Car won't pickup speed, only goes about 30 MPH. Why?

Question

I have a 95 Lincoln Town Car Signature. For less then the past week my car hasn't been wanting to pick up the speed like it should. After going to see about a diagnostic test done, they want so much to check it. But the transmission shifts, and it runs. It just drives slow. (No more than 30mph) And it so happens to be that it was a week ago today i put oil in it. I checked the oil dipstick and its seems to have been twice the height o the stick then from where the full line was.

So, while i was running from place to place with my hazard lights on, and getting up to 30 mph in a matter of 5 mins of acceleration. I stopped at Autozone, did the research and a comment I seen that was clearly explained. Pretty much, I had to drain out some oil, to bring the level down. And now that, that is done... with it being a week later after bringing it down a few quarts, what happens next? Is still to late to save my engine?

I have engine flush, a new oil filter, and Seafoam. And I'm going to be getting new oil tomorrow. But what else should I do other then get new spark plugs?

Answer 1

If the car idles smooth, and there isn't any engine vibration felt with the power loss, then I would suspect an exhaust restriction. Possibly from excessive oil getting pulled into the combustion chambers.

One way to check this is to perform an exhaust back pressure test, but a vacuum test might also tell you a lot.

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=Using-a-Vacuum-Gauge-for-Engine-Diagnostics&A=2393

Answer 2

Another possibility is a bad transmission speed sensor. In many models this will prevent the transmission from shifting out of a particular higher gear, making it difficult to accelerate.

Answer 3

Running with double the oil level may have put oil everywhere inside your engine. For peace of mind, the very first thing I'd personally do would be to pull the spark plugs and either replace them or at very least clean the electrode tips. I'd also liberally clean the throttle body. It may be that the emission control system is clogged with oil.

It may also be worth pulling the lambda probe in the exhaust. If this is fouled with oil, it may be that it's getting an artificially rich fuel reading and is unable meter out the engines fuel demands properly.

If cleaning up the spark plugs doesn't restore power, I'd have a compression test done to ensure that the engine is healthy. If it fails a compression test then it's time to either rebuild or replace the engine. If it passes the compression test, you can then be assured that the engine is fundamentally healthy and it's worth investing effort to get it back to health.

Answer 4

There is a button that controls a feature called "track" (on or off), something like "Posi-traction" which if your tires were slipping in mud or snow, send the full traction to the wheel that spins less or has more traction on a rear wheel drive. Also,the engine power is reduced so that you don't spin wheels so fast and be able to get more traction. That button can be inside the glove compartment or on the dashboard on a Lincoln. If one of the tires that do the traction is a different size or diameter on one side or the other, the car figures that you are losing traction on that side and reduces the engine RPM's as mentioned and does not let the car go any faster than 15- 20 MPH. Check the tire sizes to be equal to eliminate this situation but....you can bypass this engine speed reduction by just pressing this button, wherever it is located, every time you start the engine or start to drive, before you reach 10 MPH or so. If you forget to push that button and the "track" feature automatically restricts the power to the wheels, shut off the engine and push the button again after your engine re-start. Check tire sizes!! They must be equal sizes on the traction axles. Gus.