My father has a 2003 Monte Carlo w/ 3.4l motor. He says it won't go over 65 mph and when he revs it up it won't go over 3800 rpm or it will start to die. Check engine light is not on. Any ideas?

 

Welcome to the MCF. When is the last time your father's Monte was serviced/tuned. How many miles on the 3.4 L ? Did he ever have his fuel filter changed/replaced ?

Please post as much infor on the problem as possible...
Look forward to more information on problem..Good Luck

 

It has 94,125 miles on it. I know when he got the car it had around 70k and he changed oil/filter, air filter, i THINK fuel filter, and spark plugs, maybe a few other things too.

This problem seems to have just happened in a matter of a day, it was running just fine until yesterday. Ill get some more information from him later if he hasn't found the problem already. Hes thinking a fuel pump problem. The fuel gauge hasn't worked properly since he got the car but that seems to be a problems with chevys both our chevy trucks have fuel gauge problems also. Hes pretty car savy but I thought id try and find someone else whos had the problem or if it was something typical with theses cars to save him some time and money. Thanks for the response.

 

It's great to read about a son helping his father : ) Check back later and hopefully one of our Expert Tech Member's will post a suggestion. The fuel pump could be the reason & also sometimes there is bad gas purchased at a station : (

Hope your find the problems....Give our member's a chance to read your problem...Good Luck

 

make sure he got that fuel filter changed...let us know

 

yes, fuel filter could be a problem, but also the fuel pump could be at fault.

 

It won't go over ~4000 rpm in park or neutral- thats a safety feature to keep people from destroying their cars.

If you're talking about in drive, then its something else- what happens when it hits 65 mph?

Can you post a scan of what the sensors are showing when this happens?

 

Not the fuel filter he changed it about 15k ago but we changed again today anyway and the one that came off didn't look bad at all. Still has no power. When you WOT it has a really deep growl like its always in 4th gear but it is shifting. And it seems like it only speeds up by a mph every second. Pretty dangerous to drive considering you cant get up to speed or pass.

 

Actron code scanner and diagnostic tool didn't find any codes. All the tests show OK. Just looking at the live data while the car idles everything seems normal.

 

you need to check/have checked the fuel pressrue. Sounds like it's starving for fuel.

Only other thing that seems of similar symptoms is a clogged cat, but no reason for a clogged cat with that few miles/age, unless the cat was physically damaged (road debris, etc) breaking the catalyst inside.