my 2001 kia sportage has been in the shop for 3 weeks now. and my mechanic is baffled..the car goe 20 mph up hill (if your lucky) when peddle is to the floor. we live on a hill and when we back up and put it in drive we dont move. we have replaced the fuel fiter, all four fuel injectors, the mass air sensor, the cat is not clogged, the timing belt is just fine. all tests they run says this car should be running like a locomotive and is not. any suggestions would be great.
thanks

did you have a compression test done?

5-speed or auto tranny?

Engine coud be fine, you could have an auto tranny issue!

yes the test has always come back low vacumm but all the diagnostics on all the parts come back fine, they also noticed that there are brand new coils and other parts on the car. i know that they are going through all the wiring, checked the crank shaft, and the list goes on...i dont know where else to look

its a 4x4 automatic they have checked the tranny and said that was working like its supposed along with everything else..i have gone to past forums who seem to have had the same problem and most seem to be a clogged CAT,or issues with timing belt but again they disconnected it and the car ran no better, the timing has been checked countless times.

Go back and check the cat converters again. Yes, plural, there are two of them. One is located right on the exhaust manifold. This is the cat that clogs most often. I'll bet if you pull it off the exhaust manifold you'll find the input screen clogged. And you may also find a crack in the exhaust manifold.

The 2nd cat is located directly under the driver's side. It does not clog often but sometimes it breaks down internal and clogs the exhaust.

Your low manifold vacuum readings are a big indicator that something is clogged in the exhaust system. Have your mechanic check it again.

thanks Axe i will pass on the info...i will keep an update.
again thanks

have u checked the egr pipe that goes from the exhaust manifold round to the egr valve to make sure thats not blocked?

The 2001 engine does not have an EGR.

I just want to tack a quick question on at the end of this. It sounds like the primary cat is clogged. Did I once read from someone here that you can take the primary off, replace it with a 3" header flange and splice the o2 wires on the secondary cat sensor to fool the computer?
I hate cats.......more of a dog person! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />