between 1-2 rpm, doing the hesitation during driving, hesitant acceleration during driving speeds, no acceleration after passing gear, bumping and bucking between 50-60 mph. God forbid I have to climb a steep hill it loses power down to about 30 and check engine light starts rapidly flashing then disappears after I reach the top. No steady check engine light burning. Can tell you what it's not, "NOT" the MAP, O2 (up and downstream), Coil Pack, Spark Plugs, or anything to do with the fuel pump, filter, components. I've gotten to the point I hold it to the floor and tell it to blow up!! Thinking it might be the cat but not hearing the usual cat vibration. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated?


So took the cat off under the car and could see through it fine. Now wondering if its the second cat and if theres any way to test it first, considering its going to be an irritating job?

[Thymeclock]

There is only one cat in the exhaust line. You probably didn't find it. If you had, you couldn't see through it.

[petrified.rabbit]

There is a second cat, its under the car right around were the gear shifter is..

But your problem is most likely spark plugs, I bet you put autolite, or platinum plugs in there. You NEED NGK coppers.

[angie69]

Petrified, you are right, there is one attached to exhaust manifold. Whatta bear to remove. Removed, punched through, reinstalled, runs better than the day I bought it. Thankfully I am in a no-emissions county and can worry about replacing with a new one when I get around to it. Next item on the list is a timing belt replacement on my Pt Cruiser. More fun and a lot of headache......BTW, copper of course.

[angie69]

Umm... yes, I know what a cat looks like and yes, you could see light completely through the honeycomb.

[PoisonIvy]

Whoa! I've heard bad things about PT Cruiser timing belts. Good luck.

[jimzdat]

Note of advice on the PT cruiser - change the cam seals, even if they look fine; I just had to go back into one because a customer insisted that they didn't want to spend the 12 bucks on new seals. Needless to say, they paid a lot more for me to redo the work...

Took me about 3.5 hours start to finish, biggest pain is accessing the front of the engine and pulling the crank pulley - before you get started, go to the local parts store and rent the removal/install tool if you haven't already...

[MetroMPG]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the OP's symptoms also sound potentially like the TPS (throttle position sensor) issue?

[petrified.rabbit]

The 2011 aveo is DBW. Any fault in the the TPS will almost immediately result in "safe" mode.

[Thymeclock]

There is a second cat, its under the car right around were the gear shifter is..

But your problem is most likely spark plugs, I bet you put autolite, or platinum plugs in there. You NEED NGK coppers.

I'm assuming the 2011 is the same as a 2009, which mine is.There is only one cat, and it is in the front of the second pipe downstream from the manifold flex pipe. There is no cat in the manifold since 2009. I know this for a fact, because I changed the flex pipe on my 2009 myself, and that's what is there (and what is 'not' there).