Poor acceleration, downshift rev's, runs fine otherwise...

[Joe Mahalo!]

Aloha,

Thank you for your help. I have a beautiful low mileage 2001 Toyota Corolla model CE. It has a beautiful black urethane paint job with purple egg shell in the clearcoat.

My wife quit driving it because she can't accelerate to get onto the highway.
I've already replaced the fuel pump, and the O2 sensor downstream. Have not replaced the fuel filter.
When you accelerate as if to pass on the highway the transmission downshifts it bogs causing potential disaster.
The engine quits revving and loses power until you back off the accelerator. Otherwise it's quite zippy and runs like a top.

Is there some unknown electronic component that could be the issue?
If I'm forced to take it to the dealership for diagnosis what clues can I give them as the parts for checking out?
The car is relaxing in the driveway in the carport until I get some help diagnosing it. Can you help me please?

 

[Joe Mahalo!]

The 2001 Toyota Corolla came from the original owner with under 100,000 miles. It should be a bulletproof car. It hasn't been. Strangely enough every part we've replaced including two suspension parts was not the problem. Including a new starter absolutely none of them needed to be replaced.
If it's true to form I'm guessing my acceleration problem is some simple little component that somebody's got to know about.
I sure hope so.

We just bought a beautiful white 2007 Toyota Corolla LE. It had 40,000 miles in the original owner was a 92-year-old retired Japanese man who never ever drove it any farther than 2 miles out of our small town. It is one of those finds that I had been waiting for scouring all of the bad deals on craigslist.
Both cars get exactly 34 miles to the gallon.
We are two Corolla family.

We just took a trip to Thailand in the Philippines. Every taxi is the most reliable vehicle on the road. They're all 2003 to 2009 Toyota Corolla's. A taxicab that is any other car is unusual.
Talk about a bulletproof dependable reputation. That was it.

 

[Jperreault]

I had a similar issue. Turned out to be cracked distributor cap and worn rotor. You've probably fixed this by now, My Mazda 323 did exactly that. Once the rotor and cap was replaced... No issues. Also found using Royal Purple fuel atomizer really helped. Restored the Zip due to dirty injectors.