2000 Buick Century Bogs - Poor Acceleration

Hello,

I have a 2000 Buick Century Custom (3.1L V6) with 62,000 miles on it. The car's in good shape and mechanically sound. I generally do my own maintenance, but my wife decided she couldn't go without an oil change in the middle of winter! So... she took it to a local place to have it done.

Of course, they tried to sell her a new pcv valve, a new air filter, a new cabin filter, wiper blades, a transmission flush, and a power steering flush... She's smart enough to know to decline it, so they decided to make sure we'd be coming back.

When she drove it home, it barely made it. The car went into limp home mode and threw a P0170 code... simple enough... left a vacuum line off? No... instead, the boot for the PCV valve split when they pulled it off. Went to the dealer and bought a replacement. Cleared the code and tried it out... still the same, but this time no new codes & no pending codes.

The car smelled hot.. maybe a little oil burning off the manafold, but also a bit of a sulfur smell. I went back under the hood and found that they also decided to leave the intake off... basically the the tube from the MAF to the intake was disconnected completely... So I replaced that. The car still won't run... I give it gas and it just bogs down and barely moves... 35mph is about it.

So what do I check next? I don't see any more vacuum lines or sensors disconnected, and there's no current/pending codes. Things I have yet to check... Did they purposely block up the air filter? Did running the car like that to get it home clog up the EGR or catalytic converter? The TPS appears to be responding properly. I'll try to look again tomorrow in our 3 °F weather... Any other quick thoughts on what they could have done?

Thanks!



****UPDATE: Working on the car during the daylight made things a bit easier. It turned out that the problem was the 1/2" vacuum line that comes off the snorkel and goes to the back of the engine. It was pulled out where it connected in the back. I also found that they left the transmission fluid dip stick loose and to the side... it wouldn't affect driving, but it allows moisture and dirt into the tranny.

I can understand a shop trying to up-sell things that are needed, I did it all the time when I noticed something that needed to be addressed, when cars came in for oil changes.......garages don't make money on oil changes.......they make money on repairs.......but on repairs THAT ARE NEEDED!!!!!! Many times my steady customers thanked me for pointing out problems that may have occurred without notice....

However, to do something to a vehicle, to make it run poorly, is crossing the line.....First I would have gone back to the garage that did the job, and "complained" about the broken boot and the fact that the snorkel was loose.......check everything that is associated with the snorkel....make sure the IAT sensor is connected.....make sure that the plastic tube that goes from the snorkel to the back valve cover is in the cover and secured.....

Tale a can of carb cleaner, and spray areas of the engine while the vehicle is running, to see if the idle changes due to a vac leak somewhere.....

maybe they put the spark plug boots on 2 of the wrong spark plugs. Make sure all spark plug wires are making good connections both ends. check the vacuum line that goes to the fuel regulator.