2000 Regal Acceleration Problem

[maxcatk2]

I've searched and searched and searched and have come up short, so hopefully someone can help. 2000 Buick Regal 3.8 V6 with 180K km's religiously maintained by our family is having a really weird acceleration issue.

From slow speed of 10-20km's per hour under acceleration, car climbs in speed terribly slow if at all. You can even floor the throttle, and acceleration almost does not climb whatsoever for approx 5-6 seconds, and then kicks in. Car appears to operate and drive completely normal after that and this only occurs at low speed. Plugs, wires and fuel filter were all recently changed to help fix this issue, but no go. No CEL.

[GTP Dad]

Welcome to AF!!

There is a good possibility that you have a problem with your throttle position sensor. Given the low acceleration at slow speeds and the fact that the engine doesn't accelerate at full throttle it may not be sending the proper signals to the PCM to allow the car to run correctly. If you choose to work on this yourself you will need a digital volt meter and a repair manual to give you the proper values.

[BNaylor]

Based on your symptoms which sounds like the engine is bogging down you could have a clogged CAT convertor. I'd get the exhaust system/CAT convertor tested for high backpressure.

[maxcatk2]

Thanks so much for the feeback guys.....this has been so helpful. We'll check those two items out and report back on our results.

Cheers!