I've got a '91 Camaro RS 305 V8 with an automatic transmission. It has sat for almost a month due to the A/C compressor dying, locking up, and rendering it un-driveable lest I screw up my serpentine belt. I fixed this problem Thursday.

It took a lot of effort to get it started first thing this morning, but I found it was simply a heater core vacuum tube that had been bumped loose while the A/C was getting repaired. Plugged it in and the car ran fine. I then changed the oil and oil filter, checked all of my other fluids.

When I press down on the gas, the first 1/8th distance it can travel the car acts fine, but if I press harder to accelerate (like getting started from a stoplight with the normal flow of traffic) the car doesn't shift up or down to accommodate this. The engine simply stays in gear and doesn't change in pitch much.

If I floor the pedal, the engine starts revving up near red-line and the transmission will kick into a new gear.

I also notice that after being driven highway speeds, the car has a very high idle in low gears and I have to apply the brakes a little more than usual to keep it stopped at a light., yet due to the crap acceleration, getting up to 40mph going up a hill is a big ordeal now. To give perspective on how it drove: I elected to stay a respectful distance behind an 18 wheeler during my drive home so my slow acceleration wasn't holding up traffic.

It can maintain speed just fine, but moving up or down more than 5 mph it acts like it doesn't want to shift, or the engine doesn't want to give the transmission said power. If I tap the pedal to essentially force a shift the car will just jolt a bit and keep in that gear.

My mechanic first thought it was a rod that the transmission moves, but the second I popped the hood he jiggled it and said it was in great shape. He then spent 10 minutes going over every tube and wire that could've been knocked loose during the A/C repair, but found nothing. He precsribed a fuel filter change might help things out.

I started it up for him and it had another rough start (took two turns of the key to get it going). His words were "You've got other problems, that was a rough start, but perhaps the fuel filter is just really clogged."

Any possible issues you might know of from your Third Gen experience?

The last filter change I know of was really early this year when I switched mechanics and my current one essentially fixed everything the Diesel-centric prior mechanic had messed up (his fix for a high idle was to twist the distributor cap, he installed the A/C that ended up dying last month, new guy also stuck some Flowmasters on to replace the rusted OEM exhaust).

I've noticed the car being funky about shifting now and then, but I've chalked up less than a handful of incidents to situational glitches up until now.

I will point out: The weird performance is not affected by turning on the A/C. I suspected my new compressor was doing something to the power (as, by design, A/C sucks horsepower) but it performs the same on and off.

Thanks for putting up with my wall of text. Any comments?

 

Slipp

 

Slipping tranny possibly? It's hard to understand what you're saying without driving the car. A clogged fuel filter could be it, also worth checking your fuel pressure. Is it like a hesitation when giving it gas? If it's a maf car then a bad maf can cause a hesitation and make the motor bog down when giving it gas

 

Nevermind just re read your post, the late rs models were speed density.