Car can't speed more than 100km/h

Question

Last few weeks I get back from my hometown which is 200km in distance. For the 1st hour I travel using federal lane where I only speed less than 90km/h because of traffic and to avoid speed trap. As soon as I enter the high way, I try to speed following the legal speed which is more than 100km/h. But my car won't reach more than 100km/h. The engine does not dead but my car shaking. I try to get more than 100km/h but it fails. Finally I just drive slowly until reach the next stop and the mechanic told me there is problem regarding the fuel system. So he changes a gas filter (I can't remember the exact name of the filter) and he show me how dirty the filter was. Another thing is, the fuel gushes out due to high pressure while he changes the filter and he got scalded. Then he said the real problem can be happen at the fuel tank. Since he can't help me further (we meet suddenly somewhere) and it takes time for him to check further, I just headed back and take the high way. For the first few minutes it run smoothly but then it happen again. So I just speed 80km/h until I reach the destination. Since the engine does not dead, I just drive anywhere and not going to the workshop because my dad told me if I can bring back the car then he will took it for repair since he afraid I'll been deceived by the mechanic. What is the possibility of the cause? And is it danger for me to drive around, (and I plan to go home this weekend)?

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My car can reach 90kmph just fine but it no longer can reach 100kmph. The car is also shaking. I had a mobile mechanic look at it and he replaced the fuel filter. While checking the fuel system fuel gushed out He did mention there is other issues with the car but ran out of time.

my question is what do you think might be wrong and is it ok to drive it around for the rest of the week till I return home to get it repaired.

Answer 1

I think it should be fine. It sounds like you have a clogged fuel filter. The mechanic replaced the secondary fuel filter most likely but the primary is still clogged or the fuel pickup could also be plugged.

Worse case scenario is the crud in the fuel has worn out your fuel pump or is gumming it up. This can cause low fuel pressure.

The shaking and hesitating is probably because the car is being starved for fuel. This isn't great but probably will not cause any real damage over a week. Low fuel pressure can cause the injectors to drip fuel instead of spray it and of course the engine will have less fuel than it needs.

The filters should catch all the crud but if there is more crud then your car might stall out due to too low pressure. Inside of a week this is unlikely unless someone dumped dirt in your tank or something.

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if you take it to a repair shop more than likely they will test the flow and the pressure in the fuel system to see if it is within spec. if these do not check out then they may assume it's a clogged filter especially since there was one that was clogged already. But beyond a pressure test there is not many otehr ways to tell.