Lack of power, limited revs and other issues...Help

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2003 protege 5
Hi , my question is , when I rev engine while parked in drive the engine only revs up to 80 kms or so ,can anyone give me the reason why this might happen ,I notice that previous owner has something installed where catalytic converter should be ,do you think that could be the issue here ,thanks ,Alex
 
sorry for late reply ,the car is a 2008 CX9, bought it used noticed no catyltic in center , they have an aftermarket work around cat there ,Ill get pic .The vehicle has 300,000 kms 🔧
 

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80 Kms is the speed in kilometres which is used in Canada,that is how high it revs when I apply my foot on the gas pedal while it is in park . Hope that answers your question ,thanks
 
80 Kms is the speed in kilometres which is used in Canada,that is how high it revs when I apply my foot on the gas pedal while it is in park . Hope that answers your question ,thanks
I think everyone here is a bit confused because when you rev it while parked, your speedo should read 0km/h no matter how hard you rev it. Are you referring to RPM? These are typically given in 1,000 increments.
 
I apologize , your 100% right it’s rpms that I’m referring to ,the most the rpms get to is 3500 and then it stops is that normal ,it doesnt seem to want to go higher ,or maybe it’s not supposed to . I try to get it on road and see if it drives normal as soon as I can ,thanks

My other concern is if it has a proper catalytic converter , the pic is in my previous post
 
That is definitely not normal for it to only rev to 3500 RPM.

I think that what is pictured there is not a catalytic converter, that looks more like a flex pipe. Maybe the previous owner replaced the cat with a flex pipe, and the O2 sensor is triggering an emissions code. Do you have any check engine lights on the dash? Can you pull codes?

If you can't pull codes yourself, you can try driving to a store like Autozone or Napa to ask if they can read the codes for you. You can then search the code on Google to get an idea of what may be causing the code.
 
Just to confirm, it's doing the rev limit of 3500 in park or neutral, correct?
If so, that might be normal.
AKA a 'soft limiter' is fairly common these days (even back to 2008).

We don't have my wife's cx9 anymore, so maybe someone else has one to try a neutral/park rev test.

I agree with sm1ke, that's not a catalytic converter, it's flex connection.
It looks like it was replaced based on the welds, but the factory exhaust has one in that location.
The catalytic converters are located right on the exhaust manifold.
Picture below from Rockauto seems to match (but with better welds :) )

EDIT: I think the downstream cat is in that pipe, but to the left of the flex pipe.
BDCN_73024_P04_FRO.jpg
 
Thank you for responses,I have code reader but don’t see any codes ,that exhaust flex looks very close to mine (minus rust),so maybe all it ok there ,time will tell when I get more into this scenario.My only other concern at moment is when engine idles it seems to be a little rough and tranny seems to be a little clunky ,funny how when you test drive these things don’t show up ,well I just have to keep paddling against the rapids.Ill take anyone along for ride that’s willing to come .Have good day .
 
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