If anyone knows anything about cars and could give me advice, I'd really appreciate it!

I'm in the middle of a small road trip - I did 8 hours today, and will be driving the remaining 6 hours tomorrow. My car is fine other than the fact that the engine doesn't seem to want to go higher than 3,000 rpm. As far as I know, this problem just started today. Other than that, the car is running absolutely fine -- no noises, no warning lights, etc.

I tried to google it, but I can only find info on cars that do this AND start stuttering and shaking, stop accelerating, etc. when they try to go over 3,000 rpm. But I don't have that or any other problem....the car still accelerates very gradually and doesn't stutter, but it won't go over 3,000 rpm even if I push the gas pedal all the way to the floor.

My question is --- am I okay to drive the remaining 6 hours tomorrow before I have it looked at? Any idea what this is about, and whether I should be worried about making it to my destination tomorrow?

My car is 11 years old and has 101,000 miles on it. I'm the original owner and have always taken great care of it.

Has it gone over 3000rpm before? (That's probably a stupid question) If it was something like 4500-5500 RPM then it's just the rev-limiter. 3K is a little low for a limiter though.

I would say it's fine to drive it the rest of the way. You don't really need to go above 3,000 RPM anyways, unless you're doing some kind of cross-country rally race road trip.

I would definitely get it checked out once you're at your destination though.

EDIT: Might want to add that I'm no mechanic and all of that was just speculation combined with a small knowledge of engines.

Yes, I've always been able to get it above 3,000 rpm before today.

I'm hoping the fact that it was like this all day today (during the 8-hour drive) without dying on me means I'll have a good chance of it not dying on me tomorrow, but I really don't know anything about cars, lol.

I'd say you can drive the 6 hours tomorrow, just don't stress it; don't push it up to even 3000, maybe around 2500-2800 to be on the safe side. And have a proper mechanic take a look as soon as possible.

I've worked on them with friends from time to time, (I'm actually helping a friend restore a '73 Nova at the moment), but I'm more familiar with old V8's than anything within the last 20 years (The older stuff is much simpler to understand ) So I'm just kind of guessing at it.

EDIT: Maybe it's a bad Crank Position Sensor? Or whatever it's called. What model is your car?

OK, thanks for the info. It doesn't really affect my driving as I don't really need to go over 3,000 rpm (as you guys said), but I was worried that it might be a sign of more to come, especially considering the age of my car. I'm hoping the lack of any other symptoms is a good sign, so I'll keep my fingers crossed tomorrow.

Alright. Remember, drive outside lane and be ready to pull off if your engine explodes

I high suggest getting it checked out once you get there. It could be something simple like a CKP Sensor or something major like a clutch/transmission problem.

I'm told by someone who knows more about this than I do that it may have something to do with an airflow sensor or bad plugs and wires.

Not much more can be figured without knowledge of the make and model.

OK thanks for the advice. I make this trip twice a year (from New York to Illinois) and my biggest concern is usually getting through Indianapolis without getting lost (my GPS doesn't like that city for some reason), lol.

I'm gonna try to leave early in the morning so if something does happen, I'll hopefully have time to get it looked at and get back on the road (barring any major problem). And if it is a major problem, I don't have the money to fix it right now, so I'll be hitchhiking the rest of the way

It's a 2001 Chevy Cavalier