Loses power on steep grade

No
not if you drive it accordingly
steep hills are best negotiated in low fears with plenty of rpm applied
for example on a steep grade with a manual 1st or 2nd or possibly 3rd and the rpm around 2000 constant will cause it no harm
automatics will go to first automatically so keep the rpm at that mark
engine damage is experienced when the gear selected is too high and the engine is placed under extreme load so down shift to allow the engine to work easily
When going down hill select first and only use the brakes to maintain the 2000 rpm range and allow the engine compression to hold the car speed back
the rule of thumb for experienced drivers is this
you select the same gear to go down that it took to come up

Check engine fan operation and make sure radiators not packed with dirt and debris.When your on the highway you have the speed you are traveling at air cooling the radiator.

If it's in limp in mode it won't shift out of 2nd gear. Get the trouble codes read. The solenoid pack is a pretty common failure. But don't just throw parts at it. Get the codes first.

you locked it into a specific ratio when you went down hill in 2 nd
it will not upshift until you select drive again

sounds pretty normal. what speed do you try out the passing gear? anything above 35-45 mph and it will feel like neutral. Passing gear is actually only 1st gear. When you press down the pedal, it forces the transmisson to shift into low gear.

Hi,
Gear usage.
The Drive is for normal driving.
D2 is for hill/steep climbing drive.
D3 is for hill/steep going down drive.
If you have overdrive button, use it when you exceed 60mph.
That's all you have to do when you see roads that is going up nor down.

Thaks for asking FixYa!

All vehicles will lose a certain amount of power when going up hill or towing depending on how steep the hill or how heavy the load. Do you shift down when needed.

it seems to me that your air flow meter needs to be replaced.

It depends: how steep are the hills? Assuming you have the standard 4-speed or 5-speed gearbox, it's likely that the tiny engine (built for economy, not for power) is simply not generating enough torque to pull the car up in high gear. Have you tried simply downshifting? If the problem truly is the engine losing power and not just lugging due to being in too high a gear on a steep grade, you should check your fuel pressure and you may also want to check the condition of the fuel pump and feeder lines inside the gas tank. A 20 year old car will probably have some disintegration of the feeder lines, they may even be partly broken off inside the tank resulting in poor fuel flow, or disintegrated rubber may be gumming up the strainer or the pump itself. Personally, I'd replace the fuel lines, fuel filter and if low pressure still exists, the fuel pump as well.

shift your gear to the left one tap to go into drive 1 when climbing steep hills and it keeps you from hesitating .it works for me i have a 2009 caliber automatic and i climb alot of kentucky hills ,mine only hesitates on the really steep hills after i slow down and take off again but when i shift to d1 its fine