On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 22:00:50 -0600, Simon > wrote:


>My car (2001 Chev Impala) makes a kind of hissing noise while accelerating
>(together with loss of acceleration power and worse gas mileage). It's
>getting louder and louder. Many advices from the groups suggest it must be
>from Catalytic Converter. But my dealer says it's not the converter based on
>their test, and it's normal!!!!!!
>The cat converter seems located in the middle part of the bottom. To be sure
>it's the converter, can I do this way:
>- get one person press gas pedal when the other foot on brake,
>- get my ears to the ground close to the converter to listen........

>If it's workable, could cause any damage to the car?


It's a *terrible* idea. You'll burn out your transmission and put terrible
stresses on the entire drive train. Pay the $60 diagnostic fee and have a
mechanic fix it.

The first thing you need is some logical troubleshooting skills.
Testing/replacing parts one by one is the "shotgun" approach and you'll be lucky
if you fix it for less than 5 times what a mechanic would charge. Replace ONE
part unnecessarily and you'll have already wasted more than the mechanic's
diagnostic fee and replace TWO components unnecessarily and you'll have wasted
the labor charge too.
Get a dealer shop manual and study the troubleshooting sections. They usually
have flowcharts so that any idiot can logicaly troubleshoot a car. Keep in mind
that the dealer shop manual will set you back upwards of $120. If you're not
serious about doing all your car repairs from this date on or not intending on
keeping the car for at least another 4 years, then it probably isn't worth it.
If you're cheap, you might want to have a look at the chilten's or hayne's
manuals. Often the chilten's is available at your public library. The problem
is that they try to cover too many models and years. When you see mention of
water cooling in a 70's VW bug, you know that the section was simply
cut'n'pasted from another manual.