As i was driving my 96 intrepid 3.3 on the highway ?

Question

after about 12 miles to my trip the rpm needle droped down i press on the gas and the car will only top at 15 miles and no more till eventually it drop even more and will move forward only upon pressing and relasing on the gas, check engine light came and i got po171 and 174 which i know its associated with O2 sensor . had to wait for about 2 hrs for the car to cool off before it goes back to normal operation i drove for about 3 miles and it happen again, this morning i took it to the shop i had the cat running while park for about 1 hr but it did not do it i drove the car around the block by the shop for 1/2 hr and still nothing happen.. help any one could it be that i just had bad gas

Answer 1

if it was the cat it would have did it all the time,you might have a fuel pump going bad or a filter stopping up or even bad dose of gas in it,a cat wont unstop its self once they go that's it with them,you can have an exhaust shop check the back pressure on it ,but what might have happened is it got bad gas in it or the pump was acting up in it,bad gas will cause the computer too throw a sensor code,so it may clear up and be ok now,all you can do is try it ,if it wont act up now its going to be hard to find,good luck.  

Answer 2

sounds like it may be the timing belt.

without that your engine overheats etc and stops working.

thats what happened to my uncles car when we were bout to go on holiday lol

hope ya get it sorted

Answer 3

It's NOT your timing belt.

Get the catalytic converter checked.  If it's the original, there's a better than even chance it's blocked up enough to prevent the engine running well at higher revs, like cruising.  It'll idle okay and give enough ventilation to drive around the block, but not to get down the highway.

If that isn't it, replace the O2 sensor and see if that gets everything back to rights.  It's surprising just how much that little doohickey can strangle your engine when it goes bad.

Answer 4

If the timing belt is bad, the car will not run at all.  Take the car to a good repair shop and let them have it overnight.  Let them start it in the morning and do a complete computer diagnostic on it.

Then pay them for the test and do the same thing at another qualified shop.

Then, make an informed decision based on the evidence