On my 1990 1.5l Mirage....


I have been noticing for a while that the care is pathetic at accelerating in first gear, and for a while I thought it was normal. The I noticed that there is a small hill to get out of my driveway and I can barely get up it! If I back the car up a bit or drive a circle around the yard it then seems to be able to develop enough power, but not without a few minutes of running it can't. Then there was a minor problem and the battery ended up draining while it sat a few days and then when I got it squared away it had a LOT more power in first! I could actually pull into traffic with good speed (it hasn't been able to do that in a long time). Unfortunately though over the course of a few days the problem returned and now it is weak in first. It is not slipping because there is no engine rev, and it works fine at any speed. It does shift a lot but I figured that is normal for such a tiny engine to get up hills and such. Pleas, does anyone have any ideas of what this could be? Thanks in advance....